Die Kinder von Mara-Mara

What a breath of open air and joyful hope this film from the faraway "Dominion" of Australia would have brought to British children worn out from near six years of war 1939-1945, and continuing material shortages in every aspect of life! The sunshine, outdoors sights and sounds, freedom to roam, all had a powerful emotional impact. Ralph Smart caught something of Australia as Australians even now think it ought to be. Chips Rafferty looked and sounded just like the mythic Aussie outback male: capable, good-hearted, courageous and humorous. A fine achievement by the Children's Film Foundation, which was itself an expression of optimism as Britain emerged from a hard-draining war.

I didn't really expect much going into this movie, why would I? The name, the age and even it's country of origin (my own country) didn't have much to offer it. That is probably a reason why I enjoyed this movie so much, it blew my low expectations out of the water.

The film was shot a lot more cleanly than I expected, showcasing a nice look at Australian Bushland. The children actors, who if I'm to understand correctly were not very experienced, did a great job allowing me to believe their performance. To top it off it wasn't your typical holiday movie, its only tie to Christmas being the time of year it is set.

I honestly can't recommend this movie enough. If you can get your hands on a copy I recommend watching it.

The exotic wildlife looks without too much interest in this Aussie travelogue and template for the sort of thing the Children's Film Foundation were making ten years later as a trio of crooks (led inevitably by Chips Rafferty) are harassed by a bunch of kids.

This being Down Under, there isn't the water for (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) the miscreants to get their usual dunking at the conclusion.

"I don't expect you've ever heard of our valley," says the narrator. "Mara Mara is its name, the name the Australian blacks gave it hundreds of years before we came to their land. Mara Mara. It has a nice, sleepy sound, hasn't it? And we're a sleepy little town, too. Plenty of hard work, but never much excitement. That is to say, not until last Christmas. I must tell you about last Christmas, because then we had too much excitement for a little place like ours. It all started on the afternoon school broke up for Christmas holidays. Of course on our side of the world, Christmas comes in the middle of the summer."

Five children riding their horses from school take a forbidden path and meet two strangers, who give them money and make them promise not to tell anyone about them. The two men learn about Lucy. She's a mare belonging to Mr. Thompson, a sheep farmer and the father of three of the children: Helen (the oldest), John, and six-year-old Snow (so named for the color of his hair). The other two are Michael, an English boy staying with the Thompsons, and Neza, an Australian black who is the son of one of Mr. Thompson's stock men. The two men prove to be horse thieves, and when Lucy and her foal turn up missing the next morning, the children know it must have been them.

They're mortified. Mr. Thompson had saved up three years for that horse, and it's their fault she's gone. The police have no luck finding the thieves, but John is certain he knows where they've gone. The children tell Mrs. Thompson they're going camping. But their real plan is to find the thieves and get Lucy and the foal back.

The strong performances of the children, and the intelligence and resourcefulness of their characters, are the main strong points of this mildly engaging adventure story.

This pleasant kiddie flick has the benefit of being located in the relatively unusual Australian outback despite its Christmas period setting; as everyone knows, Australian Christmases are hot summery ones rather than marked by the cold weather which is so intrinsic to the Christmas spirit for the rest of the world. Although I've become familiar with a handful of Australian movies in fairly recent years, this is undoubtedly the oldest one I've watched so far – although, technically, this is a British-Australian co-production. For the record, the film was quite popular on its home turf and was, in fact, remade much later in 1983 with a young Nicole Kidman featured in the cast!

Anyway, writer-director Ralph Smart had a hand in concocting several earlier, notable British comedies – ALF'S BUTTON AFLOAT (1938), CONVICT 99 (1938), etc. – and later went into TV where he dealt with such heroic figures as William Tell and Robin Hood; indeed, BUSH Christmas adequately displays his light touch and sense of adventure which makes for a decent, low-key entertainment which passes the time amiably enough. The unassuming plot has to do with a group of young children (including a bungling, bespectacled Briton and a half-Aborigine tracker) falling foul of three horse thieves (one of whom is played by popular Australian actor Chips Rafferty).