G.J. Montgomery-Jackson as Warner Gundy Hill as Lyon William Morris Hughes as himself Captain P.G. Taylor as himself John Stannage as himself Bud Tingwell as an RAAF control tower officer Development Conception Smithy was the idea of N.P. Pery, the managing director of Columbia Pictures in Australia. The Australian government had restricted the export of capital during the war, and Pery thought making a film could use up some of that money. Pery was quoted as saying "I do not think I am indulging in Utopian fancies when I say that Australia, or rather, some spot in Australia, could be made the Hollywood of the British Commonwealth." Pery approached Ken G. Hall, who was Australia's most commercially successful director, and asked him to make a film about an Australian who was well known internationally. Hall wrote that he briefly considered Don Bradman but dismissed the idea because Bradman was not known in the United States. The three main candidates were Ned Kelly, Dame Nellie Melba and Charles Kingsford Smith. Hall said he decided against Kelly because too many films had been made about him. Melba was rejected because of the costs involved with producing opera sequences and the difficulty of finding an appropriate singer to stand in for Melba. That left Kingsford Smith, who appealed in part because of his connection to the United States. Scripting Hall commissioned treatments from several writers, including Jesse Lasky, Jr., who was then stationed at Cinesound Productions with the US Signal Corps; Josephine O'Neill, a Sydney film critic; Kenneth Slessor, film critic and poet; and Max Afford, one of Australia's leading playwrights and radio writers. Early drafts focused on Smithy's first flight across the Pacific but then Hall decided to cover most of Smithy's life. Hall felt Afford's version was the best and the two of them developed a detailed treatment. Afford signed a contract in June 1944. The treatment was adapted by Alec Coppel, an Australian writer who had enjoyed success in London and returned to Australia during the war. Sydney journalist Norman Ellison provided research. Casting Ken G. Hall looked at 60 applicants to play the title role in Smithy, screen testing eight. Hall claimed the choice came down to Peter Finch and Ron Randell, a radio and theatre actor. Hall preferred Finch but sent extensive screen tests of both actors with Muriel Steinbeck back to Columbia in Hollywood. The studio picked