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Given the plot line, this could easily have been cutesy or mawkish. It isn't, though. Peter Finch is brilliant in his understated playing and the supporting cast is very fine.

Maybe because I've known men estranged from their wives who have taken their children on their quests through life, I was fascinated and very moved. The last half or gets a little busy and the (anti)hero's leaving his daughter with an unknown wanderer is implausible. But Finch holds the hole together brilliantly. And the actress playing his little girl is a natural. She never tries to charm us. Perhaps that is a credit to the director as much as to the performer.

There are simialrities (if memory serves) between this and the later, better known and lauded "Paper Moon." Of the two, I prefer this by a hundred thousand miles.

It is a charmer and a bit of a heart-breaker -- much like the character played by Finch.

This is a brilliant little film that is also something of an archaeological dig.

It is set against a backdrop of Australian culture and attitudes, which are now about as extinct as those of the Hittites. At the time, the lifestyle it depicted was fading fast if not already gone.

Peter Finch plays Jim Macauley, who rescues his young daughter, Buster, from her mother's unsavoury lifestyle in a Sydney noticeably devoid of high rise buildings. He takes her with him on his journey as an itinerant worker, a swaggy, around rural Australia.

"The Shiralee" is a British film from Ealing studios (one of five made in Australia) with Australian and English actors; even Syd James is in it. Peter Finch plays Jim Macauley. At the time, his character would have been seen as the quintessential Aussie male: forthright, independent, scrappy, game for anything and with a well-developed sense of fairness. He had played just about the same character as Joe Harman in "A Town Like Alice". Jim and Joe are close relatives of George Johnston's "My Brother Jack".

I saw this film in 1957. Back then we were amazed to see Australia depicted on the screen at all, especially by British studios and Hollywood. We were decades away from Australians regularly picking up Oscars at Academy Award ceremonies.

Many of the characters have Australian accents as yet uninfluenced by decades of overseas television, and Dana Wilson as Buster Macauley delivers a performance that would be hard to beat from any child star; sadly she died this year (2015) aged only 66.

It's a poignant story in many ways with complex characters and situations, but it also has a broad vein of humour. One troubling aspect of the story is that Jim seems overly trusting when he leaves Buster in the care of others. However, most of the characters are honourable and well-intentioned.

This was Peter Finch's favourite among his films. Superbly photographed in black and white, in many ways "The Shiralee" is like opening a time capsule.

In that Australia, you could go a long way before encountering any kind of body piercing let alone a woman with a tattoo, and ice was something you had with your scotch and soda. The 1957 version is probably hard to find today, but let's hope it doesn't disappear altogether.

The Shiralee ends on a curious note. Will it's protagonist Peter Finch ever shape up and realize he has responsibilities? After watching it today I kind of wonder.

I doubt during the days of The Code whether a lead character like Finch ever could have been in an American film. He's charming and determined to seed those wild oats until the well runs dry. One of those wild oats became Dana Wilson his little daughter and the two live like vagabonds, not unlike the Carmody family in The Sundowners.

They're not enjoying life like the Carmodys though. Finch takes work where he can find it in the Australian national industry of sheep raising. There's no family unity here as the Carmodys have because Finch is totally estranged from his wife Elizabeth Sellars. He's also not picking things up either with another former flame Rosemary Harris. And another little side dalliance with shop girl Barbara Archer is the cause of some near tragedy.

If Finch can ever stop thinking with his male member there's a chance he might just finally grow up. For the sake of his little girl he'd better.

Despite all these character defects Finch being the great actor that he is does make you have a rooting interest in his hopefully eventual maturity.

The Shiralee is a wonderful picture of Australia in the 50s and even today one of the most optimistic places I've ever visited. This one is a real charmer and don't let it get away.

A really enjoyable film that shows a mans love for his little daughter and her love for him. He sometimes dismisses her but comes to realise that he is more fond of her than he cares to admit when she nearly dies.

Also the attractive shopgirl reminds us how nice women were in the fifties!! Great film - dated of course - but still wonderful. Just thought it ended rather abruptly and left us wanting more.........

Peter Finch's first film for Ealing was 'Eureka Stockade' and nearly ten years later he returned down under to make one of their last Australian productions; a film of which very few have heard but was actually the star's personal favourite of his own films, considering it most representative of his antipodean roots.

Finch is for once cast as a bona fide Australian and uncharacteristically rough round the edges. The film is a drama with an Australian setting rather than a travelogue with settings rather plainly rendered in black & white. A strong female contingent includes Tessie O'Shea, Elisabeth Sellars and a very young Rosemary Harris.