Page 20 - CinemaRecord Edition 3-2003 #41

He suddenly stopped the action
exclaiming, “I’ll have no fighting on the
Sabbath.” End of rehearsal. We left the
house hoping to ‘bring him around’ later.
The following Sunday we were in
another quarry, further south where
Dundas Street crosses the Darebin
Creek. It was a drizzly day, but good
enough for a rehearsal, which went
well. It involved the brothers hiding
behind rocks with the ‘goodies’ in
pursuit in a two-horse buckboard. The
actors had real, but unusable rifles and
ammunition. By now some of us had
cars, and as we were driving away at
walking pace with our horses nearby, a
car overtook us, and signalled us to
stop. The driver asked, “Who owns that
piebald horse?” The owner who was in
our car was then told, “You are under
suspicion for factory breaking”.
At work next day I was told that
Northcote C.I.D. wanted to speak to
me. I explained what we were doing
and, contrary to what the police had
been told, we were not firing rifles on a
Sunday. Then I was told that since I
worked in the electrical industry that I
should have more sense that to tip a 44-
gallon drum of water over a quarry
crusher motor. I explained that we were
nowhere near the crushing plant.
Our scenarist Colin Hood has also
reflected on this experience in a story
he called The Time The Barton’s Didn’t
Ride. According to Col, our problem
started when we got into conversation
with some kids at the quarry and
showed off our guns. They were
impressed, but not so their mothers,
who duly noted the registration number
of my ‘39 Buick and reported us.
No further action was taken, but
this was the end of our filmmaking.
Cars, National Service and girls now
took precedence - for a time. But the Clockwise from top: Screen introduction to a night at the Crown; Chapel Street
home-cinema bug lay dormant, re- Windsor, probably 1920s. Seats from the Royal Pictures were recycled to Preston.
emerging for me as the Crest, over 40 Sound comes to the Crown with a Pathe SON 9.5mm projector.
years later. ★ Projector image: Mike Trickett

20 2009 CINEMARECORD