| The Betrayer | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Beaumont Smith |
| Written by | Beaumont Smith |
| Produced by | Beaumont Smith |
| Starring | Stella Southern |
| Cinematography | Lacey Percival |
Production company | Beaumont Smith Productions |
| Distributed by | Beaumont Smith |
Release date | 1921 |
Running time | 5,500 feet |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | silent |
The Betrayer is a 1921 Australian film from director Beaumont Smith about an inter-racial romance between a white Australian and a part-Māori girl. It is considered a lost film.
Australian Stephen Manners (Cyril Mackay) travels to New Zealand and falls in love with a Māori girl. He goes home and she dies giving birth to their daughter, Iwa. Iwa is raised by her grandfather Hauraki (Mita), who explains to Manners what happens when he returns to New Zealand twenty years later. Manners decides to take Iwa (now played by Stella Southern) back to Sydney, Australia, but doesn't tell her that he is her father.
Travelling with Manners is John Barris (John Cosgrove), who Hauraki tells on his deathbed that Iwa's real father actually is a missionary, not Manners. Barris keeps this information to himself and makes advances on Iwa, which are stopped by Manners.
Iwa tells Manners she is in love with him, so Manner explains he is her father and she returns to Rotarua. Barris' wife (Bernice Vere) tells Manners the truth so he returns to New Zealand and is reunited with Iwa, this time as a romantic couple.[1]
The film was short partly on location in Rotorua, New Zealand.[2]
Most stories of inter-racial romance at this time ended unhappily but this one finished with a white man marrying a Maori woman.[3]
The movie was originally entitled Our Bit o' the World but this was changed out of fear audiences would think it was a travelogue.[4]