Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows barmaid Caddie (Helen Morse) ending an affair with SP bookmaker Ted (Jack Thompson) because he already has a girlfriend. The Norrises, with whom Caddie is boarding, ask her to find other accommodation because her two young children are too much trouble. On the tram home from work, barmaid Josie (Jacki Weaver) tells Caddie about her miscarriage after an illegal abortion. Caddie tells Josie that she is looking for new work because she has broken up with Ted.

Educational value points

• Single women had many difficulties finding satisfactory work and accommodation as well as child care in the late 1920s, when there were few social welfare benefits available. The stoicism and camaraderie of the thoroughly working-class Josie, who deflects Caddie’s concerns about her health after an illegal abortion with ‘I’ve got to pay the rent, haven’t I?’, stresses this socioeconomic and female perspective.

• The scenes in this clip focus on the difficulties of life during this time for single women. Abortion was illegal, so those wishing to terminate a pregnancy not only had to seek an illegal abortion, with all the health risks that this entailed, but also needed to continue working. Caddie’s decision to leave her job is also a major one at a time when work was hard to find and there were no child endowment or social security payment schemes.

• In the early 20th century there was government censorship and a prohibition on broadcasting certain words such as contraception, in an effort to maintain guardianship over public morals. Even during the 1950s and 60s it was illegal to advertise condoms or to publish any information about birth control. In the tram scene Josie makes a face at an eavesdropper on her conversation with Caddie about her abortion, which she refers to as a ‘miscarriage’.

• Caddie is set at a time when there was widespread poverty, no reliable contraception and the Offences against the Person Act 1861 was the basis for Australian laws totally outlawing abortion. Women wishing to terminate a pregnancy needed to seek out potentially dangerous ‘backyard abortions’, which were generally performed in unsanitary conditions and often by people with little medical experience.

• Caddie exhibits two themes common to 1970s New Australian Cinema: period reconstruction and, as in some other films produced at about the same time such as Picnic at Hanging Rock and My Brilliant Career, presentations of female points of view. In Caddie, the slice-of-life realism has a genteel woman-centred literary quality but Caddie herself is a classic Australian underdog with initiative, an overwhelmed battler who is easy to sympathise with.

• The film from which this clip is taken was adapted from a memoir, Caddie: A Sydney Barmaid (1953), which contained a rich social history of Sydney in the 1920s. In the original print version the main character is working class, but in the film, primarily due to the choice of Helen Morse to play Caddie, the character was written as a middle-class woman who falls on hard times.

• Australian authors Dymphna Cusack (1902–81) and Florence James (1904–93), who co-authored Come in Spinner (1951), which also dealt with poverty, discrimination, abortion and death, encouraged their housekeeper to write Caddie: A Sydney Barmaid, a memoir about her experiences as a barmaid and sole parent of two in 1920s Sydney.

• Helen Morse (1948–) won both the AFI Award for Best Actress in a Lead Role and the San Sebastiàn Best Actress award in 1976 for her performance in Caddie. She had previously acted with Jacki Weaver (1947–), who also appears as Josie in Caddie, in Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), and with another star of Caddie, Jack Thompson (1940–), in Peterson (1974).

• The fine cinematography in Caddie won Peter James an Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) Cinematographer of the Year award in 1976, an award that he won again in 1991 and 1993. He entered the ACS Hall of Fame in 1979, was nominated for an Emmy award in 2004 and won three AFI Best Achievement in Cinematography awards, in 1985, 1986 and 1992.

This clip starts approximately 43 minutes into the feature.

Caddie is working behind the bar, drying glasses. Ted stands in front of the bar drinking a beer.
Ted Listen, Caddie. It’s true. I did knock around with her for a while but… er… she threw herself at me. What was a man to do?
Caddie looks at Ted with weary disgust but does not reply.
Ted Anyway, she’s not in the same class as you.
Caddie How do you know that? Seems to me she’s done a lot for you. You don’t know how lucky you are to have someone like her.
Ted Cut it out. Now you’re talking junk.
Caddie I don’t think so.
A man clears his throat and bangs on the bar to get Caddie’s attention.
Man ’Scuse me, miss. Brewery.
Caddie exits the bar, looking back at Ted.
Caddie Bye, Ted.
Ted frowns, drinks some of his beer and then smiles to himself.

Caddie enters her house and closes the door behind her, leaning against it and sighing. She looks exhausted.
Caddie’s son Here’s Mummy!
Caddie’s young son and daughter come running out to greet her. Her landlord and his wife also walk into the hallway.
Mr Norris Excuse me, Mrs Marsh. Could I have a word with you?
Caddie Yes, Mr Norris. What is it?
Mr Norris It’s the kiddies. Look, I’m sorry, Mrs Marsh, but do you think you can make some other arrangements?
Caddie What’s wrong?
Mr Norris Well, we’d like to help but, well, trouble upsets her.
Mr Norris gestures towards his wife
Caddie Trouble? What sort of trouble?
Mrs Norris Well, they got into the farmyard this afternoon and all the chooks got out.
Caddie Oh, no.
Caddie’s daughter Chookies.
Caddie Chookies, yeah. I’m sorry, I do realise – I know it’s too much to expect. I am going to make other arrangements. Come on, Terry.
Caddie carries the children out of the hallway. Mr and Mrs Norris also go into another room.

Caddie is on a tram with her friend Josie
Josie The doctor said it was a complete miscarriage.
Caddie What happened?
Josie Well, when it started I somehow got myself downstairs to ring that number the old woman gave me. I nearly fainted when I got back so I had a stiff brandy and went down and opened the door to the doctor for myself so nobody in the residential was any the wiser. I had to stuff the pillow in my mouth to stop myself from moaning so the landlady wouldn’t hear. I didn’t want the old bag to call the cops.
Josie makes a face at the woman sitting next to them who is eavesdropping on the conversation. The tram stops and other passengers board it.
Caddie You look a bit pale.
Josie Yeah? ‘Spose it’s cos I lost so much blood.
Caddie Shouldn’t you be in bed?
Josie I’ve got to pay the rent, haven’t I?
Caddie Yeah. I’ve decided to get another job.
Josie Why?
Caddie Ted mainly. Be a bit embarrassing to stay there.
Josie What happened?
Caddie Oh, it’s all off. He had another girlfriend and she kicked up a fuss.
Josie Oh, life’s a bugger.
Josie and Caddie laugh.