Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters: Australia’s first female filmmaking team

by Mandy Sayer

The trailblazing McDonagh sisters were the first women in Australia to form their own film production company. Between 1926 and 1933, this remarkable trio produced four feature films and a number of documentaries. The youngest, Paulette, was one of only five women film directors in the world. Phyllis produced, art directed, and conducted publicity. And the eldest, Isabel, under her stage name Marie Lorraine, acted in all the female leads. Together, the sisters transformed Australian cinema’s preoccupations with the outback and the bush—and what they mocked as ‘haystack movies’—into a thrilling, urban modernity. In Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters , Mandy Sayer reveals the sisters’ remarkable story, from daughters of a respected Sydney surgeon with a love of theatre and the arts, to their first feature film, Those Who Love (1926), an instant hit, to their controversial final film, Two Minutes Silence (1933). Today, their most famous feature, The Cheaters , is frequently screened at international film festivals around the world.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Australia, Film

336 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2022

About the author

Mandy Sayer is an award-winning novelist and non-fiction writer. Her most recent book, Australian Gypsies: Their Secret History, has just been published by New South Press.

Reviews

[Saskia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's amazing how much detail there is in this book about this curious family who lived in Sydney 100 odd years ago. It is such an interesting story, and one that is very of its time. But there is something kind of sad about this book. They made only 4 films (I've seen one - it's nothing that special), and they didn't really ever fully realise their fantasy. Going by some of their decisions, I'm not sure they ever actually wanted to - it seems whenever any tangible offerings to legitimise their operation in the big leagues were made, they declined. But even the nature of their dream of making Hollywood-style films in Australia has a pang of melancholy to it. Whilst the book celebrates the sisters' culturally homogeneous vision of modern womanhood on celluloid, there's a feeling that it signifies the loss of something greater. It's almost as if this was a symptom of the dissolving of Australian aesthetics in cinema, once the most booming cinema industry in the world. There is a limit to the amount of respect I can grant to their mission in that respect. All in all, I appreciate that their acheivements, and their failures, were always on their own terms, and through it all they supported each other.

[D. R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading “Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters” and I absolutely loved it. Mandy Sayer did a phenomenal job of highlighting the pioneering work of Isabel, Phyllis and Paulette McDonagh. The family dynamics of the McDonaghs were fascinating (I wasn’t really familiar with the concept of “enmeshment,” and the book very effectively explained it), and Sayer skillfully emphasizes the key role the McDonaghs played in cinematic history. They were icons, and the book does justice to their legacy. This book deserves to be adopted into a documentary or a feature film or miniseries in its own right. To quote Paulette McDonagh, “I enjoyed every bit of it!”

[Vicki Mitchell]

A wonderful read if 1900’s Australia and these creative, indomitable women pioneers of Australian film. It’s a shame that after the intoxicating wealth of progress, innovation and initiative our film industry languished until the Whitlam government invested in developing this industry.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

As most readers know, Hazel Rowley (1950-2011) was a superb biographer, and it was fitting that in her memory her family and friends set up the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship valued at $20,000, to support Australian writers working on biography projects.

Award-winning novelist and non-fiction author Mandy Sayer won the fellowship in 2021 for her biography of Australian silent filmmakers, the McDonagh sisters.  It was published in 2022 as Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters: Australia's First Female Filmmaking Team, and was shortlisted this year for the 2023 The Age Book of the Year in the non-fiction category.

As you can see from the cover design by Debra Billson, the publishers have signalled the era of the book with Art Deco motifs, but what you can't see from the cover is the clever internal design by Josephine Pajor-Markus.  Chapter headings are in 1920s style Cinematic fonts, and the Table of Contents includes a 'Trailer', 21 Main Features and Extras (i.e. a filmography, a bibliography, notes and acknowledgements.)

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/05/30/t...

[Dorothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a reference work, this book probably deserves four or five stars. The author has certainly done her research. As something to read for enjoyment, I found the first few chapters -- which are not about the sisters at all, but go into a great deal of unnecessary detail about their antecedents -- frankly yawnworthy.

I hoped things would improve once we got to the sisters' adulthood and they started appearing in films, but the text remained a dry recounting of events with little to bring their lives to life. Perhaps I've become too used to 'creative non-fiction' and 'docu-dramas' to be able to read a purely historical account any more.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a force of nature were the entire McDonagh family. There is not one page of this book that you would find a little dull, as dull was not in the McDonagh vocabulary. As a student of screen culture and an interest in Australian early cinema I know of the McDonagh sisters and some of their output, sadly hard to come by to watch. But this book is a treasure trove of facts and antidotes from the lives well led by these fabulous women. Even if you have no real interest in Australian film but love to read about strong, inspirational women you will love this read

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mandy Sayer has rewritten Australian film history with this marvellous biography of a trio of sisters whose contribution to cinema in the age of the silent films has been criminally neglected. They are fascinating, genuinely unusual characters and their relationship is as interesting as the story of how they made films in an era when they were far fewer women behind the camera than in front of it.

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this historical book about three sisters who paved the way in Australian film in the early 20th century. It was fascinating to hear about their pedigree, their life and then how they developed complimentary skills to create films. I found as the tale caught up to modern day times my attention wavered. But definitely worth the read!