That’s Cricket starring Don Bradman 1931 Full-Colour A2 (420 x 594mm) Movie Poster

DescriptionThe That’s Cricket featurette was directed by Ken G Hall for Australasian Films and made with the cooperation of seven successful Australian XI cricket team members, including Sir Donald Bradman, who toured England in 1930. It promotes cricket and its importance to the British Empire and Australian identity. The film includes footage from a 1905 British Pathe Gazette newsreel and a 1921 cricket tour and highlights the sporting skill of some of the 1930s test players. Don Bradman and team captain Bill Woodfull address the audience throughout the film. Under the guidance of Australasian Films’ managing director, Stuart Doyle, Ken G Hall directed this featurette for Union Theatres about the game that, according to the closing narration, ‘helps unite the Empire’. Cricket’s popularity was buoyed by the recent success of Don Bradman, one of the game’s all-time greats, and the young Hall wanted to record as many of the current cricketing champions as possible on sound film. Hall had been on staff since he was 17 – starting in the publicity department – but this was his first major work as director for the company. He scripted the film’s narration and Bradman’s and Woodfull’s pieces to camera. Riding on the popularity of cricket with the populace and the relatively new medium of sound film, That’s Cricket was a success with audiences at Sydney’s Prince Edward Theatre and around Australia. 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’. Size: 420mm x 597mm (16.5″ x 21″) Stock: 180gsm matt art (archive quality) Full-colour reproduction Ready for framing Delivered in an Australia Post mailing tube