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With the fear of a Japanese invasion, the government wants to prepare for occupation and war in the thinly populated territories -- fewer than five thousand White men, as the narrator notes, and over a million head of cattle. The result is a cattle drive, led by Chips Rafferty and John Nugent Hayward, and this obvious western movie is set in Australia, produced by Ealing, and looks to have been the source of many of the drive scenes from Howard Hawks' Red River two years later.

That's almost certainly overstating it; it's not like there were ten thousand or so western movies produced in the US for Hawks, his writers, and his cameramen to lift shots from. While you can shoot a sequence of cattle crossing a river ten thousnd different ways, depending on where you place the cameras, there's certainly a family resemblance in the assortment., and Michael Balcon's staff at Ealing had seen their share of westerns too. So they took the obvious route for the movie, adding a score that seems a touch to heroic. Well, it's a wartime movie, and it was a massive undertaking. It's a very well done 'Shaky A' western, even though it isn't. And is.

Many Australians are unaware of the threat posed to the top end of Australia as a direct result of a Japanese attack on Darwin during WW11. Many residential owners of farms and properties, including livestock were either destroyed or moved to safety. This film covers one such major attempt to shift thousands of prime livestock south - away from the perceived threat of advancing enemy troops. This epic cattle drive involved a massive droving venture on a scale not attempted before (1,600 miles) - which the threat of an approaching invader left little time to properly organise. This arduous journey stretched from Western Australia, through the Northern Territory to Brisbane Queensland, a vast and challenging area indeed.

This film, being the first of British Ealing Studios/Australian branch productions - covers the trials of this mighty excursion, detailing the many dangers and obstructions encountered by the small band of locals - determined to save their livelihoods while keeping the vital meat supply from an approaching enemy. Aussie, Chips Rafferty does well as the lanky stockman who suggests and implements the risky drive, while another Aussie Peter Pagan turns in able support as 'Sinbad' the ex-British sailor. Lovely Australian nursing orderly Daphne Campbell plays the daughter of a family who also joins the mighty trek southward - along with several experienced Aborigines hired as stockmen assisting with the cattle. All cast members work well together making this an impressive first-off Brit/Aussie feature. Young Daphne Campbell turned down future offers of roles overseas to stay home and raise a family.

While this production was financially successful, the following Ealing feature "Eureka Stockade" (a fine and much more involved venture) did not sell well, unfortunately ending Ealing's Australian arm's operations. Both are recommended vintage productions for equal interest as entertainment and history. The often barren Outback settings are effectively shot in stark B/W adding further drama.

Fearing a Japanese invasion of the Northern Territories, Dan MacAlpine (Chips Rafferty) and a small group of drovers (including a sheila (Helen Grieve)), drive a thousand head of cattle 1600 miles across the outback to Brisbane. Although not a lot happens, the film is engaging, entertaining and very well made. Other than the accents, a number of "good on ya"s, and the occasional references to things such as 'billy bongs', the most noticeable difference between this opus and an epic Hollywood cattle-opera is the near absence of guns (they appear to have a single Lee Enfield rifle in case of crocs). Although preceded by Silver Screen's latest 'may offend' boilerplate, there are only a couple of offhand comments that might raise sensitive eyebrows and the two aborigine drovers are shown as competent, valuable members of the team. The music is a bit overwhelming at times but the great desert scenery and the general good-naturedness of the epic more than makes up for it (plus there is a 'stare-down' scene worthy of Sergio Leone). Not 'action packed' but well worth watching, mate.

This is an impressive film, crammed with poetic images. The strong story, elegantly told, revolves around a team of cattle-drovers who undertake an epic task: to move a herd of 1,000 cattle from the north coast of Australia 1,600 miles across the outback to Queensland. A late wartime flag-waver, this movie was Ealing Studios' first foray into 'empire' subject matter. With Australia's Northern Territory facing the threat of invasion by the Japanese, a small group of assorted individuals decides to drive a herd overland to keep it from falling into the enemy's hands. Relying on their own inherent grit and resourcefulness, the overlanders cope with crocodiles, drought, desertions and stampedes as they try to bring their cattle safely into Brisbane. Chips Rafferty, as Dan McAlpine, the leader of the team, personifies Australian qualities of toughness and decency. Nicely understated action scenes and a relaxed, naturalistic style of acting make this a very watchable movie. The viewer is skilfully drawn in, and quickly develops genuine concern for the likeable characters. All in all, an excellent film.

The most striking characteristic of this film is its splendid cinematography - for a cineast enjoying fine photography, this is an inexhaustible gold mine of fine sequences. The story is no less impressing, it's a true story, of how a determined farmer decided to rather drive his thousands of cows across all Australia than leave to the Japanese, as the invasion was imminent. It's a wondrous epic of surmounting atrocious difficulties, constantly under the threat of the herd starting a stampede, which the thousand bullocks actually do twice, and the question of the miracle of how so many cows could be well and appropriately directed into a film must arise. Well, they did it, and as a true story made almost like a documentary, it is better and more impressing than most westerns, excelling them all in downright determined stalwartness obliged by necessity, in absolutely genuine Aussie style.