A Romance of the Burke and Wills Expedition of 1860

A Romance of the Burke and Wills Expedition of 1860 is a 1918 Australian silent film. The plot is fictional and is loosely based around the Burke and Wills expedition.

Plot
Robert O'Hara Burke leads an expedition from Melbourne to the north of Australia, including William John Wills, John King, Gray, Dandells and Brahe. Although he reaches the Gulf of Carpentaria along with Wills and King when they return to their base at Cooper Creek they discover their comrades have left without them. Burke and Wills both die but King is rescued by aborigines and survives. A fictitious romance was added to the story.

Chapter headings included:
 * a love romance
 * a minuet of 1857
 * expedition leaves Melbourne
 * scenes along the route
 * customs and habits of natives
 * gorgeous desert sunsets
 * historic landmarks
 * there is no death.

According to the Argus "Believing that - something was needed to lighten the tragedy of the story, the producers have introduced a certain number of fictional scenes relating to the days of preparation, and have thus brought in a love interest. There are other Melbourne scenes for which there is more Authority, and the old costumes give an air of quaintness. in the bush the tragic situations of the familiar record are portrayed, and native customs are illustrated.

Cast

 * Charles Clarke as Robert O'Hara Burke
 * George Patterson as William John Wills
 * Chris Olsen as John King
 * G. Gould as W. Grey
 * Bias Kotes as William Brahe
 * David Edelsten as Mayor of Melbourne
 * Vera Chamberlain as Mina Doyle
 * Ona Landers as Stella McDonald
 * Madame Carbasse as Mrs Doyle
 * Melville Stevenson as Dost Mahommed
 * Astor Lewis as Bridget
 * Yvonne Blight as maid
 * Dorothy Beer and Evelyn Hooper as Mina's sisters
 * Clayre St Start and Ida Hooper

Production
The film was also known as Flirting with Death.

The film was mostly completed by November 1917 and originally ran for three reels. Director Charles Coates then spent another month in central Australia shooting additional footage. Filming took over 12 months all up and involved more than 300 people. Reportedly shooting some scenes involved a risk to the cinematographer's life.

The cast included Madam Carbasse, the French mother of Louise Lovely.

Reportedly the film was based on a script by Edmund Duggan using material at the Mitchell Library. The National Film and Sound Archive recently obtained a copy of this script.

Release
The movie was previewed to the trade in May 1918 and submitted for censorship in June 1918.

It was released in September 1918 and screeed at J Tait's cinema in Melbourne.

The movie was still being screened in cinemas in Perth in the middle of 1921. In October 1923 the film was occasionally being screened in England.

Critical
The Advertiser called it "a highly acceptable film version of the expedition... The nature of the story precludes any highly artistic display of acting talent, and. added realism was given to the picture by the natural manner in which the respective roles were filled."

According to the Sydney Sun: "Even without the aid of romantic trimmings this story of an ill-fated expedition offers abundant material for a picture of great historic and dramatic significance. Such a picture has yet to be produced. The version presented... merely touches surface possibilities. It sketches lightly for juvenile minds the salient features of tho expedition, but Barely does justice to the memory of the Intrepid explorers. The hero of tho first three reels is the 'Lord' (sic) Mayor of Melbourne. At all events ho keeps tlio centre of tho stage and gets all tlie limelight, Burke and his companions appearing only as incidentals. Even on tho Journey Burke does not come into his own." The Perth Call said "The acting was hopeless, the thing was strung out with yards of foolish title, the story was padded with minuet dances, and incidents that had no bearing on the theme, and the actually "bush" scenes looked as if they had been enacted with the utmost hardship in the fastnesses of Footscray.. it is a plain travesty on the name of decent filmdom."

Arthur Tinsdale had legal troubles with Francis Birtles about stolen films including On the Track of Burke and Wills.