Australian
Screen

Clip description

Don Bradman demonstrates his batting technique, executing a 'pull shot’, an 'off drive’ and a 'leg glance’. He is filmed from a number of different angles both in front of and behind the wicket, in slow motion and at standard speed. Bradman speaks about the importance of teamwork in his success, the uncertainty and interesting aspects of cricket and his love of the game. The clip concludes with footage of a child playing on the grass with a miniature cricket set as the narrator says that cricket is 'in the blood of Britishers’ and its bond of sporting friendship 'helps unite an Empire’.

Curator’s notes

Don Bradman’s natural ability, combined with his cricketing technique, made him the most popular cricketer of the time. For those who couldn’t watch him playing at the ground, newsreels and featurettes like this would have been the only way fans could see him. What is significant in this clip is that the camera films Bradman in a tight shot from a number of different angles, both in slow motion and standard speed – unusual for the time. The 'unusual angle’, in which the camera films Bradman from a position behind the stumps, would not have been used in coverage of test matches at the time. The slow-motion camera accentuates Bradman’s movements to highlight his skill and agility with the bat.

Probably the best line in this featurette comes when Woodfull introduces Bradman to the audience as 'the possessor of more records than a gramophone company’. As referred to in this clip, Bradman scored a world record highest individual tally by a test player – a massive 334 runs – at Headingley during the 1930s Ashes tour to England. But in his address to camera, Bradman humbly emphasises the importance of teamwork to achieving individual success. The dialogue was scripted by Hall, but the players and the Australian Cricketers’ Association had a certain amount of input. At the end of the clip, the emphasis on cooperation is extended to include the unity of cricket-playing countries in the British Empire.