My Lady of the Cave

The film is certainly the best local effort to date. The story is wholesome throughout, and the scenery delightful, while the various parts are well sustained.

My Lady of the Cave, New Zealand, 1922

Director: Rudall Hayward
Production co: Bay of Plenty Films
Camera: Frank Stewart
Assistant camera: Arthur Bestick
Titles: Cyril Morton

Adapted from the serial by H.T. Gibson by Rudall Hayward
Miss West's costumes by George Courts Ltd, Auckland

With: Hazel West (Beryl Trite), Bob Ramsey (Gordon Campbell)

35mm, 18fps, B&W/Tinted, 71 minutes, Exempt

My Lady of the Cave was passed by the Censor for General Exhibition on 17 February 1922 and premiered in Auckland at the Grand Theatre on Queen St on 25 February.

Rudall Hayward’s first feature film, My Lady of the Cave, is a romantic drama set in the Bay of Plenty during the 1890s and is based on the newspaper serial of the same name published in weekly installments in The New Zealand Herald between September 1921 and February 1922. The film opens with the hero on board the outward bound timber scow The Empress, is lost overboard and is washed up on an island. Using real time and flashbacks the story unfolds. During one of Te Kooti’s raids on Poverty Bay a settler family by the name of Trite is wiped out after they unwittingly break a tapu. A girl child, Beryl, survives and is rescued by Rau, a ‘friendly’ Maori who is made mute during the attack. Rau raises her in isolation on an island where she grows into a beautiful young woman. Washed up on the island the hero soon discovers the ‘lady of the cave.’ He also stumbles upon a gang of moonshiners and only just manages to escape in a small boat supplied by Beryl. Unable to forget his lady of the cave, he returns to rescue her and to catch the moonshiners. Rau is shot during a shoot-out with the moonshiners, on his death-bed he hands over a small box which contains the information connecting Beryl to the Trite family. Beryl is reintroduced to settler society and the film ends happily with her marriage to the hero.

“New Zealanders should be proud of the New Zealand picture My Lady Of The Cave. It sets a standard in photography, technique, lighting, and production generally which places it on equal terms with the imported films. The whole thread of the fascinating love story has been transferred to the silver-sheet in interesting sequence, and appropriate action. The crowds of patrons who thronged to the Grand Theatre at all sessions yesterday to witness the first screenings of this really fine film found no need to exercise tolerance towards a local effort. On the contrary, they were very soon made aware that here was a picture that redounded to the credit of all concerned in its making. Of chief importance in any such venture, the photographic effects instantly commanded admiration. The beautiful land and seascapes of the Bay of Plenty, with occasional glimpses of glorious native bush, showed admirable taste in selection of locale and good judgement in the matter of lighting. The story is refreshingly wholesome, the scenic gems are a delight to view, and the New Zealand atmosphere is faithfully retained.” — New Zealand Herald, 22 February 1922

“The film is certainly the best local effort to date. The story is wholesome throughout, and the scenery delightful, while the various parts are well sustained.” — Bay of Plenty Times, 13/3/22

About My Lady of the Cave
My Lady of the Cave, Rudall Hayward’s first effort at feature film making, was shot in Tauranga and on Mayor Island over seven weeks from December 1921. The scenario was adapted from a newspaper serial written by Hayward family friend, H.T. Gibson, who was the schoolmaster in Waihi. The film screened throughout New Zealand and did well at the box office. Not only was it a local product, but the serial had had almost Dominion-wide circulation (it ran in The Auckland Weekly News, New Zealand Herald, Otago News and Christchurch Press). As Hayward remarked in an interview in 1962 – 'That newspaper coverage was so great in those days that if you made a film with that amount of coverage it would be equivalent to having the serial broadcast over the four leading stations, and it had a ready made audience, everybody read it.' After receiving permission from Gibson to make the film, Hayward went to Tauranga and formed a syndicate to finance the project (Gibson also became a shareholder). The syndicate numbered 20 partners, each of whom contributed equal shares to the £1,000 budget. The film was produced in seven weeks, six of which were spent on Mayor Island. Cameraman, Frank Stewart, used a 1912 35mm hand-cranked Pathe camera and the film was processed and edited in his lab in Wellington. The production was rather elaborate with a lot of tinting and toning and photographic effects such as dissolves, filters, and series of dissolves to indicate character development. Hayward explained that they used toning wherever possible and that 'Frank Stewart spent a lot of time on the tinting and toning because we were fascinated by the use of colour in those days… The photography was magnificent, but the story itself, with my inexperience, lack of dramatic experience, and although I had seen a lot of productions in Australia, it was fairly crude.' (Rudall Hayward, 1962) — Diane Pivac

Screenings: My Lady of the Cave screened on 21 March 2007 as part of the Adapted: NZ Literature into Film season.