The Stowaway (1958 film)

The Stowaway is a 1958 French-Australian film directed by Australian director Lee Robinson and French Lebanese director Ralph Habib. It was shot on location in Tahiti.

For the French-Spanish 1995 adaptation of the novel, see El pasajero clandestino.

The Stowaway
Directed byLee Robinson
Ralph Habib
Produced byRobert Dorfmann
Lee Robinson
Paul-Edmond Decharme
Written byLee Robinson
Joy Cavill
Based onnovel Le Passager Clandestin
by Georges Simenon
StarringMartine Carol
Roger Livesey
Arletty
CinematographyDesmond Dickinson
Edited byStanley Moore
Monique Kirsanoff
Production
company
Southern International Productions(Australia)
Discifilm/Silverfilm (France)
Release date
22 March 1958 (France)
December 1958 (Australia)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
French
Budget£250,000[1]
Box office1,776,374 admissions (France)[2]

There are French and English versions of the film. The French version is known as Le Passager clandestin.

Synopsis

A group of adventurers compete with one another to find the missing heir Rene Marechal, thought to be near Tahiti. Major Owens, a middle aged Englishman with a shady past, discovers the island on which Marechal lives but is murdered by the criminal Mougins.

Mougins sets out for the island with Colette, a night club singer who is Marechal's former mistress. She is rescued by Jean, who had earlier helped Colette stow away on the boat to Tahiti. Jean and Mougins fight and Mougins falls overboard and is eaten by a shark. Jean and Collette decide to give up the search for Marechal and live on the islands.

Cast

Production

In May 1955 it was announced producer Paul Decharne, best known for Manon and Bluebeard, would make two films a year in the Pacific. The first two would be co productions with Rafferty and Robinson:, starting withWalk into Paradise, which would be shot on location in New Guinea, in English and French versions.[3]

The second film would be made in Tahiti with French director Yves Allegret as the principal director and Robinson as director of the English version. This movie would be shot in Cinema-Scope and would hopefully star Gerard Philippe.[3]

"I was told that the Pacific was very wide, and its capital was Sydney* so I came here," said Decharne."I also heard that Australians appreciated French films better than any other country outside Europe. 'La Ronde' made more money in Australia than it did in France."[3]

At one stage the film was called Vahini Tahiti.[4]

The film was shot towards the end of 1957 in Tahiti and the Society Islands.[5]

Lee Rafferty and Chips Robinson contributed money towards the production via sales from Walk into Paradise and funds loaned from Herb McIntyre from the superannuation fund of Universal Picture's Australian branch.[6]

Dialogue scenes were filmed twice, in English (by Robinson) and French (by Habib). Robinson claimed he didn't like Habib's style of direction.

He was a mad home movies crank and would stand by the camera or even ten feet away from it and be shooting the scene that was his first take. I used to wonder how the hell does he know what is going on there. Often he was on an entirely different angle to the camera. He often seemed more concerned about getting a good scene on his little 16 mm camera. Right from the beginning I found I was in a marvellous position as the second follow-up director because I could see everything that was being done and then rack my brains for some little thing that might spice the scene up a bit.[7]

Noted Sydney theatre actor Doris Fitton had a supporting role.

Release

The film was released in France but only received a limited release in Australia. It was not as successful as Walk into Paradise.

References
  1. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998 p225
  2. French films at the 1958 box office at Box Office Story
  3. "Frenchman Here to Make Two Films Yearly". Sydney Morning Herald. 1 May 1955. p. 17.
  4. "New hope for stars of the future". The Australian Women's Weekly. Australia. 9 May 1956. p. 23. Retrieved 18 April 2020 – via Trove.
  5. "OODLES OF OO-LA-LA!". The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia. 25 September 1957. p. 5. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  6. Graham Shirley and Brian Adams, Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years, Currency Press, 1989, p203
  7. 'King of the Coral Sea: Lee Robinson in interview with Albert Moran' Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture vol. 1 no 1 (1987)
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