This community film production was created in Lismore, NSW., adding to the celebrations surrounding the opening of the Memorial Baths and the Municipal Council Chambers (March 1928). The film contains numerous shots of local settings. The director was William Reed (husband of the Hollywood starlet Eva Novak no less). The presentation is credited to T.J. Dorgan, proprietor of the Star Court theatre, and most of its actors are Northern Rivers locals. One month after filming the finished product was shown in the Star Court. Most likely this is the earliest film of Lismore. NFSA holds only the first 27 mins.

This clip shows the Freemasons Hotel (later the Canberra, then Tommy's Tavern). It then cuts to two pan shots of an audience inside the Star Court theatre.

Plot synopsis: The plot of this incomplete short fiction revolves around the adventures of a young man who, with his mother, migrates from England after his father's chemical company is no longer viable. He travels with his mother to Lismore, where his chemical background enables him to solve the problem of stunted bananas, which are afflicted with a condition termed `bunchy top'. He becomes the manager of the Lismore butter factory, courts the daughter of his mother's cousin, and works against the evil machinations of the local baddy, Gillette Jim, who is described as `a dirty blade who inherited his father's interest in Ned Kelly and company'.

NFSA title no. 51453

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