Captain Thunderbolt (film)

Captain Thunderbolt is a 1953 Australian action film from director Cecil Holmes about the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt. It was one of the few all-Australian films of the 1950s.^[4]

Captain Thunderbolt
Poster
Directed by	Cecil Holmes
Written by	Creswick Jenkinson
Produced by	John Wiltshire
Starring	Grant Taylor Charles Tingwell
Cinematography	Ross Wood
Edited by	Margaret Cardin
Music by	Sydney John Kay
Production company	Associated TV
Distributed by	Ray Films
Release dates	8 September 1955 (1955-09-08) (Sydney) June 1956 (1956-06) (England)
Running time	69 minutes (53 minutes TV version)
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	£15,000[1][2][3]
Box office	£30,000[1]

Synopsis

Fred Ward is imprisoned for horse stealing. He escapes from Cockatoo Island and under the name of Captain Thunderbolt becomes a bushranger in the New England region, working with his friend and fellow escapee Alan Blake. Blake has a romantic involvement with a "half-caste" (sic) girl Maggie that equally infringes the norms of the day.

Thunderbolt is tracked by the vengeful Trooper Mannix. After gunfights with the bushranger at a dance, then at a rocky outcrop, Mannix discovers that he has killed Alan Blake instead. Mannix passes off Blake's body as Thunderbolt, concealing the bushranger's escape. The legend grows that Thunderbolt did not die.

Cast

• Grant Taylor as Captain Thunderbolt
• Charles Tingwell as Alan Blake
• Rosemary Miller as Joan
• Harp McGuire as Trooper Mannix
• John Fegan as Sergeant Dalton
• Jean Blue as Mrs Ward
• John Fernside as Colonel
• Loretta Boutmy as Maggie
• Ronald Whelan as Hogstone
• Charles Tasman as Colonial Secretary
• Harvey Adams as parliamentarian
• Patricia Hill as Belle
• John Brunskill as Judge

Production

The budget was provided entirely by theatrical entrepreneur Sir Benjamin Fuller.^[5][6]

It was a return to leading man roles for Grant Taylor.^[7]

Holmes scouted locations around Armidale in late January 1951.^[8]

The movie was shot in early 1951 on location in New England, New South Wales, and at the Royal National Park in Sydney, with studio work done in Supreme Sound System in North Sydney. The woolshed dance sequence was shot at a Pyrmont woolstore. One of Thunderbolt's robbery victims was played by Kathleen Drummond, daughter of the then-local MP David Drummond.^[3]

Filming started near Armidale on 5 March for ten days then the unit moved to Uralla.^[9] Taylor was accompanied by his wife during filming.^[10]

British censorship requirements meant that the real-life romantic relationship between Thunderbolt and his aboriginal girlfriend Mary, who helped him escape from Cockatoo Island, was not featured in the film when released in Britain.^[3] According to Filmink "Holmes was a bit of a lefty in real life, and he fashions the story so poor old Thunderbolt is a victim of the upper classes. Holmes was conservative enough, however, to remove Thunderbolt’s aboriginal wife from the story entirely."^[11] Loretta Boutmy, a singer, plays the role in blackface.^[3]

Captain Thunderbolt was allowed to live at the end of the film because the producers hoped to spin it off into a TV series.^[12] (This did not happen.) Crewsick Jenkinson said the idea to write it that way came from his research which revealed that Frederic Britten died for Thunderbolt.^[13]

Release

The film was meant to be released in August 1951.^[2] However it did not play in Melbourne or Sydney cinemas until late 1955.^[14] The Sydney Morning Herald called it "modest but enterprising" with "stagy dialogue scenes.^[15]

The film sold well overseas, including to American television.^[16][17]

53-minute TV edition in 16mm format of the film is in possession of the Australian National Film and Sound Archive. The missing full version was located in Prague in 2024 and obtained by NFSA.^[18] The Archive has published the Trailer originating from a 35mm print.^[19]

References

1. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 216.
2. "PERSONAL ITEMS", 105 volumes : illustrations (chiefly coloured), portraits (chiefly coloured); 30-40 cm., The Bulletin, John Ryan Comic Collection (Specific issues)., 73 (3724), Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 27 June 1951 [1880], ISSN 0007-4039, nla.obj-525477717, retrieved 19 August 2023 – via Trove
3. "Australia Makes Debut In T.V. Films". The Sunday Herald (Sydney). No. 115. New South Wales, Australia. 8 April 1951. p. 1 (Features). Retrieved 19 August 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
4. "What Happens To Our Films?". The Sunday Herald. Sydney. 3 February 1952. p. 12. Retrieved 25 August 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
5. Sir Benjamin Fuller at Australian Dictionary of Biography
6. "Sydney TV inquiry told: SACKED 'BECAUSE HE DEFIED MINISTER'." The Argus (Melbourne) 16 February 1955: 10, retrieved 27 November 2011
7. Vagg, Stephen (29 July 2019). "Unsung Aussie Filmmakers – Grant Taylor: A Top Ten". Filmink.
8. "Life Of Thunderbolt To Be Televised". The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser. No. 3817. New South Wales, Australia. 2 February 1951. p. 8. Retrieved 19 August 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
9. "FILM OF CAPTAIN THUNDERBOLT'S LIFE". The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser. No. 3830. New South Wales, Australia. 5 March 1951. p. 4. Retrieved 19 August 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
10. "Resemary Miller Likes Armidale". The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser. No. 3832. New South Wales, Australia. 9 March 1951. p. 2. Retrieved 19 August 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
11. Vagg, Stephen (24 July 2019). "50 Meat Pie Westerns". Filmink.
12. "Melbourne audiences might soon see... 'JEDDA' IN PERSON". The Argus. Melbourne. 20 August 1955. p. 41. Retrieved 25 August 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
13. Australian Broadcasting Commission. (16 December 1950) [1939], "SHON BUSINESS", v. : ill.; 29cm., ABC Weekly, 12 (50), Sydney: ABC, nla.obj-1526914825, retrieved 19 August 2023 – via Trove
14. "After four years. Thunderbolt is in Sydney". Tribune. No. 911. New South Wales, Australia. 7 September 1955. p. 7. Retrieved 19 August 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
15. "Captain Thunderbolt". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 September 1955. p. 29.
16. "Local movie on television." The Australian Women's Weekly 28 November 1951: 57, retrieved 27 November 2011
17. The bulletin, John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 1880, retrieved 24 March 2019
18. "Captain Thunderbolt Rudes Again".
19. "Australia's 'Lost' Films". National Film and Sound Archive. Archived from the original on 15 September 2011. Retrieved 21 August 2011.

External links

• Captain Thunderbolt at IMDb
• Interview with Philip Hawkes who played the young Thunderbolt at Moviememorabilie on YouTube
• Captain Thunderbolt at National Film and Sound Archive
• Captain Thunderbolt at Oz Movies
• Specific website for the search for this film.