An Australian movie directed by a woman in 1930? About a jewel thief who falls in love with her wealthy boyfriend while wearing a pannier? HELL YES.
The Cheaters has a lot of other stuff to recommend it – not just the surprising fact that it was made by a trio of sisters, with director Paulette McDonagh in the lead. It’s a story of revenge, fashion and poetic justice, thin by modern standards, but interesting enough to hold the attention. Back then, apparently crime certainly did pay – mastermind Marsh (Arthur Greenaway) has an elevated wall safe in his home that is large enough for him to walk into. His daughter Paula (Marie Lorraine, real name Isabel McDonagh) undertakes crimes on his behalf, including a breathtakingly simple heist at the start, but her heart’s not really in the lifestyle. Marsh, however, is entirely motivated by revenge – he began his life of crime after being sacked by Travers (John Faulkner) over an honest mistake at work. “Twenty years of progress” later, Paula lies low at a fancy hotel – full of women in beautiful dresses and lashing of pearls – where she meets Travers’ adopted son Lee (Josef Bambach). The pannier, which widened her hips in a way you’d expect to see in the 1800s but under a spangly, flapper-style dress, is no impediment to them falling in love.
There are a few – not enough by modern standards – street scenes in Sydney to establish the location, including a shot of the bridge over the harbour, and a scene featuring Lee reading the paper on a rooftop with the skyline laid out behind him. There are also some surprising shots of characters driving cars, which don’t use back projection; instead it looks like a cameraman was somehow perched on the hood of a moving car. How did photographer Jack Fletcher achieve this with the cameras they would have used at the time? The camera is generally used cleverly, with no stagey nonsense that can plague movies from back then. The clothes are also something else, and McDonagh helpfully arranges the dinner sequence in the hotel as though it’s a catwalk.
For modern viewers, the pace is quite slow, but that gives us time to get used to the rhythms of the pacing, and to practice our lip-reading skills on the actors – the version being shown through Wednesday via the London Film Festival also has piano accompaniment by Cyrus Gabrysch playing on a small corner screen. The sets are designed with an eye to capture our attention – all dramatic antiques, that wall safe, draperies and colossal fireplaces (third sister Phyllis did the art supervision). There’s only a very little of the stereotypically overdone silent film acting, too. Unfortunately Lorraine is not quite up to the thoughtful emoting Paula should be doing as she realises she must decide between her father’s dodgy lifestyle and the chance for some honest happiness. Luckily the intertitles do the heavy lifting on that front, and we can simply enjoy coming along for the ride.
The end is as big a cheat as “The Importance of Being Earnest,” but by this point the air is so heavy with melodrama it would be churlish to mind. Its new restoration is being shown along with a trailer for the McDonagh’s first film, “Those Who Love,” which has both a beach picnic and a noticeable eye for fashion, too.