Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

The Woman Suffers (1918)

play Please note: this clip is silent
clip ‘And so it came to pass’

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

Ralph Manton (Roland Conway) has taken shelter at Kooringa Station after the road to Melbourne has been blocked by flood. Ralph takes a shine to Joan Stockdale (Evelyn Black), only daughter of the owners of Kooringa, and she to him. Joan takes a photograph of him and surprises Ralph with a locket, containing both their pictures. Ralph professes love to the young woman and they kiss by the river.

Curator’s notes

Silent films were often tinted with different colours to signify different locations or times, or emotions. The NFSA reconstruction by Marilyn Dooley has attempted to re-create some of these colours throughout.

In this clip, the interiors are a pale golden colour, which becomes blue by the riverbank. Longford makes good use of locations – we see the river twice in the clip, both times with Joan on the banks, a foreshadowing perhaps of her own fate a few scenes later, when she throws herself in the water to commit suicide, after Ralph has abandoned her.