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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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".