Films Made in S.A.

The film Remorse, or the Red Plague was made in Adelaide in 1916 by the Matthews Photo-play Company, and was shown in Adelaide only months before the South Australian Film Censorship Advisory Board was formed. However, it did not escape the attention of the Chief Secretary. When the film was screened at Clare by the Olympic Picture Company the Northern Argus said, ‘The Chief Secretary only passed this picture (as a censor) on the understanding that no children under sixteen are to be admitted.’ In their advertisement in the Argus the Olympic company stated, ‘N.B. Children under Sixteen not admitted. The greatest moral lesson to young men and women ever presented… Usual prices, plus taxes.’

The film was first screened at the Wondergraph Theatre in Adelaide on 3 January 1917, and while the fact that about forty local people were in the cast may have been a drawcard, the main attraction was no doubt the fact that the film was restricted to adults and that there was, by the standards of the time, something suggestive about the film’s subject and its advertising. The subject of the film was syphilis, the venereal disease that was referred to in public only as The Red Plague.

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REMORSE, or the RED PLAGUE.
The most delicate subject and greatest evil of today. For men and women of mature age only. It is here to deliver a sledge hammer blow at a terrible evil. It tears the veil from hypocrisy. It teaches the greatest moral lesson conceivable. A message to the fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers of this fair land who would know the truth. What would become of the children? The truth revealed. All persons of the age of understanding should take the opportunity of seeing this picture.
Children Not Admitted.

The film was so popular the Wondergraph Theatre in Hindley Street was full long before the advertised starting time, so the management ferried their surplus patrons across Adelaide to their open-air theatre at the corner of North Terrace and Pulteney Street until that, too, was full.

The day after the premiere the Adelaide Register gave an outline of the plot of Remorse. ‘The story deals with the adventures of Jack Rundle (Mr Cyril Mackay), who works on a station, and learns to love Nellie Fallon, his father's ward (Miss Mabel Dyson). When he leaves the station to go to the city on business it is not long before he is tempted into associating with dangerous society. After he has been in the city for some time he realises that he has ruined his life and returns, a sorrowful and downcast man, to his home. But from his father’s household he finds himself an outcast. When, after several year’s absence, he again returns to his old home, he finds that the faithful Ted Rundle, his brother, has married Nellie Fallon. Once more he wanders away and a dramatic end is reached when the unfortunate victim of the undercurrent of society takes his own life, and thus concludes a worthless career.’

Details of some of the cast and their careers is given in Adelaide’s Silent Nights, Dylan Walker’s history of Adelaide’s picture theatres during the silent era. This book is recommended reading for anyone interested in the many picture theatres that were built in Adelaide during the silent movie period.

Dylan gives a summary of the people associated with the production of Remorse. It was produced by the Mathews Photo-play Producing Company, directed by J.E. Mathews and filmed by Adelaide photographer Harry Krischok. Stars in the film were Cyril Mackay, Mabel Dyson, Ida Gresham, Marie D’Alton, C.R. Stanford, Victor Fitzherbert, and Claude Turton. Details of some of the cast and their careers are given in Dylan's book.