Forgotten Silver Page #3

is the only motion picture film shot by a

New Zealander at Gallipoli.

Brooke's camera focuses not on

battles or explosions,

but on the human face of the warfare.

On his comrades of the Otago Mounted Rifles

and their daily lives during the early

weeks of this tragic campaign.

On June 11, 1915,

Brooke McKenzie was hit by sniper

fire at Quinn's Post.

He was carried by donkey down

to the beach dressing station.

Where he died, that night, of his wounds.

Maybelle was hit hard by the news.

She gave herself up to grief.

It was Colin's blackest moment.

He fell into a severe depression,

unable to work or sleep.

He'd lost his brother.

He'd lost his partner and so many

things they'd done together.

It was a terrible time for Colin.

Later that year, Colin

McKenzie disappeared.

He was last seen high on the Lewis Pass,

walking alone towards

the rugged west coast.

At the 11th hour on the 11th

day of the 11th month, 1918,

the Great War ended.

After an absence of 3 years, Colin

McKenzie returned from the West Coast,

and made an astonishing announcement.

He would resume production of Salome,

only this time he would work on

a massive scale.

The film would become a four-hour epic

with a cast of thousands.

A spectacular monument to his late

brother's memory.

With evangelical fervor, Colin McKenzie

gathered together a small army of extras

and headed back into the hills.

Between the years 1915 and 1918, he basically

vanished off the face of the Earth.

There's one clue, however. In his

collection of films

there's a tiny snippet that is dated 1917

and it shows a construction

of some sort going up in the hills.

And what we now believe happened

was that he retreated

into the most remote part of the country

and he built a huge city.

This was the biggest man-made structure

ever to be built in this country.

After days traveling through tough

and inhospitable terrain,

Colin McKenzie's extras were confronted

with an incredible sight.

Nestled in a hidden valley,

covering an area the size of 7 football

fields, was a vast Biblical city.

A fanciful recreation of ancient Jerusalem.

With its richly-detailed market squares,

grand staircases, and temples towering

hundreds of feet into the air,

This was to be the setting of the greatest

motion picture ever shot in New Zealand.

Early in 1994, a decision was made to

mount a search

for the location of Colin

McKenzie's lost city.

Yeah, that could mean that it's in an area

where the vegetation kinda grows quickly.

Because, you know, what better way to hide

a place like this

than for the jungle and for the bush

to grow back over it.

Yeah, it's likely to be in

quite a sort of narrow valley.

An isolated valley, three days' tramp from

Hokitika

was chosen as the most promising area

for the search.

The team headed into the

primordial west coast bush.

Deep into the last great unexplored

region of forest in New Zealand.

On February 22, 1919

filming commenced on the new

version of Salome.

Colin was ready for the

great task that lay ahead.

In his mind's eye, he saw his film as it

would be, imagining every detail

with a clarity of vision he had

never experienced before.

Maybelle resumed her role of Salome.

Channeling her grief into a creative energy

that delivered the performance of a lifetime.

But after 5 days of frenzied shooting,

the production stalled.

Colin McKenzie had run out of money.

The disappointed extras returned home.

Colin promised that filming would resume

as soon as he had secured

a source of finance.

In the event, the money he needed

would come from an unusual alliance.

I first heard of Colin McKenzie at

The Film Unit when I worked there.

And there was an old chap there, called

Stan Wilson, who worked in the laboratory.

And it was always rumored that Stan had

been a little bit damaged

by chemicals that were no longer used

in the laboratory.

He was the last of the damaged

technicians, poor old Stan,

but he was a lovely old bloke, and good to

have a yarn with over afternoon tea

and he'd talk about the early days of

cinema in New Zealand.

He would often mention a fellow called

Colin McKenzie,

who none of us knew anything about.

Stan Wilson came from

a rich family of shopkeepers.

He was a stage clown who dreamed

of fame in silent pictures.

In 1921, he approached Colin and asked

him to film one of his vaudeville routines

and he was willing to pay for it.

The storyline took an unexpected turn

when a passing schoolgirl

stepped in front of the camera.

In my innocent kid's way, I went over.

Probably told him I didn't think

it was very funny.

And he didn't like that one little bit and

suddenly he lashed out.

Smacked me right across the face.

I gave him a darn good kick on the shins,

I remember that.

The I burst into tears and cried

all the way home.

Nobody said anything at the time, but when

they showed it to an audience the next day,

The audience only laughed

when he hit the child.

And Stan insisted they keep this violence

against the innocent in everything they did

forever and a day.

Well, "Stan the Man" was a pathetically

unfunny screen comedian.

But he has a sort of a niche, a footnote

in film history, for one thing

which he did in collaboration

with Colin McKenzie,

which was kind-of a Candid Camera approach

to silent comedy.

He would pull these pranks,

which were not usually very funny,

but they were completely spontaneous

and he would surprise innocent people,

usually to their dismay

and Colin would be filming it with another

of his inventions: A suitcase camera.

So that it was actually unrehearsed and

spontaneous.

Now, of course, it didn't take Colin much

time away from Salome to do these because

they would all be done in one take.

They would go around the country

and make a different film in

different towns, you know.

They'd go to Taihape and make

"Stan the Man in Taihape" or.

"Stan the Man in Palmy North."

And show it, a week later, after Colin had

done all the editing and so-on

in the town hall and collect bags of cash.

Regularly, Colin would take the money he

earned from the "Stan the Man" comedies

and go up into the mountains and continue his

first love, of course, which was Salome.

Armed with 1700 pounds, the profits from

the first "Stan the Man" comedies,

Colin returned to his Biblical city with

the cast of Salome.

Unfortunately, before the cameras

could roll, the heavens opened,

marking the beginning of a

seemingly endless deluge.

The west coast recorded its highest

rainfall figures in 30 years.

In six weeks,

Colin shot only 3 minutes of film.

There was only one bright

spot in the gloom.

Maybelle's affection for Colin was growing.

His finances exhausted,

Colin reluctantly resumed his

partnership with "Stan the Man".

The following summer, Colin returned

to the mountains, and Salome.

It was the hottest summer in 30 years.

Dozens of extras were felled by heatstroke.

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