Not a very well known movie despite being directed by William Wellman and starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne... and being set in Australia. It's based on stories about a gentleman bushranger, which I'd never heard of - I'm actually surprised no one has ever had a crack at the Stingaree stories since.
Anyway the plot is about bushranger Dix becoming infatuated by colonial gal Dunne who is a singer - he pretends to be a gentleman of leisure to hang around her and encourages her to sing, and they fall in love, and she finds out he's a bushranger and is offended and she becomes a star but loves him.
The plot reminded me of 1940s Betty Grable musicals with their misunderstandings - only here with a bushranging element. There's a little bit of action but not much. Andy Devine is Dix's sidekick that's how authentically Australian it feels.
There's too much singing - not just Dunne but also her mother. The film feels darkly lit with low ceilings - I'm not sure Wellman was a great musicals director. There are rapey elements in Dunne's romance with Dix. Dix is too fat to be a scary bushranger though he has a little bit of charm.
John Ford apparently wanted to do the stories in the 1930s. That would have been interesting.
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