As sisters, they grew up as part of Sydney's social elite; listening in as their parents entertained celebrities with glittering soirees.

As filmmakers, they formed a trailblazing collective — writing, directing, and acting in silent films.

"A newspaper article at the time said, 'The McDonagh sisters with their unusual personalities generally get what they want'," film historian Graham Shirley says.

And — until the advent of sound in cinema — they largely did.

They defied expectations of women at the turn of the 20th century, and pushed the boundaries of Australian cinema beyond what they considered to be 'parochial' bush narratives.

But the story of these three headstrong women is little-known today.

'We were just born into it, y'see'

Isabel, Phyllis and Paulette were the eldest of the seven children in the McDonagh family.

A bohemian upbringing allowed them to imagine a future for themselves beyond traditional gender norms, and formed the bedrock of their arts education.

The McDonaghs (top L to R: Isabel, Aunt Mary, Phyllis, Paulette, Anita on Mary's knee, John). ( Supplied: Paula Dornan )

"We were just born into it, y'see," Paulette said in an oral history interview with Mr Shirley, recorded in 1974.

"Daddy loved theatricals. He was honorary doctor to J.C. Williamsons, who were the main theatre owners at that time," Paula Dornan, sibling to the three sisters and youngest of the McDonagh children, said in 1988.

"And all the celebrities that came out, it was a ritual on a Sunday night, they were entertained."

Touring artists were hosted by the McDonaghs at the weekly soiree.

"The girls used to tell me they were not allowed in and they would sit outside and listen to these magnificent artists — violinists, pianists, you name it," Paula said.

The family appeared to enjoy wealth in Dr McDonagh's lifetime, but his true financial situation became clear when he died at a young age in 1920.

His wife Annie was left to look after the seven children.

To make ends meet, she, along with Isabel, ran a nursing home from 1921 to 1925 in a colonial-era historical mansion on the shores of Sydney Harbour: Drummoyne House.

The McDonagh sisters used Drummoyne House for their elaborate film sets. ( Supplied )

The statuesque house and surrounding gardens would later become the backdrop for two of the McDonagh sisters' films.

"It had 40 rooms. In front of the building itself was a lawn with a great statue in the middle and all the gravel where the driveway around it," Paula remembered of Drummoyne House.

Every corner of the house was interrogated for its dramatic appeal.

"We used the bathroom, we used the bedroom, we used the lavatory. And those stairs, up and down those stairs," Paulette said.

Triple threat

The sisters fell naturally into their respective filmmaking roles.

"The McDonaghs were the only three-person women film collective of the silent period," says Mr Shirley, filmmaker, oral historian and a former senior curator at the National Film and Sound Archive.

"Paulette was the writer/ director. Phyllis was the art director, production manager and publicist and Isabel was the female lead, whose stage name was Marie Lorraine."

The McDonagh sisters worked in tandem. ( Supplied )

But by all accounts, they wrote, thought, directed and acted as one — and together, they wanted to bring Australian cinema into the global conversation.

Paulette, in particular, thought the typical Australian bush narratives — such as On Our Selection and Townies and Hayseeds — parochial.

She pushed for more naturalistic performances in her direction.

Meanwhile, Isabel's expressive range as a silent performer coupled with their astute cinematography earned the sisters critical acclaim.

A star is born

Having previously played a small role in a film called A Daughter of Australia, Isabel was properly 'discovered' while walking in central Sydney.

She, Paulette and Phyllis were stopped by famous silent-era film director Beaumont Smith, who was making a film called Joe.

"Isabel was very beautiful … people would look twice. And he said, had she ever thought of going into pictures, and she of course laughed," Paula remembered.

"He asked if she'd come down and have a screen test. And she went, and she got the leading role straightaway."

But it wasn't just beauty that the sisters possessed — they were determined to learn as much about the trade in any way possible.

The sisters were avid fans of Hollywood films; they would attend films together but only one of them went back on a repeated basis.

"I used to start in the morning and I'd sit there and love the film. Eat it up. Then I'd go back for the afternoon session. And I'd go [to the same film] at night. Now I saw where they took a close-up, where they took a middle shot, where they took a long shot. And what that meant to reach it. To get it real," Paulette said.

The 1926 film Those Who Love was a success. ( Supplied )

With financial assistance from an uncle, and their use of Drummoyne House, the McDonagh sisters were able to make their first two feature films.

They were romantic melodramas — Those Who Love (1926) and The Far Paradise (1928) — and were both box-office hits and financial successes.

'It could go one way or the other'

The Cheaters, released in 1929, is the McDonagh sisters' only complete surviving feature, and ironically marks the start of the decline of their career.

It was filmed first as a silent — but a revolution to sound filmmaking was cresting on the shores of Australia.

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The American part-talkie, The Jazz Singer, was released in 1928 in Australia, and filmmakers around the world were keen to stay ahead of the trend.

"Now there was virtually no sound equipment at that time — I'm talking about sound film production equipment — and what there was expensive," Mr Shirley explains.

The sisters went to a studio in Melbourne, where they filmed three sound on disc sequences.

"Two of them were dialogue sequences and the other one largely featured a song sung by Isabel at the piano," he says.

"But the problem with the film in 1929 when it was previewed at a Sydney theatre was the monitoring of the sound."

The Cheaters fell victim to the sound technology of the time and failed to live up to the success of its predecessors. ( Supplied: Graham Shirley )

Accounts of the preview screening differ. Some recall the volume was too loud, and others recall sound dropping out at inopportune times.

"Suddenly without any warning, it was the love scene between Isabel and the boy — and she's looking at him and he's looking at her — and from his mouth came not a sound," Paula said.

"It paralysed the theatre. There's a dramatic moment where it could go or one way or the other — they'd either feel sorry about it, or they'd start to laugh. And the whole audience went into uproarious laughter."

They later added a complete soundtrack to The Cheaters (1931), however by that point it was "hopelessly out of date", according to Paulette.

The film never received a proper release in Australian cinemas.

The sisters lost the money they had amassed from their early successes, and their financial difficulties were compounded by the Great Depression.

The writing on the wall

Undeterred, they embarked on their next and final feature film: Two Minutes Silence (1932).

It was an anti-war film adapted from the play by Sydney journalist (later politician) Leslie Haylen — and a radical departure from popular films of the time.

But once more their gamble would not pay off — critical opinion was divided and it failed financially.

"I think by then that Isabel realised that the writing was on the wall," Mr Shirley says.

"There was already several years of struggle and they'd given up Drummoyne House."

Their careers ultimately ended when they decided to pursue new personal and professional interests. Isabel married and Phyllis became a journalist in New Zealand.

Paulette, without her sisters, saw no point in continuing.

The sisters have all since died, but what remains of their films tells the story of three headstrong siblings who forged ahead when opportunities for Australian filmmakers — especially female filmmakers — were few, and who left an indelible mark on Australian silent cinema.