[KenRa Films Present: the Kenneth Rankine Home Movie Collection: Reel 14]

Kenneth Carruthers Rankine (1890 - 1968) was a keen amateur cinematographer and filmmaker. This collection of his home movies has been donated to ACMI by Kenneth’s granddaughter. The collection represents a wonderful slice of life in Australia; with contents including scenes of everyday life, major family occasions, holidays around Victoria and views of Melbourne.

In this film titled ‘By Road to Adelaide’, the Rankine family travel to Adelaide. The footage that Kenneth takes along the way is a wonderful insight into holiday life on the road in the forties. Mrs Rankine and Bettye Rankine actively take part in the film by posing with the car along the road, in the gardens, at an Adelaide cafe and at flooded roads on the return trip. This reel uses the credit ‘An A.C. Rankine Film’ (rather than KenRa presents) and sequence title cards.

Selected highlights list:

00:00:19:00 ‘By Road to Adelaide’ and “Between Heywood and Mr Gambier”.

00:00:40:00 Mrs Rankine and Bettye Rankine pose for Kenneth’s camera in and around the family car, on a wide country road and at a milestone marked 241 (miles) and M (Melbourne).

00:01:42:00 Bettye is sitting on the running board of their car; luggage trunk strapped to the rear of the vehicle (rather than a carboot).

00:02:16:00 sign for the ‘South Australia Border’.

00:02:25:00 ‘Mt Gambier and The Lakes’, gardens, Blue Lake, flowers, treetops, a quick shot of a town.

00:05:12:00 ‘Kingston to Meningie’ shows us another lake which could be the ‘Pink Salt Lake’ at Meningie because footage shows reeds and grasses and a view of Mrs Rankine and Bettye standing on what seems like a salt plain before looking cold and seeking refuge in the car.

00:06:43:00 ‘Tailem Bend and nearing Adelaide’ where we see more salty landscape and lake and the travellers taking off from a tiny township.

00:07:28:00 ‘Adelaide the City and Gardens’ after which we look along North Terrace, and at busy city street. Mrs Rankine and Bettye are dressed more formally whilst meeting with a companion whose hair is a great example of a popular forties hairstyle inspired by Hollywood - the ‘Betty Grable updo’. This woman holds a tray of what appears to be ceramic craft work for the camera.

00:08:42:00 Bettye and her mother in a cafe, being served by a waitress in a uniform.

00:09:14:00 river views followed by the Adelaide City Bridge and the River Torrens Foobridge; these scenes are filmed from a boat on the river.

00:13:54:00 Bettye Rankine holding a koala in front of a garden water fountain.

00:14:28:00 ‘Port Elliot and Victor Harbour’ appears followed by great examples of 1940’s canvas holiday tents pitched directly on a beach.

00:15:45:00 ‘Homeward Bound Through the Floods’ introduces the last scenes which is footage of flooded roads. These scenes show the difficulty of travelling distances on country roads in this era.