{{short description|1921 film}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}} {{Infobox film | name = The Betrayer | image = The_Betrayer.jpg

| caption = Original newspaper advertisement | director = Beaumont Smith | writer = Beaumont Smith | based_on = | producer = Beaumont Smith | starring = Stella Southern | narrator = | cinematography = Lacey Percival | editing = | music = | studio = Beaumont Smith Productions | distributor = Beaumont Smith | released = {{Film date|1921|03|19|df=yes}}<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1741242 |title=Hoyt's De Luxe and Lyceum. |newspaper=The Argus |location=Melbourne |date=21 March 1921 |accessdate=19 May 2012 |page=8 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> | runtime = 5,500 feet | country = Australia<br>New Zealand | language = English | budget = }} '''''The Betrayer''''' is a 1921 Australian-New Zealand lost film from director Beaumont Smith about an interracial romance between a white Australian man and a Māori girl.<ref>Ross Cooper,"Filmography: Beaumont Smith", ''Cinema Papers'', March–April 1976 p333</ref><ref name="hay">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-films-the-hayseeds/|title=Forgotten Australian Films: The Hayseeds|date=3 September 2025|access-date=3 September 2025}}</ref>

==Plot== Australian Stephen Manners (Cyril Mackay) travels to New Zealand and has sex with a Māori girl. He goes home and she dies giving birth to their daughter, Iwa. Iwa is raised by her grandfather Hauraki (Mita), who explains to Manners what happens when he returns to New Zealand twenty years later. Manners takes Iwa (now played by Stella Southern) back to Sydney, Australia, but does not tell her that he is her father.

Travelling with Manners is John Barris (John Cosgrove), whom Hauraki tells on his deathbed that Iwa's real father is a missionary, not Manners. Barris keeps this information to himself and makes advances on Iwa, which are stopped by Manners.

Iwa tells Manners she is in love with him, so Manner explains he is her father and she returns to Rotarua. Barris' wife (Bernice Vere) tells Manners the truth so he returns to New Zealand and is reunited with Iwa, this time as a romantic couple.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63413693 |title="THE BETRAYER.". |newspaper=The Register |location=Adelaide |date=18 May 1921 |accessdate=18 May 2012 |page=9 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

==Cast== *Stella Southern as Iwa *Cyril Mackay as Stephen Manners *John Cosgrove as John Barris *Marie D'Alton as Mrs Manners *Mita, Chief of the Arawa as Hauraki *Bernice Vere as Eleanor Barris *Maggie/Bella Papakura *Guide Susan *Herbert Lee *Raymond Hatton *Dunstan Webb

==Production== The film was shot on location in Rotorua and Auckland, New Zealand, at Coogee Beach and the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney,<ref name="Pike">Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 104.</ref> with about twelve cast and crew.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63418667 |title=AUSTRALIAN DRAMA AT WEST'S. |newspaper=The Register |location=Adelaide |date=26 May 1921 |accessdate=19 May 2012 |page=8 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Among them was Smith's assistant, Rudall Hayward, who later became one of New Zealand's most prolific directors.<ref>[http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/biographies/4h22/1 L. R. Shelton. 'Hayward, Rudall Charles Victor – Biography', from the ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand'', updated 1-Sep-10] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121006080129/http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4h22/1 |date=6 October 2012 }}. Retrieved 22 November 2012</ref>

Most stories of interracial romance at this time ended unhappily but this one finished with a white man marrying a Māori woman.<ref>Helen Martin and Sam Edwards ''New Zealand Film, 1912-1996''. (1997) Auckland: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-558336-1}} p28</ref>

==Release== The movie was originally entitled ''Our Bit o' the World'', but this was changed out of fear audiences would think it was a travelogue.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63418358 |title="THE BETRAYER.". |newspaper=The Register |location=Adelaide |date=30 May 1921 |accessdate=21 January 2012 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>

In 1922, Smith re-edited the film for the British market, adding a racecourse scene and a chase between a car and a train, probably taken from his earlier movie, ''Desert Gold'' (1919). He retitled the movie ''The Maid of Maoriland'', a title under which the film was re-released in Australia.<ref name="Pike"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28161403 |title=ENTERTAINMENTS. |newspaper=The West Australian |location=Perth |date=18 February 1922 |accessdate=19 May 2012 |page=10 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{Citation | title=Beaumont Smith Goes to England | journal=Everyones. | date=26 April 1922 | location=Sydney | publisher=Everyones Ltd | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-557581724 | id=nla.obj-557581724 | access-date=20 July 2024 | via=Trove }} </ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0334945/''The Betrayer''] in the Internet Movie Database *[http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=no;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=%22the%20betrayer%22;querytype=;rec=3;resCount=10 ''The Betrayer''] at National Film and Sound Archive

{{Beaumont Smith}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Betrayer, The}} Category:1921 films Category:1921 Australian films Category:1921 English-language films Category:1921 lost films Category:1920s New Zealand films Category:Australian black-and-white films Category:Australian silent feature films Category:Films directed by Beaumont Smith Category:Lost Australian silent films Category:Lost New Zealand films Category:New Zealand silent films