''Ned Kelly'' is a 1970 British-Australian

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

bushranger film Australian Western, also known as meat pie Western or kangaroo Western, is a broad genre of Western-style films or TV series set in the Australian outback or "the bush". Films about bushrangers (sometimes called bushranger films) are included i ...

. It was the seventh Australian feature film version of the story of 19th-century Australian

bushranger Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up " robbery unde ...

Ned Kelly Edward Kelly (December 1854 – 11 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout wi ...

, and is notable for being the first Kelly film to be shot in colour. The film was directed by

Tony Richardson Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson (5 June 1928 – 14 November 1991) was an English theatre and film director and producer whose career spanned five decades. In 1964, he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film ''Tom Jones''. Early ...

, and starred

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

in the title role. Scottish-born actor

Mark McManus Mark McManus (21 February 1935 – 6 June 1994) was a Scottish actor. He has played roles in British television series ''Sam,'' ''Bulman, The Brothers, Strangers,'' and ''Dramarama'' and starred in the feature film ''2000 Weeks''. He was best ...

played the part of Kelly's friend Joe Byrne. It was a British production, but was filmed entirely in Australia, shot mostly around Braidwood in southern

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, with a largely Australian supporting cast.

Plot

Ned Kelly is forced by police persecution to become a

. He robs several banks and is eventually captured after the

Siege of Glenrowan Edward Kelly (December 1854 – 11 November 1880) was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout wi ...

. He is hanged in Melbourne.

Cast

*Geoff Gilmour as

Steve Hart Stephen Hart (13 February 1859 – 28 June 1880) was an Australian bushranger, a member of the Kelly Gang. History Hart was born in Wangaratta to Irish immigrant parents Richard and Bridget Hart (née Young). He was their second son. His fam ...

Joe Byrne Joseph Byrne (21 November 1856 – 28 June 1880) was an Australian bushranger of Irish descent. A friend of Ned Kelly, he was a member of the "Kelly Gang" who were declared outlaws after the murder of three policemen at Stringybark Creek. Des ...

**McManus had previously played Dan Kelly in ''

Ballad for One Gun ''Ballad for One Gun'' is a 1963 Australian television film about Ned Kelly broadcast on ABC. It was originally aired 17 July 1963 in Sydney and shown at later dates in other parts of Australia. It was written by Phillip Grenville Mann. The ...

'' (1963). *

Serge Lazareff Serge Constantine Lazareff (7 August 1944 - 20 August 2021) was an Australian actor and screenwriter/editor, who was born in Shanghai, China. He appeared in 54 roles from the late 1960s until 1999, before starting a second career as a writer fo ...

as Wild Wright *

Peter Sumner Peter Malcolm Sumner-Potts (29 January 1942 – 22 November 2016), professionally known as Peter Sumner, was an Australian actor, director, and writer. He had a long career in theatre, television, and film. Career His credits include parts in su ...

as Tom Lloyd *

Ken Shorter Ken Shorter (born -1947), also credited as Kenneth Shorter. is an Australian actor best known for playing the title role in the biker film ''Stone'' (1974), and ''You Can't See 'round Corners'' (1969).> Television appearances include '' Skippy ...

as Aaron Sherritt * James Elliott as Pat O'Donnell *

Clarissa Kaye Clarissa Kaye (2 August 193121 July 1994) was an Australian stage, film and television actress. She was the second wife (1971–1984) of the British actor James Mason. After her marriage, she was often known as Clarissa Kaye-Mason. Biography ...

as Mrs. Kelly * Diane Craig as Maggie Kelly *Sue Lloyd as Kate Kelly *Alexi Long as Grace Kelly *Ken Goodlet as Supt. Nicholson **Goodlet had previously played Kelly in a 1960 telemovie. * Frank Thring as Judge Sir

Redmond Barry Sir Redmond Barry, (7 June 181323 November 1880), was a colonial judge in Victoria, Australia of Anglo-Irish origins. Barry was the inaugural Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, serving from 1853 until his death in 1880. He is arguably ...

* Bruce Barry as George King *Tony Bazell as Mr. Scott * Allen Bickford as Dan Kelly *

Robert Bruning Robert Bruning (27 May 1928 – 4 March 2008) was an Australian actor and film producer, who was the founder of film production firm Gemini Productions Biography Bruning was born as Robert Bell in Dongara, Western Australia in 1928. He worked a ...

as Sgt. Steele *Alexander Cann as McInnes *Janne Wesley as Caitlyn * Martyn Sanderson as Fitzpatrick *

John Laws Richard John Sinclair Laws CBE (born 8 August 1935) is a Papua New Guinean-born Australian radio announcer. For 50 years, until 2007, he was the host of an Australian morning radio program combining music with interviews, opinion, live advert ...

as Kennedy *Liam Reynolds as Lonigan *Lindsay Smith as McIntyre *John Gray as Stratton * Gerry Duggan as Father O'Hea

Development

Karel Reisz and Albert Finney

In the early 1960s,

Karel Reisz Karel Reisz (21 July 1926 – 25 November 2002) was a Czech-born British filmmaker, one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in British cinema during the 1950s and 1960s. Two of the best-known films he directed are '' Saturday Night and S ...

and

Albert Finney Albert Finney (9 May 1936 – 7 February 2019) was an English actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining prominence on screen in the early 1960s, debuting with '' The Entertainer'' (1960 ...

announced plans to make a film about

from a screenplay by David Storey. Finney and Reisz flew to Australia in October 1962 and spent ten weeks picking locations and doing research. In January 1963, it was reported the film would star Finney and

Angela Lansbury Dame Angela Brigid Lansbury (October 16, 1925 – October 11, 2022) was an Irish-British and American film, stage, and television actress. Her career spanned eight decades, much of it in the United States, and her work received a great deal ...

. The movie was meant to be Finney's next project after ''

Tom Jones Tom Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer *Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist *''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in 1 ...

'' (1963) and filming was to start in March 1963. The British arm of

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

agreed to put up the entire budget. However, British labour union regulations required a mostly British crew, and the cost of putting them up in Australia put the budget beyond what Columbia were willing to pay. (''Tom Jones'' had yet to be released.) Finney and Reisz went on to make '' Night Must Fall'' (1964) instead. Following this, Finney was still meant to make the film. However, he and Reisz eventually dropped out.

Tony Richardson and Mick Jagger

The project passed on to ''Tom Jones'' director

, who wrote the script in collaboration with Ian Jones, a Melbourne writer and producer of TV drama and expert on Ned Kelly. According to

Kevin Brownlow Kevin Brownlow (born Robert Kevin Brownlow; 2 June 1938) is a British film historian, television documentary-maker, filmmaker, author, and film editor. He is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era, having become inte ...

Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. His career spans seven decades, having performed in genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural i ...

was originally set to play the lead but the producers went for Mick Jagger. "I am taking this film very seriously", said Jagger at the time. "Kelly won't look anything like me. You wait and you'll see what I look like. I want to concentrate on being a character actor." During

pre-production Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the content start ...

, other filmmakers announced their own Ned Kelly projects including

Tim Burstall Timothy Burstall AM (20 April 1927 – 19 April 2004) was an English Australian film director, writer and producer, best known for hit Australian movie '' Alvin Purple'' (1973) and its sequel '' Alvin Rides Again''. Burstall's films featured ...

, Gary Shead and

Dino de Laurentiis Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (; 8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian-American film producer. Along with Carlo Ponti, he was one of the producers who brought Italian cinema to the international scene at the end of World War II. He ...

Production

The making of the film was dogged by problems; even before production began, Actors' Equity and some of Kelly's descendants protested strongly about the casting of Jagger in the lead role, and about the film's proposed shooting location in country

, rather than in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, where the Kellys had lived. Jagger's girlfriend of the time,

Marianne Faithfull Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single " As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the British I ...

, had come to Australia to play the lead female role (Ned's sister, Maggie), but their relationship was breaking up, and she took an overdose of

sleeping tablet Hypnotic (from Greek ''Hypnos'', sleep), or soporific drugs, commonly known as sleeping pills, are a class of (and umbrella term for) psychoactive drugs whose primary function is to induce sleep (or surgical anesthesiaWhen used in anesthesia ...

s soon after arrival in Sydney. She was hospitalised in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

, but recovered and was sent home. She was replaced by a then-unknown Australian actress, Diane Craig, then studying at NIDA. Shooting began on 12 July 1969 and took ten weeks. During production, Jagger was slightly injured by a

backfiring A backfire or afterburn is combustion or an explosion produced by a running internal combustion engine that occurs in the exhaust system, rather than inside the combustion chamber. It is also sometimes referred to as an afterfire, especially i ...

pistol, the cast and crew were dogged by illness, a number of costumes were destroyed by fire, and Jagger's co-star,

, narrowly escaped serious injury when a horse-drawn cart in which he was riding overturned during filming. Unlike most film versions, this is the first Ned Kelly film to feature the writing of "The Cameron Letter", one of Kelly's lesser-known and rarely published letters that was written to

Donald Cameron Donald Cameron may refer to: Scottish Clan Cameron * Donald Cameron of Lochiel (c. 1695 or 1700–1748), 19th Chief, and his descendants: ** Donald Cameron, 22nd Lochiel (1769–1832), 22nd Chief ** Donald Cameron of Lochiel (1835–1905), Scot ...

, a member of the

Parliament of Victoria The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly an ...

. The letter was Kelly's first attempt to gain public sympathy. However, Kelly's well-known letter,

The Jerilderie Letter The handwritten document known as the Jerilderie Letter was dictated by Australian bushranger Ned Kelly to fellow Kelly Gang member Joe Byrne in 1879. It is one of only two original Kelly letters known to have survived. The Jerilderie Letter is ...

, is omitted from the film.

Reception

The film was poorly received at its opening, and is still regarded as one of Richardson's least successful efforts. It was effectively disowned by Richardson and Jagger, neither of whom attended the London premiere. As late as 1980 Jagger claimed he had never seen the film.

Gerry Fisher Gerry Fisher, B.S.C. (23 June 1926 – 2 December 2014) was an English cinematographer. Biography He was born in London in 1926. Early employment by Kodak and De Havilland Aircraft was followed by service in the Royal Navy during WW II. Fisher ...

's cinematography, however, has been praised for its craftsmanship — repoussoir, shadow, reflection and understated lighting — giving the film a melancholy feel.

Arthur Krim Arthur B. Krim (4 April 1910 – 21 September 1994) was an American entertainment lawyer, the former finance chairman for the U.S. Democratic Party, an adviser to President Lyndon Johnson and the former chairman of Eagle-Lion Films (1946–1949 ...

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stu ...

later did an assessment of the film as part of an evaluation of the company's

inventory Inventory (American English) or stock (British English) refers to the goods and materials that a business holds for the ultimate goal of resale, production or utilisation. Inventory management is a discipline primarily about specifying the sha ...

When we programmed this picture we thought Mick Jagger would be a big personality with the younger audience. Unfortunately, his other film ''Performance'' came out just before ''Ned Kelly'' and failed. We have every belief that ''Ned Kelly'' will not do well either. In addition, Tony Richardson, the filmmaker handled the material in a very slow-paced manner and we have not been able to persuade him to make the cuts necessary to improve the film. This is again a case of programming a film in a time of much greater optimism about the size of the so-called youth orientated – particularly starring one of the new folk heroes.

A.H. Weiler of the ''New York Times'' said,

Box office

''Ned Kelly'' grossed $808,000 at the box office in Australia, which is equivalent to $7,716,400 in 2009 dollars.

Home media

Legacy

Ian Jones later wrote and produced (with his wife Bronwyn Binns) a

mini-series A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

on Kelly, '' The Last Outlaw'', which aired on the Seven Network in 1980. Australian actor John Jarratt starred as Kelly. The actual body armour costume worn by Jagger is on display at the

Queanbeyan Queanbeyan ( ) is a city in the south-eastern region of New South Wales, Australia, located adjacent to the Australian Capital Territory in the Southern Tablelands region. Located on the Queanbeyan River, the city is the council seat of the ...

City Library, New South Wales, and the initials "MJ" are scratched on the inside. The head-piece, like its original, was stolen.

Soundtrack

The ''Ned Kelly'' soundtrack features music composed by

Shel Silverstein Sheldon Allan Silverstein (; September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American writer, poet, cartoonist, singer / songwriter, musician, and playwright. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Silverstein briefly attended university before ...

and performed by

Kris Kristofferson Kristoffer Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is a retired American singer, songwriter and actor. Among his songwriting credits are " Me and Bobby McGee", " For the Good Times", " Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and " Help Me Make It Through the ...

and

Waylon Jennings Waylon Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He pioneered the Outlaw Movement in country music. Jennings started playing guitar at the age of eight and performed at age f ...

and produced by

Ron Haffkine Ron Haffkine (born December 13 in New York City, New York) is an American record producer, composer and music manager most recognized for his work as a producer and manager of Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show, an American rock band, producing hi ...

, with one solo track sung by Jagger and one sung by Tom Ghent.

Track listing

#Waylon Jennings – "Ned Kelly" #"Such is Life" #Mick Jagger – " The Wild Colonial Boy" #"What Do You Mean I Don’t Like" #Kris Kristofferson – "Son of a Scoundrel" #Waylon Jennings – "Shadow of the Gallows" #"If I Ever Kill" #Waylon Jennings – "Lonigan's Widow" #Kris Kristofferson – "Stoney Cold Ground" #"Ladies and Gentlemen" #Kris Kristofferson – "The Kelly's Keep Comin'" #Waylon Jennings – "Ranchin' in the Evenin'" #"Say" #Waylon Jennings – "Blame it on the Kellys" #Waylon Jennings – "Pleasures of a Sunday Afternoon" #Tom Ghent – "Hey Ned"

References

External links

* * * *
Ned Kelly (1970 film) at the National Film and Sound Archive''Ned Kelly''
at Mickjagger.com
''Ned Kelly''
at Oz Movies
Gaunson, Stephen (2010), ‘International Outlaws: Ned Kelly, Tony Richardson and the International co-production’, Studies in Australasian Cinema, Special Issue: ‘Australian International Pictures’, (eds) Adrian Danks and Constantine Verevis, 4.3, p. 253-263Geoff Stanton, 'Like a Rolling Stone: The Untold Story of the Kelly Gang' at ''From the Barrellhouse'' 25 April 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ned Kelly (1970 Film) 1970 films 1970 Western (genre) films 1970s historical films 1970s biographical drama films British biographical drama films Australian biographical drama films Films directed by Tony Richardson United Artists films Films set in colonial Australia Films set in Victoria (Australia) Bushranger films Cultural depictions of Ned Kelly Films set in the 19th century Films set in 1880 Films set on trains British Western (genre) films 1970 drama films Biographical films about bandits Australian films about revenge Australian vigilante films 1970s English-language films 1970s British films