T. O. McCreadie


Tom McCreadie, better known as T. O. McCreadie was an Australian film director and producer, who was also involved in distribution and exhibition for many years.

Biography

Tom and his brother Alec worked as exhibitors in Sydney in the 1920s. In 1940 they formed Embassy Pictures and made several shorts. In 1946 they re-recorded the Russian film Memory's Harvest with English dialogue, the first time this had been attempted in an Australian film. The movie was about a Russian taxi driver who becomes a Bolshoi opera star; among the actors they used for dubbing were Peter Finch and John Fernside.
The McCreadies began feature film production in 1948 with Always Another Dawn, which gave early lead roles to Charles Tingwell and Guy Doleman. The brothers produced and would handle their own publicity; Tom McCreadie would also help design sets. In 1948 they announced plans to make two films in 1949 and three or four in 1950. In the event they only produced two more movies before Embassy Pictures wound up in 1950. Among their unmade projects was an adaptation of a book by Dale Collins, Vulnerable.
Filmink argued Into the Straight "demonstrated a sharp increase in quality from Always Another Dawn and it is likely that Tom McCreadie would have continued to improve as a director, had he had the chance" but "the MCreadies were one of many potentially great filmmakers from this period, whose careers were wrecked by government inaction."

Filmography