Edeling-Films

Edeling Films was a short-lived production company founded by a few prominent individuals in Bloemfontein. Amongst them were Advocate H.J. (Tempe) Edeling (1895-1960), who was clearly the leading figure, and the architect Chrysos Daneel (1914-1968). The latter was very involved in the arts. He was, amongst others, a life member of the South African Association of Arts and a one-time Chairman of the Bloemfontein Photographic and Cinematograph Society. Actor/director Richard Daneel was his younger brother.

The company’s only known production was Pantoffel-Regering (1947), based on the book by Johan van der Post, one of several pseudonyms of S.G. (Severus Gerhardus) Smidt. It starred Pikkie Uys, Anton Ackermann, Marie Tjaden and Antonius Ferreira amongst others. At the time Uys and Ackermann were married, as were Tjaden and Ferreira. Although it was one of the first Afrikaans-language films, the technical crew was mostly English-speaking, with director Ronald Brantford and cinematographer Harold Julius having come out from Great Britain. Both Brantford and editor F.G. Irwin were employed by Alexander Films and, in fact, its production division, Alpha Film Studios, was credited with the technical expertise.

Incidentally, together with German-born Werner Grünbauer, Edeling and Daneel were also involved in the importation of the film Ohm Krüger (1941), a film starring the great Emil Jannings as Paul Krüger, made by Hans Steinhoff in Nazi Germany. They had hoped to dub the film into Afrikaans and release it locally, but it became a controversial issue and in 1956 it was banned.

Sources

Gutsche, Thelma - The history and social significance of motion pictures in South Africa 1895-1940

Return to

Return to South African Theatre Venues, Companies, Societies, etc

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page