{{short description|1949 film by T.O. McCreadie}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}} {{Infobox film | name = Into the Straight | image = | caption = | producer = T. O. McCreadie<br>Alec McCreadie (executive) | director = T. O. McCreadie | writer = Zelma Roberts | starring = Charles Tingwell<br />Muriel Steinbeck | music = Wilbur Sampson | cinematography = Harry Malcolm | editing = Alex Ezard<br>Jack Gardiner | studio = Embassy Pictures | distributor = Universal Pictures | released = {{Film date|1949|07|15|df=yes}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47737050 |title=No Title |newspaper=The West Australian |volume=65 |issue=19,656 |location=Western Australia |date=16 July 1949 |accessdate=23 August 2024 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> | runtime = 82 minutes | country = Australia | language = English | budget = }} '''''Into the Straight''''' is a 1949 Australian horse racing melodrama directed by T. O. McCreadie.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18139848 |title=Films You Will Soon Be Seeing:: Studio Gossip:: Short Story "Into The Straight"—Australian Racing Film |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=5 January 1950 |access-date=24 April 2020 |page=8 |via=Trove }}</ref> It used many cast and crew from their first effort, ''Always Another Dawn''.<ref name="into">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-films-into-the-straight/|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|date=11 August 2025|access-date=11 August 2025|title=Forgotten Australian Films: Into the Straight}}</ref>
==Plot== The Curzons, an Australian horse racing family, are visited by an English horse trainer, Hugh Duncan, and his playboy son, Paul. Both men fall for June Curzon. However, after she is crippled in an accident Paul loses interest, and she realises she loves Hugh.
With Hugh's encouragement, June writes a piano concerto and learns to walk again. Her brother, the weak Sam Curzon, steals money from his father to pay gambling debts and allows Paul to take the blame. However, a horse secretly trained by Paul wins the Melbourne Cup.
==Cast== *James Workman as Hugh Duncan *Charles Tingwell as Sam Curzon *Margo Lee as Zara Marlowe *Muriel Steinbeck as Mrs Laura Curzon *Nonnie Peifer as June Curzon *Shirley Hall as Bunty *George Randall as W.J. Curzon *Alan White as Paul Duncan *Norton Howarth
==Production== The film was made by the same team that had made ''Always Another Dawn''.<ref name="always">{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|date=3 August 2025|access-date=3 August 2025|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-films-always-another-dawn/|magazine=Filmink|title=Forgotten Australian Films: Always Another Dawn}}</ref>
Charles Tingwell also worked as a trainee to Alex Ezard.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article213731347 |title=Obituary: Tom McCreadie |newspaper=Filmnews |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=1 September 1992 |access-date=24 April 2020 |page=2 |via=Trove }}</ref> ''Filmink'' later wrote "Steinbeck was the biggest name in the cast at the time, but it isn’t much of a role… and in hindsight that was a mistake. The filmmakers would have been better off building the movie around Steinbeck – either have her play the role of her daughter... or made her character the center of the action. But then, Australian cinema has traditionally demonstrated a poor understanding how best to exploit potential stars."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/unsung-aussie-actors-muriel-steinbeck/|first=Stephen|magazine=Filmink|last=Vagg|title=Unsung Aussie Actors – Muriel Steinbeck|date=25 August 2019}}</ref>
Star James Workman - who later became a radio writer - recalled "The McCreadies were very nice people but they were convinced that they knew all the answers. .. They ran cinemas so they thought they knew what people wanted so they shoved it all into the one film, no explanations no nothing.”<ref name="oral">Oral history of James Workman interviewed by Stuart Glover, National Film and Sound Archive. NFSA ID374406, recorded 1998</ref>
Shooting began in June 1948, on location in Scone, New South Wales, and at the studio of Commonwealth Film Laboratories in Sydney.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18139848 |title=Films You Will Soon Be Seeing:: Studio Gossip:: Short Story "Into The Straight"—Australian Racing Film. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=5 January 1950 |accessdate=11 January 2012 |page=8 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The Victoria Racing Club allowed a re-creation of the Melbourne Cup to be shot at Flemington Racecourse<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46924613 |title=Jockeys in the Films. |newspaper=The West Australian |location=Perth |date=29 July 1948 |accessdate=11 January 2012 |page=18 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and scenes were also filmed at Randwick Racecourse.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47734413 |title=Background To Turf Story. |newspaper=The West Australian |location=Perth |date=1 July 1949 |accessdate=11 January 2012 |page=12 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Several jockeys made cameos in the film, including Jack Purtell and George Moore.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48572862 |title=PURTELL TO RIDE IN RACE FILM. |newspaper=The Barrier Miner |location=Broken Hill, NSW |date=16 September 1948 |accessdate=11 January 2012 |page=8 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
The film featured a piano concerto which took up several minutes of screen time.
==Reception== The film was well received in Perth but only had a short run in Sydney and Melbourne.<ref>Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 208.</ref>
===Critical=== The ''Sun Herald'' said the film "compares not unfavourably with many of the B-grade quickies successfully produced as cheap supporting films by Monogram and Pine-Thomas" and declared it "sticks pretty firmly to the story line and does not allow itself to be side-tracked and unbalanced by all sorts of amateurish irrelevancies" although "there is a very long patch in the middle where the producers seem to forget that they are making a racing film."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18480027 |title="Into The Straight" |newspaper=The Sunday Herald (Sydney) |issue=50 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=8 January 1950 |accessdate=23 August 2024 |page=5 (Features) |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
The ''Newcastle Sun'' wrote "the script is faulty, but the main trouble is that too many thincs have been attempted. A pleasing feature, however, is the photography."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article158801409 |title="Into The Straight" |newspaper=The Newcastle Sun |issue=10,044 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=11 March 1950 |accessdate=23 August 2024 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
''The Bulletin'' declared, "In the parlance of that sport [horse racing], it could be said that while it would need a pretty hefty “sting” to make it a winner, it does, atHhe same time, run a fairly honest race under a big handicap and gives supporters a middling-fair run for their money."<ref>{{Citation | title=TALKIES Two Australian Films. | journal=The Bulletin | date=18 January 1950 | location=Sydney, N.S.W | publisher=John Haynes and J.F. Archibald | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-524288326 | id=nla.obj-524288326 | access-date=23 August 2024 | via=Trove }}</ref>
''Variety'' called it "unsuited for the US" but felt it "might find a spot or two in the British provinces... Stud farm scenes are fine. Cast is adequate."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety177-1950-01#page/n360/mode/1up|title=Into the Straight|magazine=Variety|page=6|date=18 January 1950}}</ref>
''Filmink'' called it "an entirely decent, honest melodrama... the sort of bread and butter picture that they routinely made in Hollywood and Britain" which "benefits from Tom McCreadie’s excellent direction, strong location work and an excellent cast. Its main problem, as with ''Always Another Dawn'', was the script. However, while the McCreadies’ first film suffered from not having enough story, ''Into the Straight'' has far too much."<ref name="into"/> ==See also== * List of films about horses * List of films about horse racing
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|0041512|Into the Straight}} * [https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/into-the-straight/ ''Into the Straight''] at Australian Screen Online *[https://www.ozmovies.com.au/movie/into-the-straight ''Into the Straight''] at Oz Movies *[https://letterboxd.com/film/into-the-straight/ ''Into the Straight''] at Letterbox DVD
Category:1949 films Category:Australian drama films Category:Australian horse racing films Category:1949 drama films Category:Australian black-and-white films Category:1949 Australian films Category:1949 English-language films Category:English-language drama films