La loi du fouet

Kangaroo which is the title of this first Hollywood production shot in Australia has this title if for no other reason than to give the movie-going public an identifiable Aussie image. It could have been entitled duck billed platypus and I wish they'd featured one or two of those in the film. As it was there weren't all that many kangaroos to see.

Maureen O'Hara actually fought to get into this film according to her memoirs and then regretted it. She liked the original script as a straightforward Aussie western and looked forward to the trip. Darryl Zanuck was going to cast his current mistress in the part, but Maureen talked him into using her.

However once she got to Australia the story was changed to include an incest angle that she found abhorrent. Part of the plot involved a pair of confidence men and robbers played by Peter Lawford and Richard Boone to lead Maureen's father Finlay Currie into believing Lawford is his long lost son. It wasn't real necessary to the story in my opinion either.

The fact that this was a first Hollywood production there and that any disharmony might have caused an international incident between the USA and Australia kept her from walking off the set. Not that there weren't problems with her co-stars, both Lawford and Boone she says treated her badly, especially after they were caught in a nasty scandal there that never saw the light of day until her memoirs.

On the other hand the scenes on the Australian outback are nicely done and when all is said and done, the film is just an average western set in the land down under.

The next Hollywood production shot there was The Sundowners and while star Robert Mitchum had his problems with the Aussie press also, The Sundowners is a light years better film than Kangaroo.

"Kangaroo" is an unusual film because it was made by Hollywood...on location in Australia. However, oddly, the stars are all Brits or Irish or Americans!

When the story begins, two crooks, Richard and John (Peter Lawford and Richard Boone), meet up and decide to fleece a nice old guy (Finlay Currie). However, as the film progresses, the nicer of the two crooks has second thoughts.

The problems for me are that the story never is very interesting and both leading men were awful....so I had a hard time caring for either. Overall, a mildly interesting time passer, and it's in color, but otherwise uninspired.

Maureen O'Hara, in her prime, is wasted in this rather dreary , pointless, outback yarn, shot in Technicolor, on location in Australia. Fortunately, she would rebound with 2 of her best roles, in "The Quiet Man" and "Against All Flags", where she had more interesting leading men(John Wayne, Errol Flynn) than the badly miscast urbane Peter Lawford, barely recognizable behind all that facial hair.

In a minimal effort to justify the title, we do see a couple of roos hopping about in one scene. But, at times, we see many more thirsty, hungry , cattle, who only have wind-blown dust to eat much of the time. The plot is an unfocused mishmash, that never really grabs our attention and never comes to any dramatic conclusion, aside from a big rainstorm that finally ends the long drought, that has the townies doing 'a rain dance'. Shortly before this, Lawford and Boone engage in a bizarre fight with bullwhips and a rifle, after being spotted in the bush by a couple of lawmen. ......Maureen, after begging to be included, wanted out after discovering what it was really going to be like. Perhaps the only saving grace for contemporary audiences was the brief shots of some of the native animals and natives, at a time when such weren't commonly available.

Good old fashion action drama set in the outback of Australia and actually filmed there. No cgi in this good adventure. Excellent cast of the day, great action, good music score, cinematography very good and one of the best dire history of its time. Cattle stampede, bushfires and kangaroos, what more can you want from a story. See it for what it is and don't judge it on things some reviewers obviously know nothing about. Now available mon PRIME.

You look at this cast, Peter Lawford, Maureen O'Hara, Chips Rafferty, Richard Boone and Finlay Currie, and you'd think this would be a winner. Well, not quite. The story line which draws on the fortunes of an Irish immigrant (Currie) and his daughter (O'Hara)to rural Australia just kind of wears out. Boone, of course, is at his hammy best as the bad guy and Lawford, in his pre-Ratpack days, provides the romantic interest but the story just seems to run out of steam, even with the efforts of veteran Aussie character actor, Chips Rafferty. If it shows up one night on the late show, you might want to watch it but I doubt if you'll remember much of it afterwards.