Raymond Longford
Portrait of Raymond Longford, circa 1935.
Born
John Walter Longford

(1878-09-23)23 September 1878
Hawthorn, Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.
Died2 April 1959(1959-04-02) (aged 80)
North Sydney, Australia.
Other namesRaymond Hollis Longford
Occupation(s)Director, actor, screenwriter, editor, film producer
Years active1911–1941

Raymond Longford (23 September 1878 – 2 April 1959) was a prolific Australian film director, writer, producer and actor during the silent era.[1] Longford was a major director of the silent film era of the Australian cinema. He formed a production team with Lottie Lyell. His contributions to Australian cinema with his ongoing collaborations with Lyell include The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and The Blue Mountains Mystery (1921) earned an AFI award named in his honour, inducted in 1968.

Biography

John Walter Hollis Longford was born in Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne, son of John Walter Longford, a civil servant originally from Sydney, and his English wife, Charlotte Maria. His family soon started referring to him as "Ray". By 1880 they briefly moved to Paynesville, then went to Sydney when Longford's father became a warder at Darlinghurst Gaol.[2]

Longford became a sailor and spent his early life at sea. He started acting on the stage in India under the name Raymond Hollis Longford. In the early 1900s he toured Australia and New Zealand with Edwin Geach's Popular Dramatic Organisation, and Clarke and Meynell companies.

In 1908 he worked on a film produced by Charles Cozens Spencer about the fight between Tommy Burns and Jack Johnson, probably the first movie Longford was involved in. He then began appearing in movies for Spencer as an actor.[3][4]

Film Career

In 1911 Spencer hired Longford to direct his first feature, The Fatal Wedding. It was a major financial success and launched his career behind the camera. He soon established himself as one of Australia's leading directors which such films as The Romantic Story of Margaret Catchpole (1911) and The Midnight Wedding (1912). Most of his early films were adapted from stage melodramas or heavily influenced by them. They were often made quickly, with limited budgets and a small crew. From the beginning, Lottie Lyell was a key collaborator for him as an actor, writer, producer and (later) co-director.

Following Charles Cozens Spencer's withdrawal from Australian production due to the formation of "the Combine" (which absorbed Spencer's old company(, Longford found it increasingly difficult to secure funding for a time. He went to work for the Fraser Film Release and Photographic Company for who he made a feature and a number of shorts.

He was forced to make two films in New Zealand and also became embroiled in legal battles over making The Silence of Dean Maitland (1914) (which Longford claimed the Combine refused to screen( and The Church and the Woman (1917).

The Sentimental Bloke

Longford's career revived towards the end of World War I when he helped establish the Southern Cross Feature Film Company. He enjoyed a large hit with The Woman Suffers (1918) which enabled him to get finance for an adaptation of the poetry of C. J. Dennis, The Sentimental Bloke (1919). This was an enormous critical and popular success, and is regarded as one of the greatest Australian films of all time. Longford followed it with another hit, On Our Selection (1920).

The popularity of these two movies saw Longford move away from melodramatic convention to more realistic treatment of subject matter.[5] Both Bloke and Selection led to sequels which were also directed by Longford.

Decline

As the 1920s went on, Longford again found difficulties securing finance and/or distribution for his films. He made some for Australasian Films but the collaboration was not a successful one. In 1925 Lottie Lyell died of tuberculosis and Longford's career never recovered.

In 1926 it was announced Longford would serve on the board of the film company Phillips Film Productions Ltd, [6] but little seems to have come of this. He gave evidence at the 1928 Royal Commission on the Moving Picture Industry in Australia[7] where he urged the introduction of a quota for local movies and complained about the influence of the Combine of Australasian Films and Union Theatres on local production.[8]

Longford appeared in bankruptcy court in 1929 but managed to tour Europe the following year.[9][10]

Sound Era

Throughout the 1930s Longford worked steadily as an actor and assistant director but only directed one feature, The Man They Could Not Hang (1934) That year he was elected head of the New South Wales Talking Picture Producers Association with the aim of promoting a quota for Australian films.[11][12] In 1935 he established Mastercraft Film Corporation Ltd.[13]

Later Years

Longford managed to stay employed in the film industry during the 1930s but found this impossible with the advent to World War II, which brought local production to an almost complete halt. During the war he was a clerk for the U.S. military stationed in Australia, then he became a night watchman on the Sydney wharfs.

In October 1950 Longford was profiled by Ernest Harrison for AM magazine, then in 1955 a complete 35 mm print of The Sentimental Bloke was discovered and screened at the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals, bringing renewed attention to Longford.[2] He died on 2 April 1959 at the age of 80.

Personal Life

Longford married Melena Louisa Keen at St Luke's Anglican Church, Concord, Sydney, on 5 February 1900. They had one child, a son, Victor Hollis Longford. Longford and Melena later separated and he started a relationship with Lottie Lyell but could not marry her as Melena would not give him a divorce until 1926 - the year after Lyell died. Melina would not agree to a divorce because her father, William Henry Keen, did not approve of divorce. William Henry Keen died in 1922.

Longford married for a second time in 1933 to Emilie Elizabeth Anschutz.[3]

AFI Longford Life Achievement Award

Main article: Australian Film Institute Longford Life Achievement Award

Named in Longford's honour, the AFI Raymond Longford Award is the Australian film industry's highest accolade for an individual based on their contributions to "unwavering commitment over many years to excellence in the film and television industries and has, through their body of work to date, contributed substantially to the enrichment of Australian screen culture". Since the introduction of the award by the AFI in 1968, winners have included Peter Weir, David Stratton, Ian Jones and Geoffrey Rush.[14]

Filmography

Director

Actor only

Crew Member

Theatre Credits

Unfilmed Projects

Among the projects Longford planned but did not film included:

References

  1. ^ Raymond Longford at IMDb
  2. ^ a b Phillip Dutchak, "Raymond Hollis Longford", Cinema Papers, March 1991 p25-31
  3. ^ a b Wasson, Mervyn J., 'Longford, Raymond John Walter Hollis (1878–1959)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University accessed 6 February 2012.
  4. ^ "Raymond Longford", Cinema Papers, January 1974 p51
  5. ^ Graham Shirley and Brian Adams, Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years, Currency Press 1989 p 32
  6. ^ "Cinema Notes". The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954). Hobart, Tas.: National Library of Australia. 12 November 1926. p. 3. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  7. ^ "THE FILM INDUSTRY". The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931). Adelaide, SA: National Library of Australia. 18 June 1927. p. 14. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  8. ^ "FILM COMMISSION". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). NSW: National Library of Australia. 29 November 1927. p. 12. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  9. ^ "LAW REPORT. (Continued from page 8.) IN BANKRUPTCY". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). NSW: National Library of Australia. 19 September 1929. p. 9. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  10. ^ "LAW REPORT. (Continued from page 6.) IN BANKRUPTCY". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). NSW: National Library of Australia. 3 October 1929. p. 8. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  11. ^ "AUSTRALIAN PRODUCERS". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). NSW: National Library of Australia. 30 November 1934. p. 10. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  12. ^ "FILM QUOTA". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). NSW: National Library of Australia. 4 December 1934. p. 4. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  13. ^ "MASTERCRAFT FILM CORPORATION LIMITED". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). NSW: National Library of Australia. 16 April 1935. p. 15. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  14. ^ http://www.afi.org.au/AM/ContentManagerNet/ContentDisplay.aspx?ContentID=8183&Section=Raymond_Longford_Award
  15. ^ "LILIAN MEYERS DRAMATIC CO". Morning Post (Cairns, Qld. : 1897 - 1907). Cairns, Qld.: National Library of Australia. 10 January 1907. p. 2. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  16. ^ "OLD PROGRAMMES". The Central Queensland Herald (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1930 - 1956). Rockhampton, Qld.: National Library of Australia. 13 February 1936. p. 15. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  17. ^ "Advertising". The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933). Qld.: National Library of Australia. 26 March 1910. p. 2. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  18. ^ "OLD PROGRAMMES". The Central Queensland Herald (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1930 - 1956). Rockhampton, Qld.: National Library of Australia. 12 March 1936. p. 14. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  19. ^ "THE FATAL WEDDING". Northern Star (Lismore, NSW : 1876 - 1954). Lismore, NSW: National Library of Australia. 26 August 1910. p. 2. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  20. ^ "AMUSEMENTS". Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW : 1888 - 1954). Broken Hill, NSW: National Library of Australia. 23 November 1910. p. 5. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  21. ^ "THE EXHIBITION". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). NSW: National Library of Australia. 23 December 1927. p. 12. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  22. ^ "ENTERTAINMENTS". The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956). Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia. 5 March 1930. p. 21. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  23. ^ "NEW FILMS". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). NSW: National Library of Australia. 13 April 1935. p. 17. Retrieved 6 February 2012.

External links

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Films directed by Raymond Longford
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