Capitol Theatre

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Greg Lynch says – “BITTER SPRINGS” played The Capitol Picture Theatre, JUNE 29 and TUESDAY, JULY 3, 1951 – This was a big milestone release for The Capitol Theatre. Bitter Springs starred CHIPS RAFFERTY and is an Australian–British outback film directed by Ralph Smart, released nationally in 1950. An Australian pioneer family leases a piece of land from the government in the Australian outback in 1900 and hires two inexperienced British men as drovers. Problems with local Aboriginal people arise over the possession of a waterhole. Much of the film was shot on location in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia – This was the third movie Ealing Studios made in Australia following the success of The Overlanders (1946). Tommy Trinder’s part was created especially for him to ensure the movie had some comic relief. Nick Yardley had previously appeared in Ralph Smart’s Bush Christmas. Nonnie Piper was a 19-year-old model. The original script ended with the massacre of Aboriginal people at the hands of the white settlers, but this was changed at the insistence of Ealing Studios. Ralph Smart scouted around Australia for locations and at one stage it seemed that the film would be made in Murgon, Queensland but eventually it was decided to make it in South Australia. Filming started in May 1949.location shooting was completed in November, nearly two months behind schedule due to rain delays.

130 Aboriginal people were used as extras. They had nowhere to stay when they arrived due to an administrative oversight and their treatment on set was criticized. Ealing wanted to pay Aboriginal actor Henry Murdoch the same as white actors but the Department of Native Affairs refused, only granting him a regular allowance. During filming a man went around Adelaide pretending to be a talent scout for the film offering women the chance to appear in it. Australia had, some time, to make a major film about the pioneer and the aboriginal. “Bitter Springs” is it, a chapter of the Australian story faithfully translated to the screen, competently directed and acted by a British-Australian team –