The Australian Story (1952/aka Kangaroo/VCI
DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film: C+
Over
three decades before Rupert Murdoch bought 20th Century-Fox, the
studio made the drama The Australian
Story in 1952. Lewis Milestone
directed the film also known as Kangaroo
and with some elements of the film Western, Maureen O’Hara (in her prime) led
the cast of this tale of the country during a 1910 drought. I was not always convinced of the ethnicity
of many of the characters (like so many a Hollywood Western), but the film is
competent and watchable.
However,
it has also aged in odd ways. Peter
Lawford and Richard Boone play outlaws using an alcoholic rancher (Finlay
Currie) to hide themselves sin plain site as legitimate businessmen, but Dell
(O’Hara) will soon be onto them and can she stop them, will she fall for one of
them or will she survive all the ordeals around her.
Fox was
hoping to have a little bit of Gone With
The Wind going for it and they also bragged how it was Hollywood’s first
film to be produced in Technicolor in Australia, but it has not been a
well-remembered film and despite an interesting climax, it is a short 84
minutes and has not aged well. I still
thought it was interesting and worth having in print, but why Fox has not
issued it is odd. Charles “Bud” Tingwell
also stars.
The 1.33
X 1 image was originally issued in three-strip Technicolor prints, but this
copy does not have very good color, but worn-color that looks aged and dated,
not the clean, clear, vibrant, amazing color the three-strip, dye-transfer
Technicolor process would deliver.
Director of Photography Charles G. Clarke (Miracle On 34th Street, on Blu-ray elsewhere on this
site) did a nice job here, but this print just does not show it. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is better and
surprisingly clean and clear for its age.
Trailers for other VCI releases are the only extras.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
