Harry Southwell

{{Short description|Australian actor}} {{for|the English cricketer|Harry Southwell (cricketer)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} '''Harry Southwell''' (1882-1960) was an Australian actor, writer and film director best known for making films about Ned Kelly. He was born in Cardiff, Wales and spent a couple of years in America, where he adapted some short stories by O Henry into two reel films.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16933851 |title=LOCAL FILM PRODUCTION. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=28 November 1932 |accessdate=25 July 2012 |page=9 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He worked for Vitagraph in the United States for five years, then moved to Australia in 1919, where he used his experience as a screenwriter to impress investors to back him making features.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63848093 |title=In the Theatres. |newspaper=The Mail |location=Adelaide |date=1 May 1920 |accessdate=25 July 2012 |page=6 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He set up his own production company in Australia but few of his movies were commercially successful.<ref name="pike">Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 96.</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16807362 |title=AUSTRALIAN FILMS. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=18 August 1931 |accessdate=25 July 2012 |page=7 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 283. {{ISBN|978-1936168-68-2}}.</ref>

He returned to Europe in the 1920s, where he made a British-Belgian film called ''The Bells'' (1925), with himself in the lead role of Mathias the innkeeper. The film took five months to shoot. He later returned to Australia in 1931, where he worked for Australian Players.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32361726 |title=NEWS AND NOTES. |newspaper=The West Australian |location=Perth |date=7 August 1931 |accessdate=3 August 2012 |page=18 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He made at least three Australian films about the famous outlaw Ned Kelly, and near the end of his career remade ''The Bells'' in 1935 as ''The Burgomeister''.<ref>Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 283. {{ISBN|978-1936168-68-2}}.</ref>

==Feature films== *''The Kelly Gang'' (1920) *''The Hordern Mystery'' (1920) *''When the Kellys Were Out'' (1923) *''David'' (1924) *''The Bells'' (aka ''Le juif polonais'') (1925) *''The Seventh Commandment'' (1925)<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article84165991 |title=AUSTRALIAN FILMS. |newspaper=The Daily News |location=Perth |date=11 February 1926 |accessdate=25 July 2012 |page=8 Edition: THIRD EDITION |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> *''Down Under'' (1927) *''When the Kellys Rode'' (1934) *''The Burgomeister'' (1935), a remake of ''The Bells'' (1925)<ref>Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 283. {{ISBN|978-1936168-68-2}}.</ref> *''A Message to Kelly'' (1947) (abandoned)

===Unmade projects=== *''The Sick Stockrider''<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59963905 |title=AUSTRALIAN FILMS. |newspaper=The Mail |location=Adelaide |date=10 October 1925 |accessdate=25 July 2012 |page=1 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|2}} * {{cite web |url=http://australiancinema.info/directors/southwell.html |website=australiancinema.info |title=Harry Southwell |date=2 November 2013 |accessdate=9 May 2016}}

==External links== * {{IMDb name|0816166}} * [http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/summary/summary.w3p;adv=;group=;groupequals=;page=0;parentid=;query=Person%3A%22%2FPerson%2Fkey%2F11233-1%22;querytype=;resCount=10 Harry Southwell] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110406153336/http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/summary/summary.w3p;adv=;group=;groupequals=;page=0;parentid=;query=Person%3A%22%2FPerson%2Fkey%2F11233-1%22;querytype=;resCount=10 |date=6 April 2011 }} at National Film and Sound Archive *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120324031538/http://www.nfsa.gov.au/community/newsletters/articles/2011/october/collection-harry-southwell/ Photographs of Harry Southwell] at National Film and Sound Archive

{{DEFAULTSORT:Southwell, Harry}} Category:Australian film directors Category:1882 births Category:Year of death missing Category:20th-century Australian male actors Category:Welsh emigrants to Australia Category:1960 deaths