Captain Thunderbolt (1953)
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.
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I'll tell you why so serious
Don't listen to the negative reviews
Blistering performances.
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
First feature film by Cecil Holmes, a New Zealander who came to Australia just before our TV started. Big in energy and ambition, Holmes threw a lot into this picture (his word) with a dedicated cast and crew -- they were all tired of English and US film travesties being made in this country. Black and white visual poetry by Ross Wood, dean of Australian cinematography at that period -- unforgettable. There's a good still in Pike and Cooper's book Australian Film 1900-1977, published by Oxford UP. Probably no 35mm prints remain anywhere in full length of 69 minutes (yes, it was low budget, but it was quality). Classically forceful sequence in a bar where the piano-man can overhear the secret -- now that was imaginative sound! Robert Allan, the sound man, was also a New Zealander. In the language of the film's 50 years ago, "A Good Try".