The Hayseeds' Back-blocks Show

1917 Australian film

5 November 1917 (1917-11-05)^[1]

Running time

4,000 feetCountryAustraliaLanguagesilent

The Hayseeds' Back-blocks Show is a 1917 Australian rural comedy from director Beaumont Smith. It was the third in his series about the rural family, the Hayseeds.^[2]

It is considered a lost film.

Synopsis

Dad Hayseed and his friends from Stoney Creek, including Dad Duggan, Cousin Harold, Sam, Tom, Poppy, Molly, Peter, Hopkins and M'Arthur, decide to hold an agricultural show. They go to Brisbane to ask the Governor of Queensland to open it and he agrees. They form a brass band to play, and the show is a great success.^[3]

Cast

Fred MacDonald as Jim Hayseed
Tal Ordell as Dad Hayseed
Harry McDonna as Cousin Harold
Agnes Dobson
Collet Dobson

Production

Like the first two Hayseed movies, Beaumont Smith used local appeal to make them attractive to audiences. This one was shot around Brisbane.^[4] It was followed by The Hayseeds' Melbourne Cup.

Reception

The Bulletin wrote the film "is full of variety, as it touches on the farm, an agricultural show and a bush sports-meeting, besides supplying street views, with good clean comedy and a neat little love-story."^[5]

References

^ Ross Cooper,"Filmography: Beaumont Smith", Cinema Papers, March–April 1976 p333
^ "Moving Picture World – Lantern: Search, Visualize & Explore the Media History Digital Library".
^ "THE HAYSEEDS' BACKBLOCK SHOW." The Advertiser (Adelaide) 1 Nov 1919: 11
^ Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 73.
^ "IN BANANA LAND", The bulletin., Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 13 September 1917, nla.obj-696937811, retrieved 20 July 2024 – via Trove