''Typhoon Treasure'' is a 1938 Australian adventure film directed by Noel Monkman and starring

Campbell Copelin Campbell Copelin (15 March 1901 – 3 August 1988) was an English actor, who moved to Australia in the 1920s and worked extensively in film, theatre, radio and television. He had a notable association with J.C. Williamson Ltd and frequently coll ...

, Gwen Munro, and

Joe Valli Joseph George McParlane (also spelled McFarlane and McPharlane; August 13, 1885 – May 29, 1967), known as Joe Valli, was a Scottish-Australian actor who worked in vaudeville and films. He had a long-running vaudeville partnership with Pat Hanna ...

. It is set in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

although shot on the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

and the

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

coast. It was Monkman's first dramatic feature film after several years making documentaries.

Premise

Alan Richards is the sole survivor of a

pearling lugger Pearling in Western Australia includes the harvesting and farming of both pearls and pearl shells (for mother of pearl) along the north-western coast of Western Australia. The practice of collecting pearl shells existed well before British s ...

which has been shipwrecked on Pakema Reef during a typhoon. He sets out to recover some pearls which went missing in the wreck, crossing through the jungle and fighting headhunters.

Cast

as Alan Richards * Gwen Munro as Jean Roberts *

as Scotty McLeod *Douglas Herald as Buck Thompson * Kenneth Brampton as Alfred Webb *Norman French as patrol officer *Utan Walters as Utan *

Marshall Crosby Marshall Crosby (18 February 1882 – 1 January 1954) born as Joseph Alexander Crosby, was a popular Australian actor and singer of vaudeville, theatre, radio, film and television. Biography Crosby was born the twelfth of thirteen children in ...

*Moncrieff Macallum *Ossie Wenban *Douglas Channell *Benjamin Brown

Production

Development

In the mid-1930s, Noel Monkman was working with

F. W. Thring Francis William Thring III (2 December 1882 – 1 July 1936) was an Australian film director, producer, and exhibitor. He has been credited with the invention of the clapperboard. Early life Francis William Thring (or William Francis Thring) ...

making documentaries. Thring offered to back Monkman in making a dramatic feature, and provided him with a writer, John P. McLeod. In June 1935 Monkman announced he and Alan Mill had bought the film rights to a novel, ''A Recipe in Rubber'' by Robert Stock. It would be filmed as ''The Gloved Hand''. By August 1935 Monkma announced he would make ''Typhoon Treasure'' rather than ''A Recipe in Rubber''. Joe Valli signed on to play a lead role that month. Thring planned to make the movie after visiting Hollywood in 1936 but died that year.

Cinesound Productions Cinesound Productions Pty Ltd was an Australian feature film production company. Established in June 1931, Cinesound developed out of a group of companies centred on Greater Union, Greater Union Theatres that covered all facets of the film proc ...

offered to buy the script but Monkman elected to make it himself. He formed a syndicate with Bruce Cummings and Commonwealth Laboratories, who provided the crew.

Shooting

Filming commenced June 1937. The film was shot mostly on location in North Queensland, on the

, the Yorke Peninsula and locations around Cairns including Russell River, Lake Barrine, Mulgrave River Michaelmas Reef and Green Island.

started filming in June but Gwen Munro did not arrive until October. Torres Strait Islander Utan had a key role. After the location work was completed, some studio scenes were filmed at Commonwealth Film Laboratories' studio at the Sydney Showground. Music was collated from popular classics including

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...

's ''Swan Lake''.

Death of crew member

While filming underwater scenes on Green Island in October, one of the divers, James Bell, died of

myocarditis Myocarditis is inflammation of the cardiac muscle. Myocarditis can progress to inflammatory cardiomyopathy when there is associated ventricular remodeling and cardiac dysfunction due to chronic inflammation. Symptoms can include shortness of bre ...

. Bruce Cummings, who was in charge of underwater photography, went down in a diving cylinder, followed a few minutes later by Bell, who was his assistant. A few minutes later Cummings noticed something was wrong with Bell. When they brought him to the surface he was dead. An inquest was later held which found no negligence.

Release

Reviews generally found the story formulaic but enjoyed the direction and settings. ''Variety'' said "his looks like a quickie turned out by some British producing outfit although there is no way of telling whether made in Great Britain, Australia or Canada. It largely follows early talking picture technique; at other junctures, the production soimds like a silent jungle adventure subject with added sound and score. At best, it is a feeble fill-in for the lower section of a dual setup. None of the cast is even faintly recognizable to American audiences. Just as well, because their thespian efforts are rudimentary. "

Ken G. Hall Kenneth George Hall (22 February 1901 – 8 February 1994) was an Australian film producer and director, considered one of the most important figures in the history of the Australian film industry. He was the first Australian to win an Acad ...

later said "I knew Noel Monkman quite well and I was impressed by him. Especially his microphotography and his underwater photography. I wasn’t impressed by his first feature, ''Typhoon Treasure''." interview done on 25 October 1972 It was sold to America and played in cinemas there in 1939 and a shortened version of the film screened in England in 1943. In the 1950s rights to the film were bought by George Malcolm who cut it down to 40 minutes and reissued it as ''The Perils of Pakema Reef''.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 182.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0032069, title=Typhoon Treasure
''Typhoon Treasure''
at

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 ...

''Typhoon Treasure''
at Oz Movies 1938 films Australian black-and-white films 1938 adventure films Australian adventure films 1930s English-language films English-language adventure films 1930s Australian films