When I got into old Aussie film Chauvel got more academic interest than Ken G Hall - I think because his films offered more for academics to write about they were often bonkers, full of personal vision and weirdness.
This is one of the trilogy of good Chauvel films - the others are Forty Thousand Horsemen and Jedda. It's a full blooded melodrama which as Hall pointed out didn't need to be shot on location for the most part but what is there is pretty spectacular.
The first half of this movie was annoying with the Irish brogues and Matthew looking like a hipster and all this ripe dialogue and Thelma Scott looking battered. But there's always stuff of interest - like the "confirmed bachelor" uncle, Scott was a good actor and her eyes reek of pain (I think they should have killed dad in the first five minutes and made her character more prominent), and you can discuss themes of nation building and the relationships between the sexes.
The second half is better when there's a love triangle between two brothers over the girl. Wendy Gibb is sexy as hell and Ken Wayne and Michael Pate are fine actors - Pate's BBC style enunciation annoyed me at first (he plays it like a forty year old) but I got used to it and the drama is strong. They make allowances for Pate by having Wayne be a pants man.
John Ewart is lively as the cheeky brother and I enjoyed Tommy Burns as another. The fifth brother is a nervous wreck - is he coded as gay? I don't want to read things into it that aren't there - but that's what Chauvel movies do! Only Pate and Wayne get much of a look in which I feel dramatically was more of a mistake. I think the brothers should have left earlier, dad killed earlier, and one of the other brothers should have had a decent subplot - maybe died, like Beth in Little Women. The film could have used villains too.
Some strong action - a horse stampede, a brawl, a storm. Chauvel was a good director he just needed better scripts and a stronger producer.
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