No walk into paradise: the Australian film industry in the 1950s

Despite suggestions of a bright future from the industry's leading film producers in 1938, Australian feature film production all but collapsed in the twenty years following the outbreak of World War II, and in August 1960 a Senate discussion into the perilous state of affairs in the industry noted that no film had been made in the country for the previous two years. Yet whilst most other filmmakers had left the field during this era, documentary film director Lee Robinson and veteran actor Chips Rafferty formed a successful partnership and, for a brief period between 1952 and 1958 established a vibrant modernism in Australian cinema, completing five films - mainly low budget adventure stories set in exotic locations and aimed at international markets. Using Michael Porter's framework for understanding how competitive forces shape long-term profitability in an industry, this research examines the artistic and business strategies of the filmmaking pair - who became the leading film producers in the country at the time - and uncovers the economic and market forces in operation in the industry, predominantly driven by the global reach of the major Hollywood studios, which controlled distribution and exhibition in Australia to the exclusion of local producers. Examining business and financial dealings, reviewing media reports, biographies and interviews with key players, and through close examination of their body of film work - including the Papua New Guinea adventure film Walk Into Paradise (1958) - the research traces how Robinson and Rafferty, through various production companies and partnerships, created their early success and then succumbed to the overwhelming market forces operating against them