Australian TV Plays: GMH - Manhaul (8 Sept 1962)

Murder in the Antarctic. An original Australian play.

Plot

At an Australian outpost in Douglas Bay in the Australian Antarctic Territory, there are seven men, who have served there for 12 months. They are meant to be relieved but then their departure is delayed.

Frieberg is a Jewish man which a power over Norwegian, Sven Nordstrom, which results in Nordstrom doing Frieberg's work. Other men include the Australian Dinny, the camp doctor Dr. Lewis Hilton, a meteorologist called Sietel and the expedition leader, Charles Forrester.

Frieberg is found dead in the snow with a bullet in his back The expedition cannot be relieved for another six months.

The expedition members decide to manhaul over the ice rather than stay in camp. Forrster goes berserk. Takes the only rifle and seal gun, locked himself in a separate hut, and drives the only tractor into the bay.

Eventually Sven reveals he shot Frieberg. Says Frieberg's power over him became about because Sven's father commanded a concentration camp, leading to blackmail and murder.Sven goes out into the snow a la Oates in the Scott expedition.

Forrester finds this out. He cracks it said only pretended to be mad to stop everyone from leaving.

Then they have a contemplative moment about the nature of one's self.

Cast

Wynn Roberts as Charles Forrester
Fred Parslow as Dr Lewis
George Fairfax as Sietel
Gordon Glenwright as an Australian, Dinny McQuade
Kurt Ludescher as Sven Nordstrom.
Dennis Miller as Hilton
Bruce Barry as Frieberg

Production

The play was written by former Australian war correspondent Osmar White, who had accompanied the 1955-58 expedition to the South Pole. He later wrote for Crawfords see his obit here.

The cast was all-male and consisted of six Melbourne actors and one Sydney actor (Gordon Glenwright). Most of the play takes place in three snow huts built in the Melbourne studio from the authentic patterns of those constructed in the Antarctic.

It included footage shot in the Antarctic.

It was produced and directed jointly by the team of Rod Kinnear and John Sumner who had previously collaborated on the adaptation of The One Day of the Year.

It wasn't listed in a GMH program from May 1962 - The Shifting Heart was. Maybe this replaced that?

It was shot at GTV-9 studios in Melbourne. Shooting took two Saturdays.

Thoughts on script

I thought it was excellent. Tense. Interesting. Scary. Great stakes - cut off, someone is killed, who dunnit. Good twist with Forrester going fake mad. Had a philosophical point.

ABC notes on script were three (a) unease about the Jewish aspect - which would've taken fangs out of the piece but not wrecked it, (b) making it a private expedition not government, which wouldn't have affected it, and (c) that Forrester was weak - which is absurd and dumb.

Broadcast

It aired 8 September 1962 as part of The General Motors Hour, an occasional series which presented various one-off productions. It aired on ATN-7 in Sydney, QTQ-9 in Brisbane and GTV-9 in Melbourne , despite the two stations having severed their relationship with the formation of the Nine Network.

Reception

The TV critic for the Sydney Morning Herald said "a well-built set and two or three good performances... did much to enliven" the production and that it was "a good idea" but "unfortunately, Mr White seems to have been in some doubt whether to make his play a simple whodunit or a study of the kind of men who for reasons not purely scientific, might seek refuge from life in a world of isolation. The compromise required in attempting both was damaging to the play... If local TV drama is to be taken seriously, it will need better productions than this one... and better plays"

The play was criticised by the Anglican church for the language used by the characters.

The Bulletin called it "impossible.... though well produced, mounted and photographed on tape, the whole affair was preposterous and only productions which set out to be just that, to provoke laughter, can stay the viewers’ itchy tuning finger whe unlikely things begin to happen on the screen. Perhaps the oddest aspect of all was the credit given to the Commonwealth Antarctic Division for its co-operation, exact nature unstated, in the production. “Manhaul” was neatly calculated to give us the impression that some part of our taxes are used to maintain groups of men in bickering idleness down in the Antarctic. The characters in view were nearly all “here for the money” but did nothing visible to earn it, seemed willing to talk forever about their personal problens but almost never about their official business below 40 decrees S., and maintained occasional outside contact with a Morse outfit."

TV Times called it "a memorable contribution to Australian drama."