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Eric Porter directed two features, but decades apart and of completely different character, and so not at all like the work of the same man—certainly not an auteur. The first is the inferior melodrama A Son is Born, with visible actors (including Peter Finch), while the other is an animated feature. Marco Polo vs the Red Dragon won an AFI for 'direction' in 1972, indicating how little there must have to been to choose from in that period, given that, although animated films have directors, they do something completely different from what is done when working with real people (yes, I know voice actors are people - but you know what I mean).
A Son is Born (Eric Porter, 1946) prod. Eric Porter, wr. Gloria Bourner; Kitty Bluett, Peter Dunstan, Peter Finch, Jane Holland, John McCallum, Ron Randell, Muriel Steinbeck, b/w, 85 min.; family melodrama
Marco Polo Junior vs the Red Dragon (Eric Porter, 1972) aka The Magic Medallion; prod. Eric Porter, wr. Sheldon Moldoff; Bobby Rydell, Arnold Stang, Corie Sims, Kevin Golsby; Australia's first animated feature tells the story of an adventurous lad who discovers that he is the seventh son of the seventh son of the original Marco Polo; this won the AFI for 'direction' in 1973
Garry Gillard | New: 30 November, 2012 | Now: 12 August, 2020