Rupert Kathner (1904–1954) was an Australian

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

best known for newsreels and low-budget films. He worked with Alma Brooks who co-produced, operated the camera, edited, co-scripted and acted in their films.Morgan One journalist has described Kathner and Brooks as "shady con artists and fugitives from the law."

Career

Kathner was born in Adelaide and educated at St Peter's College. He studied art under

Hans Heysen Sir Hans Heysen (8 October 18772 July 1968) was an Australian artist. One of Australia's best known landscape painters, Heysen became a household name during his lifetime for his watercolours and oil paintings of the Australian bush, in pa ...

and became a sketch artist. He broke into the film industry in the early 1930s by working on set designs. His first movie was '' Phantom Gold'' (1937).Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, p178 Kathner and Brooks achieved their first success with their "shocking or the timenewsreels".Edwards (2006) The most popular of these was about the unsolved murder case, The Pyjama Girl Murder. The newsreel was about to be distributed internationally when World War II broke out. Kathner and Brook's features were essentially B-grade movies, and dealt with typically Australian topics such as

Ned Kelly Edward Kelly (December 185411 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader, bank robber and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing armour of the Kelly gang, a suit of bulletproof ...

and horse-racing. They were often in trouble with the law. Kathner died in 1954.

''Hunt Angels''

Hunt Angels ''Hunt Angels'' is a 2006 Australian docudrama, directed by Alec Morgan, starring Victoria Hill and Ben Mendelsohn. ''Hunt Angels'' was filmed in Sydney, Australia and opened in Australia on 30 November 2006 after premiering at the Melbourne In ...

'' (2006) is a feature-length documentary which re-enacts Kathner and Brooks' "movie-making spree that took on the Hollywood barons, a corrupt police Commissioner and the (so-called) ''

cultural cringe In the fields of cultural studies and social anthropology, cultural cringe is an expression used to refer to an internalized inferiority complex where people dismiss their own culture as inferior (''cringe-inducing)'' when compared to the culture ...

'', all in their passionate pursuit to make Australian films. On the run from police across thousands of miles, they would stop at almost nothing to get their films made." ''Hunt Angels'' "uses an innovative digital composite technique whereby the characters come alive in the real world of Sydney in the 30s and 40s". The film was directed by Alec Morgan. It stars

Ben Mendelsohn Paul Benjamin Mendelsohn (born 3 April 1969) is an Australian actor. He first rose to prominence in Australia for his break-out role in '' The Year My Voice Broke'' (1987). He gained international attention for his starring role in the crime d ...

and

Victoria Hill Victoria Hill (born 18 February 1971 in Adelaide) is an Australian actress, writer and producer. Early life and career Victoria Hill is the daughter of Robert Hill, a former politician, diplomat and Chancellor of the University of Adelaid ...

, playing the roles of Kathner and Brooks, and includes interviews with "real" people such as actor

Bud Tingwell Charles William Tingwell AM (3 January 1923 – 15 May 2009), known professionally as Bud Tingwell or Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, was an Australian actor. One of the veterans of Australian film, he acted in his first motion picture in 1946 and we ...

, filmmaker/distributor Andrew Pike, and Kathner's son, Paul F. Kathner.

Feature films

* '' Phantom Gold'' (1937) * '' Below the Surface'' (1938) * '' Wings of Destiny'' (1940) * '' Racing Luck'' (1941) * ''

The Glenrowan Affair ''The Glenrowan Affair'' is a 1951 film about Ned Kelly from director Rupert Kathner. It was Kathner's final film and stars VFL star Bob Chitty as Kelly. At the time of its release it was nominated as one of the worst films ever made in Austr ...

'' (1951), aka ''A Message to Kelly''

Newsreels

* ''Australia Today – Lucky Strike at Larkinville'' (1938) * '' Australia Today – Customs Officers Fight Against Drugs'' (1938) * '' Australia Today – The Pyjama Girl Murder Case'' (1939) * '' Australia Today – Fort Denison'' (1939) * '' Australia Today – Man Eater'' (1939) * '' Australia Today – Men of Tomorrow'' (1939)

Writings

*''Let's Make a Movie'' (1945)

Incomplete projects

*''Falling for Fame.'' A project Kathner tried to make with Stan Tolhurst prior to ''Phantom Gold'', set against the background of the film industry *''Diamonds in the Rough.'' A proposed follow up to ''Below the Surface'' * An unnamed film of the life of

Adam Lindsay Gordon Adam Lindsay Gordon (19 October 1833 – 24 June 1870) was a British-Australian poet, horseman, police officer and politician. He was the first Australian poet to gain considerable recognition overseas, and according to his contemporary, write ...

* '' The Kellys of Tobruk'' (1943). A planned comedy set against the

siege of Tobruk The siege of Tobruk () took place between 10 April and 27 November 1941, during the Western Desert campaign (1940–1943) of the World War II, Second World War. An Allies of World War II, Allied force, consisting mostly of the 9th Division ...

Alma Brooks

Alma Brooks was an Australian filmmaker, best known for her association with Rupert Kathner. Although rarely mentioned in contemporary publications, she was a key partner in Kathner's filmmaking endeavours from the 1930s until his death in 1954. She co-produced, operated the camera, edited, co-scripted and acted in his films, and also participated in Kathner's less legal endeavours. This included involvement in a legal case in 1942 where she and Kathner were accused of defrauding someone of unsound mind. In 1944 they were in legal trouble again being charged with conspiracy to defraud investors of a proposed movie ''Kelly of Tobruk'' but were acquitted. In 1940, Brooks when working with an editor, was involved in a fight at a film production company.

Select filmography

*'' Australia Today – The Pyjama Girl Murder Case'' (1939) *'' Wings of Destiny'' (1940) *'' Racing Luck'' (1941) *''

'' (1951)

In popular culture

She was played by Victoria Hill in the film ''

'' (2006).Review of ''Hunt Angels''
at ''At the Movies''

References

Sources

Accessed: 25 February 2008

Accessed: 25 February 2008 * ttp://scan.net.au/scan/magazine/display.php?journal_id=5 Morgan, Alec (200?) "Lost City of the Senses" in ''Scan: Journal of Media Arts and Culture''Accessed: 25 February 2008

External links

*
Rupert Kathner
at

Australian Screen Online The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

Rupert Kathner
at the

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

* at

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

Alma Brooks articles
at

Trove Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kathner, Rupert Australian film directors 1904 births 1954 deaths