The Sentimental Bloke

The Sentimental Bloke is a 1918 Australian silent film based on the 1915 verse novel The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C. J. Dennis. Produced and directed by Raymond Longford, the film stars Arthur Tauchert, Gilbert Emery, and Lottie Lyell, who also co-wrote the film with Longford.

A major critical and commercial success upon its release in Australia, the film was also popular in New Zealand and Great Britain, and is generally considered the greatest Australian silent film, and one of the best Australian movies of all time. The film inspired a sequel, Ginger Mick (1920), and a 1932 remake. In 2004, the National Film and Sound Archive released a fully restored version of The Sentimental Bloke, making it one of the few Australian silent films to survive intact.

Bill is a Woolloomooloo larrikin, who vows to abandon his life of gambling (playing Two-up) and drinking after a spell in gaol following a raid on a two up game. He falls in love with Doreen (Lyell), who works in a pickle factory, but faces competition from a more sophisticated rival, Stror 'at Coot.

Bill and Doreen argue, but are eventually reunited and get married. Bill gives up drinking and hanging out with his mate, Ginger Mick, and becomes a family man. He gets an offer from his uncle to manage an orchard in the country, and he and Doreen settle down there with their baby.

C. J. Dennis' original book had been a best seller since its publication in 1915. It was read by executive J. D. Williams who gave Raymond Longford a copy and suggested it might make a good movie. Longford gave it to his partner Lottie Lyell and she was supportive.

Finance was provided by an Adelaide company, the Southern Cross Feature Film Company who had funded The Woman Suffers. C. J. Dennis was reluctant to give away the movie rights for fear it would affect book sales, however he eventually agreed after prolonged negotiations and a royalty payment of £1,000, half the film's budget. (Another account says Dennis' fee was £950.)

In March 1918 it was announced that Southern Cross had bought the rights and Longford would produce. In April Dennis arrived in Adelaide to give his thoughts on the script. He said Bloke had sold over 100,000 copies while its sequel Ginger Mick had sold more than 70,000 copies.

Dennis had tried to write the script himself but found it too difficult, so Lottie Lyell did it. The script relocated the story from Melbourne to Woolloomooloo in Sydney.