Cross of Gold (27 Oct 1965)

 An Australian version of Balzac. 75 mins.

I mean, sure, fine, but why not an Australian novel?

Premise

Eugenie Grandet, daughter of a miserly financier, lends her cousin Charles 8,000 francs in gold which her father has given her as gifts over the years. Charles is to return to marry her but when he does he is a social climbing snob who has married another woman. Eugenie has the gold turned into a cross made of gold.

Cast

• Raymond Westwell as Pete Grandet
• Christine Calcutt as Mme Grandet
  
• Allen Bickford as Charles Grandet
• Fay Kelton as Eugenie Grandet
  
• Penelope Shelton as Nanon
  
• Kevin Colebrook as Cruchot
• Dennis Clinton as Judge Cruchot
  
• Kenric Hudson as Des Grassins
• Margaret Reid as Mme Des Grassins
• Peter Foot as Adolphe
• John Gordfrey, Ray Angel, Bill Bennett, Lyn Wright, Joseph James
  

Original novel

It was based on the novel Eugenie Grandet . 

Here is a copy of the novel. A piece on the origins of the novel is here.

Other adaptations

The novel was adapted for ABC radio in March 1959 as The Miser's Daughter. It was adapted by Catherine Shepherd. Details of it are here. Shepherd also wrote a 1950 radio documentary on Balzac.

Cross of Gold played on ABC radio in July 1965, also written by Lane.

The novel wold be filmed for BBC2 in late 1965-66. 

It was filmed for US TV in 1956. 

There was a 1923 Hollywood film starring Rudolph Valentino and Alice Terry, and a 1947 Italian feature film.

Production

Richard Lane did the adaptation. 

In the original Eugenie spent her fortune on charity. In this version she became a miser.

It was produced in ABC's Melbourne studios. It aired in a 75-minute time-slot. It was directed by Patrick Barton.

The ABC were meant to film The Opal Witch that they bought in 1962 but it was apparently too logistically tricky to do. So they did this instead.

Writer - Richard Lane, from the novel Eugene Grandet by Honore de Balzac. Script assistant - Marion Pearce. Designer - Alan Clarke. Technical producer - Bob Forster. Design research - Peter Cook. Director - Patrick Barton.

Reception

The Age called it "a complete success - a uniform, high quality cast, a first class play and imaginative, competent directing."

 

The Age 30 Oct 1965 p 23

SMH 29 Oct 1965 p 11

The Age TV Guide 21 Oct 1965 p 1

SMH TV Guide 25 Oct 1965

The Age TV Guide 21 Oct 1965

Canberra Times 25 Oct 1965 p 17

The Age 27 Oct 1965 p 14

SMH 27 Oct 1965 p 20

TV Times10 Nov 1965

 

Forgotten Australian television plays: Cross of Gold and Goodbye Gloria Hello
by Stephen Vagg
February 19, 2022
Stephen Vagg’s series on forgotten Australian television plays looks at two efforts directed by Pat Barton at the ABC, Cross of Gold (1965) and Goodbye Gloria Hello (1967).
Cross of Gold

I’ve got no idea why the ABC decided to film a Balzac novel for television in 1965. Honore de Balzac, for those unfamiliar with him, was one of those 19th century bohemian French writers whose lifestyle sounds sexy to arts students: mistresses, debts, salons, fifteen hour writing sessions using a quill fuelled by black coffee, parties, feuds, prodigious output, early death. One of his works was called Eugenie Grande, an 1833 novel which formed the basis of Cross of Gold. I’m not going to pretend I’ve read any Balzac, but if you’re keen to give Eugenie Grande a crack, a link is here.

The novel was adapted for the small screen by Richard Lane, an Australian writer with many TV credits but probably best remembered for his work in radio drama: indeed, he also wrote a radio version of Cross of Gold for the ABC the same year the TV play aired. Not only that, the ABC had already broadcast an earlier radio version of Eugenie Grandet in 1959, as The Miser’s Daughter, adapted by Catherine Shepherd. Clearly, there was no such thing as too much Blazac at the ABC.

Cross of Gold stars Fay Kelton as the daughter of a miser (Raymond Westwell). She gets the hots for a young spunk (Allen Bickford) and loans him money, annoying dad, leading to a broken heart.

This was… fine. I mean, there’s decent acting from Kelton, nice costumes and sets and competent direction from Patrick Barton. It clocks in at 75 minutes and is the sort of story you can imagine having been turned into a perfectly decent Bette Davis vehicle at Warner Bros in the 1940s. But why was it made for Australian television? The ABC should have filmed an Australian novel, or at least have Lane adapt the storyline to be set in Australia. If the ABC had a craving to expose local audiences to Balzac, they could’ve shown the BBC TV version of Eugenie Grande made that year.