The Sentimental Bloke (1919) is an Australian silent film based on the 1915 poem The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C. J. Dennis. Produced and directed by Raymond Longford, it is generally considered the greatest Australian silent film, and one of the best Australian movies of all time This extraordinary production’s reputation is deserved, though the claim that it represents the peak of film-making in this country during that period is complicated by the tragic fact that the vast majority of silent Australian films have been lost. Longford made his masterpiece with long-time collaborator and fellow pioneer Lottie Lyell, who was one of Australia’s first film stars and a hugely influential figure, obscured by history but far from forgotten.

The Sentimental Bloke opened to the public in 1919 Adapted from beloved poems by C.J. Dennis, it is set in Sydney’s working-class suburbs and follows a rough but sweet larrikin, Bill (Arthur Tauchert). He is inspired by a new love interest, Doreen (Lyell), to give up drinking, gambling and brawling for a family-centric life on the street and narrow.

The actors don’t perform in the exaggerated style associated with silent pictures; there is actually much more flamboyance in the film’s dialogue than their delivery, which is presented in deeply memorable intertitles that lend a different kind of meaning to the term “visual poetry”.

Using Dennis’s prose, which was written in Australian slang, the intertitles in effect capture the protagonist talking to the audience in his, shall we say, native tongue  When the protagonist first sees Doreen he is smitten: I seen ‘er in the market first uv all,Inspectin’ brums at Steeny Isaacs’ stall. Having mustered the courage to make small talk, Bill is disappointed by Doreen’s unenthusiastic response (she’s far from a pushover), but later convinces her to date him. Their nights on the town include a trip to the theatre to see a Shakespeare play “about a barmy goat called Romeo”, and a trip to the beach.  He reflects on their tender moment on the sand: ‘Oldin’ in me own ‘Er little ‘and,

An’ ‘ow she blushed! O, strike! it was divine

The way she raised ‘er shinin’ eyes to mine 

Some of the language has dated, of course – including Bill’s fondness for describing the opposite sex as “tarts”, and one use of a racial slur to describe a time of the day (taken from Dennis’s poems). But the story is enormously warm-hearted and remarkable in its timelessness. And with its at-first-blush tough guy protagonist who turns out to be needy, sensitive and openly breaks down in tears, it explores Australian masculinity in a more interesting, meaningful way than the majority of films released today.