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===Unmade Projects===
===Unmade Projects===
*''Falling for Fame'' - project he tried to make with Stan Tolhurst prior to ''Phantom Gold'', set against the background of the film industry<ref name="pike"/>
*''Falling for Fame'' - project he tried to make with Stan Tolhurst prior to ''Phantom Gold'', set against the background of the film industry<ref name="pike"/>
*''Diamonds in the Rough'' - proposed follow up to ''Below the Surface''<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17442842 |title=AUSTRALIAN FILMS. |newspaper=[[Sydney_morning_herald|The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)]] |location=NSW |date=3 February 1938 |accessdate=15 August 2012 |page=8 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>


==External links==
==External links==

Revision as of 09:26, 15 August 2012

Rupert Kathner (1904–1954) was an Australian film director best known for newsreels and low-budget films. He worked with Alma Brooks, an ex-barmaid, who co-produced, operated the camera, edited, co-scripted and acted in their films.[1] Kathner and Brooks were also "shady con artists and fugitives from the law",[2] sometimes described as the "Bonnie and Clyde" of the Australian film industry.

Kathner died of a brain haemorrhage in 1954.

Career

Kathner was a sketch artist who broke into the film industry in the early 1930s by working on set designs. His first movie was Phantom Gold (1937).[3]

Newsreels

Kathner and Brooks achieved their first success with their "shocking (for the time) newsreels".[4] The most popular of these was about the unsolved murder case, The Pyjama Girl Murder. The newsreel was about to be distributed internationally when WWII broke out.

Features

Kathner and Brook's features were essentially B-grade movies, and dealt with typically Australian topics such as Ned Kelly and horse-racing.

Hunt Angels

Hunt Angels (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 cultural cringe 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."[5] Hunt Angels "uses an innovative digital composite technique whereby the characters come alive in the real world of Sydney in the 30's and 40's".[6]

The film was directed by Alec Morgan. It stars Ben Mendelsohn and Victoria Hill, playing the roles of Kathner and Brooks, and includes interviews with "real" people such as actor Bud Tingwell, filmmaker/distributor Andrew Pike, and Kathner's son, Paul F. Kathner.

Feature Films

Newsreels

Writings

  • Let's Make a Movie (1945)

Unmade Projects

  • Falling for Fame - project he tried to make with Stan Tolhurst prior to Phantom Gold, set against the background of the film industry[3]
  • Diamonds in the Rough - proposed follow up to Below the Surface[7]

Notes

  1. ^ Morgan
  2. ^ Kalina (2006)
  3. ^ a b Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, p178
  4. ^ Edwards (2006)
  5. ^ Hunt Angels official site
  6. ^ Produced in association with Film Art Doco
  7. ^ "AUSTRALIAN FILMS". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). NSW: National Library of Australia. 3 February 1938. p. 8. Retrieved 15 August 2012.

References

Template:Persondata

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