The Stowaway (1958)

Interesting facts

The Stowaway is a 1958 Australian-French adventure film directed by Australian director Lee Robinson and French Lebanese director Ralph Habib. It was shot on location in Tahiti and is one of the few Australian financed movies of the 1950s, although the storyline has nothing to do with Australia.

Production

The film was shot towards the end of 1957 in Tahiti and the Society Islands. Scenes were shot on a studio on the island, as well as on the ship 'Caledonin'.

Robinson says half the crew was Australian and the other half was French. Filming was completed by November. Martine Carol spent four months on Tahiti and was back in Paris by January 1958.

Dialogue scenes were filmed twice, in English (by Robinson) and French (by Habib). Robinson claimed he didn't like Habib's style of direction.

He was a mad home movies crank and would stand by the camera or even ten feet away from it and be shooting the scene that was his first take. I used to wonder how the hell does he know what is going on there. Often he was on an entirely different angle to the camera. He often seemed more concerned about getting a good scene on his little 16 mm camera.

Noted Sydney theatre actor Doris Fitton had a supporting role. She filmed on Tahiti for three weeks being back in Sydney by late October 1957.

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