Captain Thunderbolt (film)

Captain Thunderbolt
Directed by Cecil Holmes
Produced by John Wiltshire
Written by Creswick Jenkinson
Starring Grant Taylor
Charles Tingwell
Music by Sydney John Kay
Cinematography Ross Wood
Edited by Margaret Cardin
Production
company
Associated TV
Distributed by Ray Films
Release dates
 1953 (overseas)
June 1955 (Australia)
Running time
 69 min. (53 min. TV version)
Country Australia
Language English
Budget ₤15,000[1]
Box office ₤30,000[1]

Captain Thunderbolt is a 1953 Australian action film from director Cecil Holmes about the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt. It was one of the few all-Australian films of the 1950s.[2]

Synopsis

Fred Ward is imprisoned for horse stealing. He escapes from Cockatoo Island and under the name of Captain Thunderbolt becomes a bushranger, working with his friend and fellow escapee Alan Blake.

Thunderbolt is tracked by the evil Sergeant Mannix who undertakes gunfights with the bushranger at a dance, then at a rocky outcrop, only to discover that he has killed Alan Blake instead. Mannix passes off Blake's body as Thunderbolt, enabling the bushranger to escape. The legend grows that Thunderbolt did not die.

Cast

Production

The budget was provided entirely by theatrical entrepreneur Sir Benjamin Fuller.[3][4]

The movie was shot in early 1951 on location in New England, New South Wales, and at the Royal National Park in Sydney, with studio work done in Supreme Sound System in North Sydney. The woolshed dance sequence was shot at a Pyrmont woolstore. One of Thunderbolt's robbery victims was played by Kathleen Drummond, daughter of the then-local MP David Drummond.

British censorship requirements meant that the real-life romantic relationship between Thunderbolt and his aboriginal girlfriend Mary, who helped him escape from Cockatoo Island, was not featured in the film when released in Britain.[5]

Captain Thunderbolt was allowed to live at the end of the film because the producers hoped to spin it off into a TV series.[6] This did not happen.

Release

The film did not receive a wide release in Australia - it did not play in Melbourne cinemas until late 1955, and Sydney until 1956. However it sold well overseas, including to American television.[7]

The only copy of the film in possession of the Australian National Film and Sound Archive is a 53-minute TV edition. The archive is looking for a copy of the full 69 minute version.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 216.
  2. ↑ "What Happens To Our Films?.". The Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW : 1949 - 1953). Sydney, NSW: National Library of Australia. 3 February 1952. p. 12. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  3. ↑ Sir Benjamin Fuller at Australian Dictionary of Biography
  4. ↑ "Sydney TV inquiry told: SACKED 'BECAUSE HE DEFIED MINISTER'." The Argus (Melbourne) 16 Feb 1955: 10 accessed 27 November 2011
  5. ↑ "Australia Makes Debut In T.V. Films." The Sunday Herald (Sydney) 8 Apr 1951: 1 Supplement accessed 27 November 2011
  6. ↑ "Melbourne audiences might soon see... 'JEDDA' IN PERSON.". The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956). Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia. 20 August 1955. p. 41. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
  7. ↑ "Local movie on television." The Australian Women's Weekly 28 Nov 1951: 57 accessed 27 November 2011
  8. ↑ "Australia's 'Lost' Films". National Film and Sound Archive.
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