''Down on the Farm'' is a 1935 New Zealand film. It was New Zealand's first sound feature. It is one of four films which lay claim to being the first "New Zealand talkie"; however, of the other three, '' The Devil's Pit'' and '' Hei Tiki'' had sound added in America, and '' On the Friendly Road'' was not released until 1936. Little footage and no script of the film have survived. The film's director was Stewart Pitt, a cinema manager in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

for many years, who had encouraged New Zealand film-makers and had exhibited many locally-made films at his cinema, including weekly New Zealand

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news, news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a Movie theater, cinema, newsreels were a source of cu ...

s. Casting was completed in September 1934, and filming began at Woodside, near Dunedin, in October. A comedy of farm life, the film was shot mainly in

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

and Southland, and most of the cast were from Dunedin. The story is about two rival farmers, who have to resolve their differences when their children fall in love. ''Down on the Farm'' had its first public screening at midnight on 2 May 1935 in Dunedin. The report in the ''

Otago Daily Times The ''Otago Daily Times'' (''ODT'') is a newspaper published by Allied Press Ltd in Dunedin, New Zealand. The ''ODT'' is one of the country's four main daily newspapers, serving the southern South Island with a circulation of around 26,000 and ...

'' the next day commended the photography, production and acting, but found these achievements were "seriously circumscribed as a result of the dubious quality of the scenario". It described the leading actress, Daphne Murdoch, as "a very engaging star. She has the happy knack of photographing well at all times". The film was not a financial success in New Zealand. It was unsuccessful in securing a release in the UK, where ''Cine Weekly'' said of it: "The dialogue is a joke, the acting amateurish and the photography poor. After this our colonial cousins will be well advised to restrict their exports to mutton."

References

*''New Zealand Film 1912–1996'' by Helen Martin & Sam Edwards p45 (1997, Oxford University Press, Auckland)

External links

''Down on the Farm''
at BFI
Surviving footage
at

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision (Operating name for The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga Kōrero.) is an archive that was launched on 31 July 2014, following the completion of a three-year proces ...

1935 films 1935 in New Zealand 1935 lost films 1930s English-language films 1930s New Zealand films Lost New Zealand films {{NewZealand-film-stub