Randell on the grounds of his greater romantic appeal. Muriel Steinbeck later confirmed that Hall wanted Finch but Columbia did not feel he had sufficient "sex appeal." She said that Hall then wanted Dick Bentley but Columbia did not want to cast a comedian. Ron Randell was cast instead. Muriel Steinbeck was the only actor considered for the female lead in Smithy. She had previously appeared with Randell in A Son is Born, a film whose release was held up to take advantage of publicity for Smithy. Shooting Although Smithy was entirely financed by Columbia Pictures, Ken G. Hall made it using his Cinesound crew and shot it mostly at Cinesound's studio in Bondi. The aircraft used in Smithy was the genuine Southern Cross, which had been purchased by the Australian Government 10 years earlier and refurbished by the RAAF. A surplus RAAF CAC Boomerang was used in flying sequences for Kingsford Smith's Lady Southern Cross Lockheed Altair. Two former co-pilots of Kingsford Smith, P.G. Taylor and Harry Purvis played themselves, as did former Prime Minister Billy Hughes. Hall says Alec Coppel had written a scene where Kingsford Smith tried to persuade Hughes to let him compete in an air race and Hughes switches off his hearing aid. Hughes was sensitive, however, about his deafness and reference to it was removed in the shooting script. Smithy featured the first on screen appearance of noted Australian actor Charles "Bud" Tingwell who was cast as a RAAF control tower officer – winning the role as he could supply his own RAAF uniform. Reception Smithy had its world premiere at a gala screening in Sydney on 26 June 1946, attended by the cast and crew, the Premier of New South Wales, and Shirley Ann Richards, who was visiting Australia at the time. Critical Reviews were generally positive, although not without criticisms. Writing in 2019, Stephen Vagg described Muriel Steinbeck's "wife" part as "a decent one – she gets to flirt, and worry and fight, and the film improves immeasurably once her character becomes part of the action." US release Smithy was released in the United States as Pacific Adventure. The Los Angeles Times noted the film "while technically acceptable is pretty much a stereotype of all the other histories of aviation pioneering... Ron Randell makes a likeable hero." The New York Times wrote that "... it is unfortunate that the people who made