How sad is this?

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Copyright 1956 by Charles Chauvel Productions. U.S. release through Distributors Corporation of America: 12 June 1956. New York opening at the 46th Street Embassy: 27 February 1957. U.K. release through Independent/British Lion: 13 August 1956. Australian release through Columbia: 5 May 1955. Sydney opening at the Lyceum: 5 May 1955. 9,046 feet. 100 minutes. Cut to 88 minutes in the U.S.A, 73 minutes in the U.K. U.S. release title: Jedda the Uncivilized. NOTES: Charles Chauvel's final feature. After completing Jedda, he shot 13 eps for the television series Australian Walkabout. He died in 1959. "Jedda" was Number 24 at Australian ticket windows for 1955.COMMENT: Surprising to notice Jedda had a "General Exhibition" certificate on original release. It certainly wouldn't get such an all clear today. Obviously filmed without the co-operation of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the film graphically shows animals being shot and killed. Not as emotionally disturbing, but still irritating are crude technical elements such as obvious post-synching (including a ridiculously phony voice for the narrator) and a disappointingly Mickey Mouse music score from Australia's famed Isador Goodman. Director Charles Chauvel manages to get some breathtaking scenery in front of the camera, but his skills with the players are much less impressive. Tudawali comes across best. Betty Suttor and George Simpson-Lyttle are especially bad, leaving the viewer to wonder how such abominably hammy performances could have survived a screening of the initial rushes in the cutting-room. The story is so drawn out that the chase is uninvolving. It's the location photography that really impresses, the great red canyons of the Northern Territory that Kayser has so finely captured in a color system that obviously favors reds by day and purples by night. Eric Porter is credited for "additional photography", though actually his contribution is mainly limited to the animation of the jedda birds before "The End" title - and very obvious animation it is too!

I thought so. Some of the film's footage shot in the high mountains towards the conclusion of the movie is very familiar to me as The Blue Mountains of N.S.W. Australia. The mountains of the Northern Territory are so very different and they haven't as much darkness in their color. I thought that was obvious. However without being a spoiler, I think what the poster who said it was shot entirely on location meant was that it was shot entirely on location here in Australia. Which is something to be proud of given the other comments made about how rare film was in Australia during the time of its release in 1955. For a film in and about Australia and her people to be shot in Gevacolour(not Technicolor)is a wonderful compliment.

JEDDA was a major cinema release in 1956 in Australia and has long been regarded as a cinema classic in this country. For international audiences now that RABBIT PROOF FENCE has found success in most countries, it is well worth seeing JEDDA as a 1956 counterpart. Filmed in Gevacolour (not Technicolor) it was the first film made in any color here. Heralded at the time for its daring depiction of the real and confronting tribal practices of ancient aboriginal Australia JEDDA still is able today to enthrall a (slightly forgiving) audience and still make you appalled at the very racist White Australia policy in force from the Government of the day. Sadly some of the acting is dated, especially in the beginning, but once Jedda is a woman and the tribal lure starts, it really becomes fascinating. The use of color in the outback expanses and the extraordinary presence of the two genuine black Aboriginal main actors allows JEDDA to become a major statement about the well-meant but misguided practices of Government policies and how they are (still) totally unsuited to such a spiritual people. The sequence where Marbuck 'sings' to Jedda, seducing her in a hypnotic sexual trap is quite startling and un nerving. The climax of the film rivals NORTH BY NORTHWEST for spectacular mountaintop drama. JEDDA would be available from SCREENSOUND Australia the Canberra Archive and interested persons could buy it on-line. It is exceptionally interesting. A near counterpart from the USA is the 1947 Indian/Chinese drama BLACK GOLD, made by Allied Artists and Directed by noir expert Phil Karlson.

After reading a previous comment on the film while researching information for an essay, I was edging to make a correction. Here it is:Because Jedda was the first colour film to be produced in Australia, the printing technology had not actually yet reached our shores, so all the colour film reels had to be sent to England to be developed. While to reels reached England quite safely they were unfortunately damaged on their return and almost all the footage was lost. Charles Chauvel lacked the extra budget to go back out onto location, and found it much cheaper to bring all the cast to him. Thus most of the film had to be reshot in the Blue Mountains, between Sydney and Canbera, instead of on the original location.