HANNA, PAT (1888–1973). Born in Whitianga, Pat Hanna’s career began in entertaining troops in World War I on the Western Front. He toured Australia with his *comedy troupe, “Diggers,” in the 1920s, and he took the character of the lanky digger, Chic Williams, into three films about the Australian Infantry Forces (AIF). The first, Diggers (1931), was made by *Efftee Productions, and was a series of three sketches cohering through their common soldier characters. The first two sketches are comedies, while the third is a sentimental version of a popular song. Disagreeing with *Frank Thring Sr.’s direction of Diggers, Hanna set up his own company to produce the second and third films—Diggers in Blighty (1933) and Waltzing Matilda (1933). Both films are comedies, but the final film was dismally received, and Hanna could not draw out further the wartime character of Chic Williams. As was the nature of the contemporary industry, Hanna worked as a writer, actor, director, and producer.
HAYWARD, RUDALL (1900–1974). Rudall Hayward was one of the founders of the New Zealand film industry. He was one of the earliest directors whose talent as a storyteller revealed an understanding of the visual medium of film. In addition, his films showed the respect that he had for Maori people and culture. Beginning his film career as production assistant on The Betrayer in Rotorua (1921), he was the assistant director of The Birth of New Zealand (1922). In between he made his first feature, The Bloke from Freeman Bay, which was alleged to have been so bad that an uncle bought and burned it. If that film is discounted, he went on to make his directorial debut with My Lady of the Cave (1925). Based on a serial that appeared in the New Zealand Herald in 1921, the film tells the story of a shipwrecked clerk who is saved, initially, by another survivor of a Maori attack, a white girl Beryl and her faithful guard Rau. Finally, the clerk and Beryl marry. She is the ideal pioneer woman in contemporary terms, and the film shows something of a growing respect Hayward developed for Maori culture.
Hayward followed this with Rewi’s Last Stand, originally made in 1925 but remade as a sound feature in the late 1930s. Based on events during the New Zealand Wars of the 1860s, the story revolves around the clash of cultures and the response of individuals—as distinct from the response of identifiable interest groups—to situations. Once again, his balanced portrayal of both Maori and the British-led army is notable. The young British soldier forms a relationship with a Maori woman of rank, establishing a situation that is unusual in contemporary films about different races. Unusual, too, is the Maori perspective on the events related by the soldier. Hayward’s next film was The Tee Kooti Trail (1927), which was an early attempt at docudrama rather than fiction. He used actual locations where events occurred, and, as far as possible, closely followed the sequence of events surrounding a Maori attack against invading settlers. Although he was an apologist for the rationale of British settlement, the film took pains to present a Maori culture of integrity and honesty. In 1972, he codirected with his second wife, Ramai, his last feature film, To Love a Maori, which explored the problems faced by young Maori when they left their rural communities for the urban centers. Once again, it showed their respect for Maori culture and their involvement with it. It was his first color feature, and the first made by a New Zealander in New Zealand.
Hayward was not only a director of feature films. He made a number of short comedies, beginning with A Takapuna Scandal (1927). These films were shot in a local community and subsequently screened in that same community. In 1931, he was appointed New Zealand reporter for the Australian newsreel company, *Cinesound. In the 1950s, the Chinese government invited him and Ramai to China to make documentaries.
His contribution to the industry is noted and honored in the Rudall Hayward Memorial Award, established by the Guild of Film and Television Artists and awarded for exceptional contributions to the industry.
Other films include The Bush Cinderella (1928) and, as director of photography, On the Friendly Road (1936).
HOLMES, CECIL. See entry in Australian section.