NFSA Restores Collection: 'The Cheaters'

The McDonagh sisters' names may echo down the decades of Australian film history, but it is high time to have a restored version of The Cheaters, one of their best-known titles, brought to notice again. This is what Ina Bertrand's thoroughly researched essay in this series achieves. Uniquely in the series, Bertrand investigates the sisters' careers in the first half of the article, placing these evocatively in the social and cinematic context in which they worked. Straddling the last days of silent film and the introduction of 'talkies' cannot have been easy, but the McDonaghs pulled it off, and Bertrand's account will bring The Cheaters to new generations of film students – and buffs.

Additional keywords:
Isabel McDonagh, Phyllis McDonagh, Paulette McDonagh, Those Who Love, The Far Paradise, The Jazz Singer, The Sentimental Bloke, Two Minutes Silence