Franklyn Barrett, one of Australia's maverick film-makers, was, I suspect, at heart a documentary maker. But he felt the need to spice up his documentaries about the Australian outback with fruity melodrama. Having seen a film he made a year before this one called "Breaking the Drought" recently, it is easy to see that Barrett was fascinated with the bush and farming practice. And he films this beautifully, almost poetically.
But he wasn't much of a dramatist. It's good to see in this film, however, a strong female lead - she runs the property and runs it very well - but the story is mainly about the struggle for her hand in marriage by a villainous bounder and an upright surveyor. The plot meanders through various mis-understandings, a massacre by Aboriginals, and a murder. There is some terribly racist material concerning the comic Chinese cook, but Barrett imbues the black tracker with psychic abilities!
Watch for a great couple of shots - one in a moving carriage, and another when the Queen of Hearts in a pack of cards transforms into our heroine! But Barrett's almost total avoidance of close-ups (again I think he was more interested in the landscape than the actors), gives us little chance to get to know the characters - indeed he gives the men no close-ups at all (perhaps he thought that would be too "poofy"), so sometimes it is hard to tell which man is which. Also some of the actors were clearly not professional and are very self-conscious, some even looking at the camera.
Still another interesting look at the Australian bush in the 1920's and some brilliant cinematography make this one worth a look. Black and white with colour tinting, and some nitrate decomposition.
