A STUDY GUIDE by MArguerite o’hArA

http://www.metromagazine.com.au

ISBN: 978-1-74295-240-6 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au

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I suspect this is more complex than it first appears. One must ask the question … what drives a seemingly respectable man to murder?

– Detective Kilsip

Introduction

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is a murder mystery set in Melbourne in 1886. As the details of the crime and search for answers unfolds, we are drawn into a world of scandals, secrets and blackmail in a city that includes opium dens and brothels, grand houses, boulevards and gardens; a city where rich men go to their clubs, and their wives and daughters shop, promenade around The Block, socialise and take tea; where wealthy individuals go to extraordinary lengths to protect their reputations. This is a place that is not so very different from the Melbourne of today. Many of the locations and landmarks will be familiar to anyone who knows Melbourne. The human story of jealousy, blackmail, self-made men, frustrated ambi-tions and secrecy will resonate with many viewers.

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Curriculum Relevance

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab would be an excellent film to show to students of Australian History at middle and senior secondary levels. The film provides a vivid picture of urban life in Melbourne in the second half of the nine-teenth century. Victoria had become a separate colony in 1851 when it separated from New South Wales. The city of Melbourne grew rapidly as immigrants and their money flowed into the colony.

Historical literacy has many elements but this film encom-passes two in particular:

a. Exploring narratives of the past – understanding the shape of change and continuity over time, and

b. Representational expression – understanding and using creativity in representing the past through film, drama, visual arts, music, fiction, poetry and Information Communications Technology (ICT).

While it is important to know when national and interna-tional events occurred (‘the facts’), it is always important to understand how these events shaped the lives and values of individuals and communities. For example, the 1850s gold rushes in Victoria generated not only Asian and British immigration, but also an economic and build-ing boom in national capitals and provincial cities such as Ballarat and Castlemaine.

Why is there such a strong Chinese presence in Little Bourke Street in Melbourne and a Vietnamese community in Cabramatta in Sydney? How do these immigrant com-munities attest to both national and international events? What were the economic opportunities that encouraged free men to come to Australia to try and make their for-tunes, only a few years after most of the white inhabitants had been transported to this country as criminals?

This film is a fine example of a period film ‘bringing history to life’. Fergus Hume’s 1886 novel, from which this film is adapted, is about a crime in Melbourne at this time. The novel is a valuable primary source about life in Melbourne

in the 1880s. Fictional stories grounded in a place and time can often tell us more about an era and social values than a straight historical account. Many of the great classics of literature, from Dickens’ Great Expectations and Hard Times to Ruth Parks’ Harp in the South – an Australian novel about urban life in Australia in the 1940s – have been made into films and mini-series. They can show us how political and economic changes in society shaped the lives of the people. We see and hear people speaking and we enter into worlds that are both recognisable and yet different from our own world.

For students studying Australian History, and particularly the development of Australian cities, the film is filled with information about how people lived, their concerns and val-ues, the enormous differences between the lives of wealthy and middle-class citizens and those who provided services for this growing population.

Many people had made fortunes through land specula-tion following the gold rushes. Gentlemen such as Brian Fitzgerald and Oliver Whyte lived in boarding houses run by landladies; prostitutes found work servicing the needs of the many single (and married) men living in the city. Opium dens provided diversions of another kind. This was a world where many women were dependent on the protection of men – fathers, brothers and husbands – a society where work opportunities were very limited and there was no welfare state.

However, despite the differences in how people lived in Melbourne in 1886, there is a great deal that is recognis-able, particularly in the dramatic intrigues, the secrecy, blackmail and scandal. Many elements of this story would be quite at home in many family television soaps shown today. Class differences still exist and people still resent being thwarted in their personal ambitions.

The first section of this guide (SECTION A) provides some background material about the novel and the time and place where the story told in the film is set. Teachers may choose to work through some or all of this material before showing the film, or decide to use it after watching the film. SECTION B activities are closely focused on the film.

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About the book

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is adapted from Fergus Hume’s 1886 novel of the same name. The following introduction to the book is by Australian freelance writer, Simon Caterson:

Fergus Hume’s sensational novel The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is Australia’s original blockbuster and international best-selling crime novel. First published in 1886, it was an overnight sensation, selling hundreds of thousands of copies around the world and being translated into eleven languages. Over a century later, Hansom Cab has lost none of its page-turning power.

Set in the charming and deadly streets of Melbourne, this vivid and brilliantly plotted murder thriller tells the story of a crime committed by an unknown assassin. With its pano-ramic depiction of a bustling yet uneasy city, Hansom Cab has a central place in Australian literary history and, more importantly, it remains highly readable.

Fergus Hume was born in England in 1859. He grew up in New Zealand, where he became a lawyer. In 1885 he immi-grated to Melbourne, the city in which he wrote and set The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. In 1888 he settled in England and embarked on a literary career, which produced over 130 novels. He died in 1932.

Text Publishing recently re-released The Mystery of a Hansom Cab as part of its Text Classics series. Michael Heyward, publisher, says, ‘The Mystery of a Hansom Cab has fascinated readers now for more than a century. It is not only a splendid story but it offers an extraordinary glimpse of boom-time Melbourne. It is an iconic Australian book.’

Crime novels

Crime novels constitute one of the most popular literary genres today, and are frequently on the bestseller lists. However when Fergus Hume tried to get his novel pub-lished in 1886 it was rejected by so many publishers – like today, getting published often depended on being in the right place at the right time – that he self-published the

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novel. It sold very well in Melbourne and was eventually picked up and re-published by a company in England; they bought the copyright from Hume for fifty pounds, meaning he earned no more money from it from then on. The Mystery of a Hansom Cab set the stage for much of the detective fiction that followed. Hume wanted to write books that were popular and sold well. A bookseller introduced him to the popular works of a French writer, Emile Gaboriau, which features Monsieur Lecoq, a detec-tive with a murky past, eccentric habits and a genius for deduction. Lecoq is a forerunner of Sherlock Holmes and many other fictional detectives. A Study in Scarlet, the first of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries, was pub-lished in 1887, a year after The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, which can therefore lay claim to being amongst the earliest fictional crime dramas.

Today, crime dramas – whether written, filmed or produced as television series – are popular all over the world. The traditional elements of the detective story tend to follow a similar pattern:

a) The seemingly perfect crime,

b) The wrongly accused suspect at whom circumstan-tial evidence points,

c) The bungling of sometimes dimwitted police keen to make an arrest,

d) The greater powers of observation and superior mind of the detective and

e) An often startling and unexpected conclusion, in which the detective reveals how the identity of the culprit was ascertained.

Detective stories frequently operate on the principles that superficially convincing evidence is ultimately not relevant and that the crime often masks some deeper malaise and mystery.

From the recent spate of Scandinavian dramas such as Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, to the immensely popular American Law and Order franchise, to Midsomer Murders and Donna Leon’s murder mysteries set in Venice, crime stories all tend to have two other particular qualities: they are firmly grounded in a particular place and social world, and they have an astute and engaging lead detective who often has some kind of tragic past or flaw or eccentric quality. Hume has two policemen in his story as well as a crusading lawyer, but like all good storytellers, it is the range of human behaviour and the individuals that (in this case) made up Melbourne society at the time that most interest him. As you watch the film, see how far it conforms to the central principles of the crime story. Notice also to what extent the story and the crime reveal aspects of how the society operates at a more general level.

About the Production – adapting the book to film

Adapting a novel into a telemovie or a film is a difficult job. While many writers are pleased to sell the rights of their book to a film production company, they are sometimes not so happy with the depiction of their story on screen. Getting it right in terms of fidelity to the writer’s original conception can be problematic. It is perhaps an easier proposition to adapt a novel when the writer has long since died.

What do we expect from a film based on a novel we have read?

When we read a novel, we frequently picture the char-acters, from the way they look to how they behave and relate to one another. We also often have a visual sense of place and landscape. When the film or series is as well-known and widely read and loved as novels by Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, JRR Tolkien or JK Rowling, we are sometimes delighted by the filmed adaptation, but at other times disappointed that the actors playing these much loved characters are not as we imagined them when we read the book.

What should we expect of a film adaptation of a novel? For many viewers it is that the film adheres to what they sensed was the essence of the novel; that it is a true reflection of

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the author’s intent. But just what this ‘essence’ is seen to be can be quite different from reader to reader.

Films and novels, or ‘visual texts’ and ‘written texts’ as they are sometimes described in English courses, are differ-ent artistic creations in many ways. While each often has a narrative (many of the best films have strong story lines, reflecting their genesis in the written word), the means available to the author or director for presenting the story are very different. Increasingly, writers and directors are cre-ating screenplays from novels. This can often do wonders for book sales, even in the case of the Harry Potter novels, where readership was already enormous.

Sometimes we read in reviews that a film is ‘a very faithful representation of the book’ on which it is based. How-ever, such fidelity to the text does not necessarily make for a strong, satisfying and entertaining film. Sometimes, a voiceover, filling out the narrative, can be intrusive and can substitute for the director showing us what happens. In a novel you can only describe the commission of the crime from one or more perspectives, whereas in a film the director can show tantalising glimpses of how the murder occurred, while continuing to withhold details that would reveal the truth and destroy the element of suspense and anticipation that is so vital to our enjoyment.

A bad film will be bad regardless of its respect or otherwise for a written text. If the characters fail to convince or we are

not persuaded to care about them, then of course we will be disappointed. The often-heard cry of ‘not as good as the book’ will be repeated loudly. Films and novels have differ-ent tools available to them and there are many cases where people are able to argue very convincingly that the film was better than the written story. The Godfather films are a case in point, regarded by many readers and viewers as better than Mario Puzo’s novels.

• Conduct a class discussion about films you have seen that have been adapted from books you have read. What can a film do that is not available to the writer of a novel? How can reading a novel provide a different experience to that of a film? How can a filmmaker’s interpretation of a novel increase our understanding of the text? Consider an example of a filmed adaptation of a novel with which you are familiar, such as To Kill a Mockingbird or The Girl with a Pearl Earring or Wuther-ing Heights or any other novel you have studied both as a written text and as a film.

After reading The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, it is easy to see why a filmmaker would want to put the story on screen; there is a strong narrative line about a mysterious murder in the heart of a big city, a cast of characters which includes two beautiful young women from different sides of the tracks, a loving but troubled father, a handsome suitor, two police officers and a crusading barrister – a large cast representing all the classes of Melbourne society in the

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1880s – and perhaps most importantly, the city itself, with its dark alleyways and mansions, hiding secrets about families and inheritance.

Given the collaborative nature of filmmaking, the number of individuals involved in putting together the final product and the inherently different medium film is from text, we need to make allowances for the film sometimes telescoping some parts of the novel and exploring other aspects in more depth. Budgetary constraints and time schedules as well as the final length of a film after editing are all factors we need to at least be aware of. We also need to accept that in some ways ‘the past is a foreign country’ and that ‘they did do things differently then’. A film set in a different era needs to be faithful to the speech patterns and social attitudes that prevailed at that time in that place. As you watch The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, consider how well the filmmak-ers have re-created the period of the 1880s.

In 2009 the producers, Burberry Entertainment, com-menced development on a telemovie adaptation of Fergus Hume’s novel. The story had not been produced for screen since the 1920s although there was a stage play produced in 1990.

Within months, a proposal was written and presented to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The ABC drama department were enthusiastic about investing in the devel-opment of a telemovie.

The producers appointed well-respected writer Glen Dolman to undertake the adaptation and create a script as mysterious, detailed and interesting as the book. Of Glen’s script Ewan Burnett of Burberry says, ‘Glen did a magnificent job of adapting a complex and difficult novel. The book is not just a murder mystery. It involves family conflicts, relationships and delicate social issues of the time. Glen interpreted all these elements marvellously and presented us with a rich and engaging script’.

With a well developed script in hand, the ABC, Film Victoria and the UK’s DCD Rights (international distributor) contrib-uted to financing the 100-minute telemovie adaptation.

Bringing the past to life

Producing Hansom Cab is like returning to the eighties when costume drama was popular with audiences; how-ever, we don’t have the same budgets now nor the same luxury of time, but we do have the advantages of digital and an extremely skilled industry which is world class. – Margot McDonald, Producer

As you watch the film, think about some of the key chal-lenges for filmmakers in transforming The Mystery of a Hansom Cab into a telemovie. Read the following informa-tion from the film’s production notes about the challenges the film crew faced in achieving an authentic look and feel for the film:

The production was filmed in various locations across Melbourne over a four-week period. Seventy of Australia’s finest actors were gathered to be coiffured, dressed and made-up by crew with inter-national reputations in their field.

Colour, tone and texture were very important to the overall look. Otello Stolfo, production designer, ensured colours were subtle, yet had a strength and richness, which gave the telemovie a strong foundation. The palette comprised of two key colours from the secondary and tertiary range; red/brown for the city exteriors/inte-riors and blue/green for the mansion and public locations – with all colours falling into their grey tones. These were tied together by the sandstone coloured city buildings, which were predominant in Mel-bourne in 1886. The reds represented the Chinese influence and the blues/greens the more aristocratic. Locations were chosen to fit this criteria and care was taken to ensure most surfaces had texture and contour in their detail, providing an interesting background interplay between shadow and structure.

Ageing was important to all elements, and balanced to maintain an even layer throughout the look. Mirrored surfaces, both reflec-tive mirrors and glass, as well as the use of wet-downs (literally hosing down roads and pavements to increase light and contrast) were also important in providing another layer in the look and feel. Smoke and filters occasionally contributed to the mood. Computer graphics enhancement was also used to establish Melbourne in the nineteenth century, but used sparingly to give us the ‘big’ establish-ers and hide the ‘modern’ elements.

All of the above production design elements became an intrin-sic part of the costuming, makeup, and lighting. The aim was to provide a strong, unique and interesting look to compliment the strength of the script, direction and contemporary shooting style that became The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.

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• It can be difficult to find appropriate settings in which to make a period film, such as this one, especially when filming on location. Hiding contemporary elements, such as cars, trains, electric light poles and contemporary backdrops, can pose problems for directors. Often elabo-rate sets need to be built inside studios to capture an earlier time in history that is free from such anachronisms.

What would have been some of the main challenges for the filmmakers in filming this 1886 Melbourne story in 2012? How can digital filmmaking techniques assist in getting ‘the look’ right, at least as far as we can know what is right, 120-plus years later?

• The novel runs for over 400 pages. Can an adapta-tion of a book of this length and complexity include everything that is described in the book? What do you understand is meant by capturing the tone and style of a written text on film?

• How can a film render details such as descriptions of an individual’s appearance and manner more economically and often more vividly than print?

• Why is the work of the production designer so impor-tant in recreating a place and society from more than 120 years ago?

• What would be the challenges for the costume designer in ensuring that the styles and fashions of the period are represented accurately?

• How would the sound recordist deal with the problems of modern sounds?

• The most recently published version of Hansom Cab by Text publishing includes the original dialogue by Hume which was often left out and/or rewritten into more polite language in earlier published versions. Listen for the different ways in which people from different classes express themselves in the film, especially the distinctive voices of those who live in the back-lane slums of Little Bourke Street.

hIStorICAl bACkgrouNd

‘Marvellous Melbourne’

In the decade between 1881 and 1891 Melbourne’s popu-lation almost doubled, growing from 268,000 to 473,000, making it the second-largest city (in the colonies) outside of London. Although large numbers of immigrants con-tinued to be drawn to the Colony in the wake of the gold rushes of the 1850s, for the first time the Australian-born population outnumbered the immigrant population, lead-ing to a growing sense of nationhood in the 1880s. The booming economy created a mood of optimism in the city. Large amounts of money were made by land speculators in the 1880s and there was a massive increase in building activity. Significant buildings constructed in the decade included Joseph Reed’s Exhibition Building (opened in 1880), the General Post Office (1885), William Wardell’s Gothic Revival bank – today the ANZ bank in Collins Street (1883-84) – and the Princess Theatre in Spring Street (1886). Richard Twopeny, an Englishman who visited Melbourne in 1883, observed that ‘there is certainly no city in England which can boast of nearly as many fine

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buildings, or as large ones, proportionately to its size, as Melbourne.’

Melbourne’s economy was also boosted by trade. Ships arrived laden with an extensive range of goods, including fabrics designed by the London firm, Liberty, fine porcelain and art journals. On the return trip they were weighed down with wool bales, sacks of wheat and the export of beef and mutton, which was made possible by the development of mechanical refrigeration plants. Melbourne, the ‘Queen City of the South’, boasted the busiest port in the country. The energy and optimism of the city led to it being christened ‘Marvellous Melbourne’, by the visiting English journalist George Sala.

The city’s pride in its achievements culminated in the Cen-tennial International Exhibition that opened in the Exhibi-tion Building on 1 August, 1888. Technological inventions filled a significant proportion of the huge display space (over thirty-three acres). A large collection of fine art from England, Europe and Australia was also shown. In the first week of the exhibition over 80,000 people poured through the doors. The celebration of one hundred years of Euro-pean settlement in Australia gave Melbourne’s population a sense of permanence in their new home.

The booming economy that made Melbourne marvellous in the 1880s crashed in the 1890s, beginning with the col-lapse of the property market. The economic depression of the 1890s resulted in Australia’s first widespread strikes. Shearers were the first group of workers to unionise and to strike against their low pay and poor conditions.

Melbourne – the ‘darker’ side

The rapid growth of Melbourne’s population, without the necessary accompanying infrastructure, had a darker side. Shortages of accommodation and overcrowding led to the growth of inner-city slums. Although the city centre of Melbourne was laid out on a grid plan, uncontrolled build-ing led to confusion between urban and rural activities. Stray cows and goats continued to be a nuisance in the city throughout the 1880s. Unsealed roads became dustbowls in the summer and muddy mires in the winter. Open drains and, most significantly, the lack of a sewerage system prior to 1897 contributed to outbreaks of typhoid. Twopeny described the situation in 1883:

There is no underground drainage system. All the sew-age is carried away in huge open gutters, which run all through the town, and are at their worst and widest in the most central part, where all the principal shops and business places are situated. These gutters are crossed by little wooden bridges every fifty yards. When it rains, they rise to the proportion of small torrents, and have on several occasions proved fatal to drunken men. In one heavy storm, indeed, a sober strong man was carried off his legs by the force of the stream, and ignominiously drowned in a gutter.1

Night carts were introduced to deal with the problem, trundling through the street to collect pans of sewage from outside toilets and depositing their contents in ‘outer’ areas, like Sandringham. ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ became known by some as ‘Marvellous Smellbourne.’2

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Below is a list of some of the events that shaped the city of Melbourne in the decade leading up to 1886 when this story is set:

1878 – The Queen Victoria Market is opened in March. The main facade is built. The first Melbourne telephone ex-change is opened. The Yarra River floods.

1879 – Electricity is first used to light a football match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

1880 – The Melbourne International Exhibition is held in the newly completed Royal Exhibition Building. Stephen Street is renamed Exhibition Street and the brothels are removed; many relocate to Fitzroy.

Ned Kelly is hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol on 11 November.

The Victorian Electric Light Company is formed and builds a small power station in Russell Place off Bourke Street. The Yarra River floods again.

1881 – The Melbourne Electric Company installs an arc electric lamp in Swanston Street.

A railway line to Mordialloc is opened. The Church of Christ buys the John Knox Church in Swanston Street. The paving of roads with red gum is introduced.

1882 – A railway line to Box Hill is opened.

1883 – Melbourne’s first underground drain is constructed in Carlton.

1884 – A railway line to Coburg is opened. The William Street Law Courts are completed.

1885 – The Burke and Wills statue is moved to Spring Street. First cable tram operates between Melbourne and Richmond.

1886 – The Australian Electric Light Company acquires a piece of land at Richmond and starts building a power sta-tion. On 11 August, the Coode Canal is opened. The Prin-cess Theatre is opened with a performance of The Mikado.

1887 – Railway lines to Sandringham and Kew are opened. The portico of the Town Hall is completed.

Lighting and Communications

Electric lighting was first used in 1883 in the public rooms of the Victoria Hotel in Little Collins Street in Melbourne. Bourke Street was lit at night by electric lights in the mid-1880s, but as we see in the film, such lighting did not ex-

tend to other parts of the city including Little Bourke Street, now known as Chinatown. At night most of the city was lit with gas lamps until 1891–92 when a system of electric street lighting was installed in Melbourne.

• What were the main methods of lighting used at this time, in both public and domestic places?

• How might the low light levels at night have made crimes less likely to be detected?

While there were some telephones in use in Melbourne at this time, they were not commonly available; the common-est method of communicating was through hand-delivered notes and telegrams.

• What do we see of the practice of personally delivering handwritten notes in the film?

Hygiene and sanitation

Effective plumbing, sanitation and running water were uncommon at the time. Here is an account from the 1880s about life in working-class Carlton.

In the days before electricity and running water, even the simple requirements of lighting and bathing de-manded work: ‘Lamps had to be filled with kerosene and their smokey glass chimneys washed and polished … Bath tubs of heavy galvanised iron had to be filled with warm water carried from the copper in tin or galva-nised buckets.’3

There was no sewerage system in Melbourne in 1886 and lavatory pans were collected by night carts; the open drains in the city and suburbs were sometimes running with human waste. Plumbing was also very basic so waste water emptied into streets, gutters and the river – hence the derogatory descriptor from the late 1880s of ‘Marvellous Smellbourne’.

Water for washing and bathing had to be heated on a wood fire and carried to a tin bath. In wealthy households such as the Frettlbys there were servants to do this car-rying and laundry work. There were no bathrooms as we know them and often only a cold water tap outside for the washing of clothes and people. All water had to be heated. Baths would not have been a regular occurrence even in wealthy households

During the film we see Sal Rawlins experiencing her first bath at the Frettlbys as she is prepared for her court ap-pearance. Diseases such as typhoid and diphtheria were common, particularly amongst the poor. A sewerage sys-tem in Melbourne was finally developed in the 1890s.

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Hansom cabs

As you watch The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, you will see evidence of some of the changes to the city of Melbourne at this time as described in the background material, es-pecially the results of the public building boom that gives expression to prosperity in economic boom times.

Methods of transportation are clearly important to the way in which this story unfolds. In the 1880s most people travelled in horse-drawn cabs or they walked. During the decade, the rail and tram network expanded and by 1880 trains ran to Sandridge (Port Melbourne), St Kilda, Brighton and Williamstown. The first cable tram ran from Spencer Street to Hawthorn in 1885. The hansom cab itself is quite literally the site of the crime and its unusual design made this possible. As the historical material suggests, rail lines were just opening up, so – for the wealthier citizens of Mel-bourne – using horse-drawn cabs was the most conveni-ent means of transport around the city and between inner Melbourne suburbs such as St Kilda and East Melbourne, where several of the protagonists live.

The hansom cab was named after its English inventor, J Aloysius Hansom. The following information is from the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney where you can see a hansom cab:

Horse-drawn hansom cabs were the forerunner of the motorised taxi, though their operation overlapped for many years. Two passengers rode snugly enclosed in a cab, with little room for luggage. They were popular with young unchaperoned courting couples and as a result gained a ‘shady’ reputation. The hansom cab in the Powerhouse Museum is an example of a popular design made between 1880 and 1915. It is one of Sydney’s last working hansom cabs and was purchased by the Museum in 1937. The cab was personally delivered to the Museum by the driver and owner Mr J. Connor, pulled by his horse Darkwing.

Australia’s first hansom cab appeared in Melbourne in 1849 but it was not until the 1870s that this form of transport became popular. Hansoms were readily accepted in Sydney when introduced there during the 1860s.

Cab drivers wore three-piece suits, with a gold watch-chain, smoked pipes and tilted their bowler hats at a jaunty angle. They sat high at the back of the cab with the reins passing through a support on the front of the roof. From the driver’s position the cab’s front-opening doors could be controlled, preventing passengers getting out before they paid their fare. The better hansoms had large rubber-tyred wheels, stained-glass side windows, diamond patterned leather upholstery, thick carpet inside, white rubber mat-ting on the platform, lacework, tasselled window blinds and even a vase of flowers inside.

The use of hansom cabs reached their height in the 1890s but competition from trams and the introduction of the tele-phone reduced the need for short runs to deliver messages and leave calling cards. Motor cabs initiated the death knell for the horse cab though many like this one, survived well into the 20th century.4

http://www.lvta.co.uk/history.htm

As the illustration shows, the driver sat up the back with the reins running over the top of the cab, unable to observe the passengers inside the cab (although they could communicate with the passengers via a hole in the roof).

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SeCtIoN b

the FIlm

Brief synopsis

Melbourne, 1886: boom-time. Two gentlemen climb into a hansom cab late one murky night. Only one man climbs out. The second man is dead.

The victim’s romantic rival, Brian Fitzgerald, is arrested for the murder but refuses to provide an alibi. His barrister, Duncan Calton, and his wealthy fiancée, Madge Frettlby, are forced to search for the truth themselves in order to save Fitzgerald’s life. Their investigation not only uncovers a trail of secrets and scandal from opium dens and brothels to the cream of society, but their revelation threatens to tear Madge’s family apart.

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1. Places

The story takes place in a number of different locations, from the Frettlby Mansion in St Kilda, a desirable beachside suburb at the time, to the slums of Little Bourke Street; from the exclusive surroundings of the Melbourne Club to the inner suburban boarding houses where young men, recently arrived from Britain, rented rooms.

The locations identified in the novel are not always the locations used in the making of the film. While some of the places where the film was shot are the actual 1886 loca-tions described in the novel, e.g. the Old Melbourne Gaol in Russell Street where Brian Fitzgerald was held awaiting trial and the interior of the See Yup Temple in South Melbourne visited by Sal, other scenes were shot at places that are similar to the building or location identified in the novel.

There are many reasons for being unable to use build-ings or locations in a film even when they are still much the same as they were in 1886. For instance, the Frettlby Mansion as seen in the film is in fact Werribee Park, not a mansion in St Kilda (the seafront is added using visual effects). Many hotels have changed their name and identity, including the Orient where Whyte and Moreland meet. The scenes inside the Orient Hotel described in the novel were in fact filmed in the Cricketers Bar at the Windsor Hotel in Spring Street. Other hotels have become residential devel-opments or restaurants. Brian’s lodgings, precisely identi-fied in the novel as 23 Powlett Street, East Melbourne, were in fact filmed at Tasma Terrace in Melbourne.

• Speculate on why it is not always possible or/and desirable to film a story in the actual places where the original story was set. Share your ideas.

Student Activities

Places, plot and characters are the most

important elements in any story. It is through

them that we come to understand the issues

about class and society that are so strongly

presented in the story. You may prefer to focus

on one of these three elements as you watch the

film and then share your impressions later. The

character section could be subdivided amongst

groups or individuals.

Key Cast

CHARACTER ACTOR

Mark Frettlby John Waters

Duncan Calton, the barrister Marco Chiappi

Detective Samuel Gorby Shane Jacobson

Madge Frettlby Jessica De Gouw

Brian Fitzgerald Oliver Ackland

Sal Rawlins Chelsie Preston Crayford

Detective Kilsip Felix Williamson

Roger Moreland Charlie Cousins

Mother Guttersnipe Helen Morse

Rosanna Moore/The Queen Anna McGahan

Oliver Whyte Brett Climo

Felix Rolleston Nathan Lovejoy

Mrs Sampson Kerry Walker

Mrs Hableton Julie Nihill

Reginald Valpy Gerry Connolly

• Why do you think local dramas filmed in locations that at least some of us are familiar with are so popular on local tel-evision, e.g. Rake, Jack Irish, Kath and Kim, the Underbelly series and the SBS crime series East West 101?

Below is a list of several of the locations where the action takes place in The Mystery of a Hansom Cab but not necessarily where the action was filmed.

§The Melbourne Club§Scots Church§Old Melbourne Gaol§The Orient Hotel§Chinatown, Little Bourke Street§Fitzroy Gardens§See Yup Temple in South Melbourne§Brian’s lodgings, Powlett Street, East Melbourne§Oliver Whyte’s lodgings, Possum Villa, Grey Street, St Kilda

LoCations importanCe in story

Melbourne Club

Old Melbourne Gaol

The Supreme Court Melbourne

The Orient Hotel

Mother Guttersnipe’s ‘crib’, Little Bourke Street

The Fitzroy Gardens

See Yup Temple, South Melbourne

House at 23 Powlett Street, East Melbourne

Possum Villa, Grey Street, St. Kilda

The Frettlby Mansion

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Table 2

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• On a map of Melbourne and its immediate suburbs (East Melbourne and St Kilda), identify the places listed above where some of the action takes place. You could use your tablet or smartphone or even a street directory to plot these places.

• Using Table 2, briefly outline the importance to the story of the listed locations.

There are several guided walking tours of Melbourne that take people to many of the inner city landmarks where the action of this story takes place. A Council of Adult Educa-tion (CAE) guided tour called ‘Madam Brussells’ takes you to the backstreets of Little Bourke and Little Lonsdale, so well depicted in the film and in some ways quite changed. See <http://melbournewalks.com.au/madam-brussells -tour/> for interesting background information about this area and these walks.

Describe how different and yet still recognisable the city of Melbourne is in the way it is shown in the film. In one shot across Princes Bridge, the skyline looks very different in 1886, but at the top end of Collins Street not a lot has changed. Various characters talk about Melbourne in very different ways.

Inequitable purgatory, God-forsaken cesspit, city of dreadful night … city all alight … city full of spite – Oliver Whyte

We are a thoroughly modern city – Mark Frettlby

This is the age of unrest, and electricity and steam has turned us all into bohemians – Felix Rolleston

This place is worse than hell, this is – Sal Rawlins

• In what context are each of the above observations made?

2. The Plot

• What do we see and hear in the opening scene of the film as the key credits are superimposed? Why is it important to establish the mystery and the crime early on in a film or novel?

• What do we learn in these early scenes?

• Which of the characters appearing in this opening sequence of the murder in the hansom cab are immedi-ately identifiable?

• How much (or little) do we see of the murder in the hansom cab during the film through flashbacks?

• What kind of ‘comic relief’ is provided in the film? Which of the minor characters provide a comic take on the place, pretensions and manners of Melbourne people at this time?

• What social ideal do many of the middle and upper classes aspire to?

• What is the crucial evidence that Gorby believes he has uncovered that leads to the charging of Brian Fitzgerald?

• Describe the situation in which Sal Rawlins is introduced into the story.

• How are the varied responses to poverty shown in Sal’s encounters on the streets?

• When Brian Fitzgerald refuses to supply an alibi to Calton, his barrister, were you clear about why he refuses to do this?

• How are the details of the crime and the motivation gradually unfolded in the story as it is told in the film?

• What does barrister Calton suggest as the motive of the murderer?

• There is no narrator in the film and the story is not told from any single perspective. Rather, flashbacks are used to dramatically recreate scenes that are crucial to our understanding of the events – showing as op-posed to telling. How do the juxtaposing of scenes from the present and the past create drama and suspense throughout the narrative?

• Explain what happens in the final scenes of the story.

Who destroys the important marriage document?

What relationship is Sal Rawlins to Mark and Madge Frettlby?

How is Sal treated at the end of the story in relation to the truth about the past? Should the truth have been revealed to everyone?

Who may have suffered most by these revelations?

Could people today get away with such generational harbouring of secrets?

How was Mark Frettlby also kept in the dark about aspects of the lives of people from his earlier life?

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3. Characters(a) the FrettLbys, their Friends and other

members oF the aspirationaL CLass

Margaret (Madge) FrettlbyMark Frettlby (Madge’s father)Brian FitzgeraldFelix RollestonReginald ValpyOliver WhyteRoger MorelandJulia and Dora Featherweight

• Briefly outline the profession of each of the characters present at the dinner Mark Frettlby hosts early in the story where Oliver Whyte is one of the guests. How do different individuals make their money, as several peo-ple do not appear to be in regular employment?

• How do the young women pass their time and how are they supported? What appears to be their main purpose and role in life?

• What do we learn of how Mark Frettlby and Brian Fitzgerald make their money?

• How does Felix Rolleston make a living?

• What advice does the barrister Duncan Calton give to Brian Fitzgerald about making money in Melbourne?

• How are reputations and wealth often connected in business? In what ways are public perceptions of the ethics of a business and its owners important to its continuing growth and success?

• Why would Mark Frettlby be so appalled that his earlier relationship with another woman may now be made public?

• As everyone was an immigrant, some more recent than others, how did people such as Mark Frettlby, Oliver Whyte and Brian Fitzgerald establish themselves in a new society?

• On what did the barrister Duncan Calton and the jour-nalist Felix Rolleston rely for their acceptance into the world of the Frettlbys?

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(b) the poLiCe and the Law

Detective Samuel GorbyDetective KilsipDuncan Calton

There are two policemen involved in this case: Samuel Gorby, who does the early spadework and comes to his own firm conclusions which lead to an arrest and the Fitzgerald trial, and Kilsip, who is rather differently pre-sented as clever and thoughtful, working with the barrister Calton to find out who really committed the crime and why.

• What kind of evidence does Gorby discover that encourages him to make an arrest in the hansom cab murder case?

• What are the key pieces of evidence that lead him to his belief in the likelihood of Brian Fitzgerald having been the murderer?

• Why do both the barrister Calton and the detective Kilsip choose to pursue the case further?

• How is Calton presented in the story? (It is worth noting that Calton was a leading figure in the lead-up to Fed-eration, fourteen years after this story is set).

• What contrast is drawn in the way Gorby and Kilsip are presented? Do you think this ‘old’ and ‘new’ style of police work says anything about how the new colony is changing and perhaps becoming more sophisticated?

• What is it in Calton’s background that Brian chooses to throw at him later in the story when he tells Brian that he intends to keep searching for the killer of Oliver Whyte? What does this suggest about the value many people in colonial society placed on background and family heritage?

• Is having convict lineage now regarded as shameful in Australian society?

• Contrast the way in which the Crown Prosecutor and Duncan Calton, the defence barrister, question the wit-nesses in court.

(C) the women who worK

‘Mother Guttersnipe’Sal RawlinsThe Queen/Rosanna MooreMrs Sampson – Brian Fitzgerald’s landladyMrs Hableton – Oliver Whyte’s landlady

• What occupations are women shown to be engaged in at the time of the story?

• Describe how the landladies – Mrs Hableton and Mrs Sampson – are presented in the film.

• In what ways are women from the lower classes, such as Sal Rawlins, shown to be able to be exploited by others?

• What role does alcohol and even drunkenness play in the story amongst people from all the classes?

• What were some of the dangers women were exposed to on a daily basis in the slum areas?

• Which organisations offered assistance to people in need?

• Would there have been any kind of government assis-tance for women and their children at this time?

• Fergus Hume’s original dialogue of the slum scenes was ‘cleaned up’ in later editions of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab as the language was thought to be un-suited to Victorian-era readers.

How do Sal, Mother Guttersnipe and other people who live in the slum area speak, and how is this differ-ent from the other women such as the landladies and Madge Frettlby?

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1. Playing the part

The actors playing the major roles in this story would have been provided with an account of the character they are to play in the film before filming started. As is the case with many films, they would have been involved in lengthy discussions about the characters and their connections and social position and spent several weeks rehearsing to get the details of the connections between the characters right. It is also likely that at least some of the principals read the Hume novel.

Some actors’ research is more unusual. In researching her character, Chelsie Preston Crayford put on her boyfriend’s jeans back to front, made herself look scruffy and wan-dered down Chapel Street, where everyone stood back from her. Then she walked into an Asian grocery store, and it was there that she became part of the community and people spoke to her as though everything was normal.

Many characters in this story have a past that they are trying to conceal and even forget. Several of the charac-ters consider themselves to be ‘self-made’, establishing themselves in a new land of opportunity. Others are unable, through circumstances of birth, to escape their past.

• Develop a backstory for two of the following characters (one male and the other female) in the story, using any information from the film: Sal Rawlins, Mother Gutter-snipe, Brian Fitzgerald, Duncan Calton, Oliver Whyte, Roger Moreland, Detective Kilsip or Rosanna Moore (‘The Queen’). Limit each backstory to no more than 200 words

Read the example below as a guide:

MaRK FRETTlBY

Mark Frettlby is a very wealthy, self-made man. He grew up in working-class London, and seeing noth-ing brighter ahead, he longed for a new life in the colonies. In Australia, he bought as much land as he could, and when the Golden Age hit he quickly became incredibly wealthy. He owns various sheep and cattle stations, and one of his greatest skills is how easily he converses with both his labourers and high society. Frettlby enjoys the status he’s earned, and prides himself on his extravagant dinner parties. He would do anything for his daughter Madge, who reminds him of his late wife, Louise.

But Mark Frettlby harbours a dark secret from his past – a secret that he fears might bring his world crashing down.

2. Women’s lives in the 1880s

While several of the women in this story play a key role in the plot, it is the men who are the ones with the power. Both Madge and Sal are shown to be quite independent and strong characters, but they each need protection in what was a very patriarchal society. Some men can provide protection through marriage, while others can exploit women who were alone and poor.

Sal Rawlins is rewarded at the end of the story for coming forward at the trial to provide an alibi for Brian Fitzgerald that saves his life. She is given a position as a maid in the Frettlby household and money that she plans to spend on what would today be described as ‘a refuge for disadvan-taged and exploited women’.

• Do you think that concealing Sal’s true identity and relationship to the Frettlby family is the right thing to do given the situation at the time?

• Could such a situation ever occur today?

• Why is it much more difficult to blackmail individuals by threatening to reveal the contents of a legal document today?

• Whose interests are served by the destruction of the document containing the evidence of Sal’s true identity?

• How does this decision not to reveal all the details of the secret to everyone directly concerned reflect the highly developed class-consciousness of people in Melbourne in 1886?

• What are some of the qualities of both Madge and Sal that are shown through their behaviour in the story? Does the ending of the film suggest that both Sal and Madge are aware of the nature of their bond?

• How are similar scandals and secrets dealt with in the 21st century? Is it still as easy to pay people off and hide secrets and official documents and letters as it was in the 1880s?

• Does Fergus Hume’s story demonstrate a fundamentally sympathetic attitude to the plight of many of the women in this story? Through which characters do you think the author’s views are revealed?

Further ACtIvItIeS

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3. The FilmThe Mystery of a Hansom Cab employed not just a large cast, but an even larger crew.

Table 3

Key Crew

Director Shawn Seet

Writer Glen Dolman

Producer Margot McDonald

Executive producers Ewan Burnett, Christopher Gist, Carole Sklan

Composer Cezary Skubiszewski

Editor Denise Haratzis ASE

Production designer Otello Stolfo

Costume designer Wendy Cork

Director of photography Jaems Grant ACS

This list identifies just the principal crew. Their work was supported by an enormous number of individuals who worked on other areas of the film, particularly the produc-tion design and the hair and costumes (the all important ‘look’ – the costumes have now been acquired by Museum Victoria). There were also horse wranglers who worked on the hansom cab scenes and the post-production crew who worked on the editing and the digital effects. The composer and sound recordists as well as the dialogue coaches also played a vital role in the music and soundtrack of the film.

• Looking first at the cast of the film (Table 1), which ac-tors would you nominate for an award recognising the strength of their performance in the film? Write a cita-tion and select a scene that best displays their skills as a performer.

• Now choose an individual such as the production designer or editor or cinematographer (or a group of technical experts) to nominate for an award for their role in creating ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ in 1886. Give reasons for your choices.

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1. ClICK HERE TO VIEW ClIP 1 (2 mins).

Scenes 6, 7 and part of 8: Dinner at the Frettlby Mansion two weeks before the murder of Oliver Whyte

• Who is hosting this dinner?

• Describe the guests present at the Frettlby mansion.

• How do Mark Frettlby and Brian Fitzgerald make their money?

• What does this gathering reveal about the elite society in ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ in 1886?

• What do you think the lawyer Calton means when he says, ‘once we have civility, we can achieve anything’?

• What are the visible signs of wealth and privilege in this scene?

2. ClICK HERE TO VIEW ClIP 2 (34 secs).

Scenes 23 and 24 – the murder in the hansom cab from Whyte: ‘Cabby! Stop’ to newsboy calling out headline

• Who can we positively identify in this scene of the murder?

• Is it possible at this stage to speculate about who held the chloroform-soaked handkerchief?

3. ClICK HERE TO VIEW ClIP 3 (4 mins).

Scenes 47, 48 and 49 – Sal at Chinese Temple and at Salvation Army Headquarters, plus arrest of Brian Fitzgerald at his lodgings

• Where do we see Sal Rawlins go to in Melbourne and beyond after she has fled Mother Guttersnipe’s place in Little Bourke Street?

• How does Sal upset the woman working for the Salvation Army on the streets?

• Where has John Knox come from?

• How does he con Sal into coming with him?

• What does this scene reveal about the very limited choices available to women without a father or husband to protect them?

• How did Gorby manage to get into Brian’s lodging house?

• What is the piece of evidence he produces that he believes lets him make an arrest in the hansom cab murder?

4. ClICK HERE TO VIEW ClIP 4 (3 mins).

Scenes 62, 63, and 64 – Kilsip and Calton at Mother Guttersnipe’s

• Why does Kilsip take Calton to Mother Guttersnipe’s ‘crib’?

• Describe the contrast between the worlds of the lawyer Calton and the policeman Kilsip with the place they go to in Little Bourke Street.

• Describe some of the people lingering and soliciting on the street.

• Describe the situation in which Mother Guttersnipe holds court. What does her name suggest about her way of life and the way she is characterised in the story?

• With what valuable information do Calton and Kilsip come away?

• What information do we, the audience, learn from this encounter about the secrets and who has concealed the truth?

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References and Resources

• Fergus Hume, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, first published 1886. Most recent edition by Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2012, with an introduction by Simon Cater-son. The novel from which the film has been adapted.

• G Davison, The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1978. This book, which has gone through numerous reprints, is the most comprehensive history of Melbourne in the second half of the nineteenth century.

• An article by Simon Caterson about the background and context of Fergus Hume’s The Mystery of a Hansom Cab: <http://inside.org.au/fergus-hume-startling-story/print/>

• The transcript of a 2009 ABC radio discussion pro-gram about the Hansom Cab phenomenon with guests including Text publisher Michael Heyward, academic Stephen Knight and Lucy Sussex, crime fiction expert: <http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/book-show/australian-classics-fergus-humes-mystery-of-a/3125554>

• Link to walking tours of ‘Marvellous Melbourne’: <http://melbournewalks.com.au/madam-brussells-tour/>

• National Gallery of Victoria educational material to ac-company a 2007 Australian Impressionists exhibition. Much of this work dates from the 1850s and later and offers information about Melbourne life and places: <http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/australianimpressionism/ education/insights_historic.html>

• A timeline of significant events in Melbourne between 1835 and 2000: <http://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/melbourne_details.php?id=3116>

Endnotes1 R. Twopeny, Town Life in Australia, 1883, p.5.2 http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/australianimpressionism/

education/insights_historic.html3 http://www.unimelb.edu.au/infoserv/lee/htm/

carlton_work.htm4 http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/

database/?irn=238094

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