Murray/Pat Matthews: Adelaide's heroic savers of only print of 'Mamba', significant USA colour talkie film from 1930

Adelaide film devotees Murray and Pat Matthews (top right) with Sydney film historian Paul Brennan (centre). The Matthews' memorabilia included the only surviving print of Mamba (1930), the first American non-musical all-Techicolour all-talking film. Besides its advanced technology, Mamba also escaped the USA strict code from 1934 but the restored 21st century version of Mamba was still missing a scene (bottom left) cut by the Australian censors.

Mamba, the first non-musical all-Techicolour all-talking film made in the United States of America had its first return screening in 82 years at Cinefest in New York in 2012 – thanks to heroic Adelaide screen devotee Murray Matthews and his wife Pat.

Matthews was a projectionist in local cinema’s golden days at Savoy theatre (later demolished) in Rundle Street, Adelaide city, When the Freeman brothers bought land to build (My) Fair Lady Theatre in Hindley Street, Adelaide city, in 1966, specifically for the first release of My Fair Lady film musical, Matthews was transferred to the new 70mm cinema as projectionist. (The Fair Lady Theatre also was demolished in 1989.) 

Involved in setting up the South Australian branch of the Society of Australian Cinema Pioneers, Murray Matthews was a key to starting the cinema antique fair, initially at St Peters Town Hall in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs. While the auditorium was packed the sellers, children would be on the stage watching a 16mm cartoon show presented by Matthews. Matthews and his wife Pat were always at No.1 table for the cinema pioneers Christmas lunches, eventually transferred to Kooyona Golf Club through another significant pioneer Max Beck.

The Matthews continued to be dedicated preservers of films, projectors and cinema memorabilia. Their collection had helped uncover the long-lost print of the significant Adelaide-made Southern Cross silent film A Woman Suffers (1918).

Also among the Matthews' memorabilia was a complete print of Mamba (1930), one of first all-talking all-colour films made in the USA. All traces of Mamba had been considered lost, along with most other films of the silent and early-talkie era that were made on highly flammable nitrate stock that was replaced by the safer emulsion film.

Mamba was a successful big-budget and technology leap by Hollywood independent Tiffany Pictures (1921-32), who released 70 films but was closed by the economic depression and lacking a distribution network. Metro Goldwyn Mayer bought Tiffany’s library of nitrate films that was reputedly burned during the fire scenes of Gone with the Wind.

The sole print of Mamba sent to Australia and New Zealand wasn’t returned to the USA because Tiffany Pictures had folded soon after its release. The Matthews kept that sole print of Mamba in their collection at an Adelaide warehouse. In 1983, Michael Cordell, a lost-film-search field officer for the Australian National Film & Sound Archive (later Screensound Australia) discovered the Matthews’ decaying Mamba print in Adelaide.

Sydney film historian Paul Brennan, realising its importance, started efforts in 2008 to restore the Mamba print with another film historian, Swedish Jonas Nordin, who had a complete set of the film’s sound disks. After the complicated synchronising sound with the film, a digital version of Mamba was shown at a 2011 premiere at the Astor Theatre, Melbourne, when the Matthews and Paul Brennan were introduced to a delighted audience.

Showing four reels of the film with synchronised sound was enough to get funding for a print restored to a full 35mm version, plus a soundtrack from original Vitaphone discs that had been preserved in the USA. The University College, Los Angeles (UCLA) was heavily involved in restoring the print for its New York return premiere in 2012. The film was shown at Capitolfest 2018, Rome, New York, in a further improved version. The soundtrack had been corrected and missing pieces added, except for a sequence deemed offensive by the Australian censors in the 1930s.

• Information from Jeff Wheare, Adelaide; also, Brian Trenchard-Smith Adventures in the B Movie Trade.