Australasian Cinema > directors > Tal Ordell
Tal Ordell is perhaps best known as an actor, and particularly for his characterisation of Dave in On Our Selection films, but he also directed the one very enjoyable feature, in which he also appears as a madcap commentator. Pike & Cooper also credit him with directing a 'two-reel' [short] comedy, Cows and Cuddles.
Tal Ordell (left) in The 1932 Sentimental Bloke >
Born possibly 1880 in Calcutta, as William Ordell Raymond Buntine, he was later to have a son, Robin, known as 'Pop', who appears in The Kid Stakes, and who died, sadly, in WW2. Tal Ordell died not long after, in 1948.
The Kid Stakes (Tal Ordell, 1927) 'Pop' Ordell, Charles Roberts, Ray Salmon, Frank Boyd; based on the character of Fatty Finn, as created by cartoonist, Syd Nicholls (1896-1977), first film to be based on a comic strip; Fatty Finn is the only comic character in Australia to have inspired two films; story concerns goat racing
Tal Ordell (real name William Ordell Raymond Buntine) directed only this one feature. His roles on stage and screen were numerous, and in 1921 he directed a two-reel comedy, Cows and Cuddles. He also contributed verse and short stories to the Bulletin and wrote a three-act play, Kangaroo Flat, produced in Sydney in March 1926. During the 1930s he acted extensively in radio and wrote many broadcast items, including bush yarns, children's stories and a long-running serial, Wattletown, in which he acted with his son, Robin. In the late 1930s Robin became known as 2GB's 'baby radio announcer'. He was killed in the airforce during the war. Tal Ordell died in 1948. Pike & Cooper: 138.
The Hayseeds' Back-blocks Show (1917)
The Hayseeds Come to Sydney (1917)
The Hayseeds' Melbourne Cup (1918)
Man From Snowy River, The (Beaumont Smith, 1920) Cyril Mackay, Stella Southern, Tal Ordell; 61 min.
On Our Selection (Raymond Longford, 1920) stories by Steele Rudd; Percy Walshe, Beatrice Esmond, Tal Ordell; comedy
Silks and Saddles (1920)
The Gentleman Bushranger (1921)
Rudd's New Selection (1921)
While the Billy Boils (1921)
The Kid Stakes (1927)
The Sentimental Bloke (F. W. Thring, 1932) wr. C. J. Dennis; Cecil Scott, Ray Fisher, Tal Ordell; 92 min.
The Hayseeds (1933)
Harvest Gold (1945)
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