THE RIDDLE OF THE STINSON

Australia, 1987, 100 minutes, Colour.
Jack Thompson, Helen O'Connor, Norman Kaye, Richard Roxburgh, Mark Lee, Susan Lyons, Esben Storm.
Directed by Chris Noonan.

The Riddle of the Stinson is based on a true story which took place in 1937. A Stinson plane from the Airlines of Australia was caught in a storm and crashed in the Green Mountains. Alleged sightings on the northern New South Wales coast meant that the official search centred on the coast and the sea in central New South Wales. Bernard O'Reilly, proprietor of a guest house at Tamborine, had a sense that the plane had crashed in the mountains. He set out, saw a burnt patch amongst the trees and decided that it was either lightning or the plane. He discovered two survivors, led a party back into the bush to bring them out. Bernard O'Reilly wrote the celebrated books 'Green Mountains' and 'Cullenbenbong'.

This telemovie was produced by the Kennedy-Miller? company for the bicentenary year. It was written by Tony Morphett and directed by Chris Noonan. It has a strong cast led by Jack Thompson as Bernard O'Reilly. Norman Kaye has a good role as one of the survivors, Binstead. There are interesting supporting performances from Esben Storm as Harry Meissner, the Courier Mail journalist, and Susan Lyons as the celebrated New Zealand aviator, Jean Batten. Dennis Miller and Mark Lee have brief but telling roles as the pilots.

The material is interesting in itself, the locations are beautiful. However, the drama lacks the momentum that it might have - and so is interesting rather than interesting and dramatically exciting.

1. The impact of this telemovie? A part of Queensland history? The evocation of the past, the history of aviation? Bernard O'Reilly and his bush heroism?

2. The use of forest locations, the atmosphere of Tamborine Mountains in 1937? The beauty and the ruggedness of the Australian bush? Flora and fauna? The musical score and its country and western style, plaintive evocations? Contemporary songs?

3. The title and the focus on the planes, the crash, the puzzle about the crash, the search, Bernard O'Reilly and his discovering the survivors and solving the riddle of the Stinson?

4. The focus on Australian aviation in the '30s: the Stinson planes, number of passengers, the number of flights, amenities, technology? Reliability? the aerodromes? The ordinary running of the air service? The initial flight introducing us to characters and styles of flight? The pilots and their skills, their attitudes, their facing. difficulties? The decision for changing routes? Lack of radio control? The crash in inaccessible territory? The mounting of the search? Sightings and information given from people? The Queenslanders believing the official information and not giving information of what they saw? The changes in aviation since the '30s?

5. The focus on Bernard O'Reilly in the Green Mountains, a bushman, a dreamer? The guest house and the guests and the entertainment? Viola and her running of the guest house, the work, the helping of the guests? The relations and their helping? The daughter and her relationship with her father? Details of life at the guest house, the dance? The radio announcement about the crash? O'Reilly and his hunches, his enquiring of his associates and friends, the building up of the information, his decision to go out, his bush skills, the discovery of the burnt trees, the discovery of the survivors, his ingenuity, getting the group to go in, organising the group? His relationship with his wife, tensions? Their love for each other? The final newsreel praise of O'Reilly and his leaving the cinema? His modesty? His plea that that was what any decent and ordinary Australian would do?

6. The pilots and their skills, as personalities, the arrangement with Jean Batten, the birthday celebration on the plane, the decisions and the crash? Their not surviving?

7. The range of passengers, their backgrounds, interaction with each other? The humour of the Dale Carnegie techniques and their wearing thin? On the plane, the turbulence, the drink, apprehensiveness?

8. The transition to the crash? The film captioning each day and announcing it with date? The final times?

9. Binstead and his background, two names, money? Proud and his being late for the plane? The Englishman and his being scared? Their surviving? Proud's leg and the leeches, the irony that they saved him from gangrene? The Englishman and his pretending to see the house to save Proud, his going to search, his lack of bushcraft, his falling down the waterfall, O'Reilly's discovery of his death? The Englishman and his injury, lying in the bush, being found, Binstead willing him to live, his tears that O'Reilly would not return? The operation? Binstead and his seriousness, his ingenuity in the bush, testing out the berries, the coo-ee for the birds? His supporting Proud? His cheerfulness in the rescue? The final talking to Proud about the money? Surviving?

10. Harry Meissner and his interest, photographs, lack of bushcraft, going in, his reporting to Australians?

11. The place of The Riddle of the Stinson in Australian stories? Bernard O'Reilly and the Green Mountains? Commemorated fifty years later?