''The Shiralee'' is a 1957 British film in the Australian Western genre. It was made by

Ealing Studios Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever ...

, starring

Peter Finch Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch (28 September 191614 January 1977) was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio. Born in London, he emigrated to Australia as a teenager and was raised in Sydney, where he worked in vaudeville ...

, directed by Leslie Norman and based on the 1955 novel by

D'Arcy Niland D'Arcy Francis Niland (20 October 191729 March 1967) was an Australian farm labourer, novelist and short story writer. In 1955 he wrote '' The Shiralee'', which gained international recognition in its depictions of the experiences of a swagman a ...

. Although all exterior scenes were filmed in Sydney,

Scone A scone is a baked good, usually made of either wheat or oatmeal with baking powder as a leavening agent, and baked on sheet pans. A scone is often slightly sweetened and occasionally glazed with egg wash. The scone is a basic component ...

and

Binnaway, New South Wales Binnaway is a small town located on the Castlereagh River in central western New South Wales near the larger centre of Coonabarabran, which is about 35 kilometres to the north. In 2016, the town had a population of 425 people. The road linking t ...

and Australian actors Charles Tingwell,

Bill Kerr William Henry Kerr (10 June 1922 – 28 August 2014) was a British and Australian actor, comedian, and vaudevillian. Born in South Africa, he started his career as a child actor in Australia, before emigrating to Britain after the Second Wor ...

and Ed Devereaux played in supporting roles, the film is really a British film made in Australia, rather than an Australian film.

Plot

An itinerant rural worker named Macauley —sometimes described as a "swagman" or "swaggie"—suddenly finds himself taking responsibility for his child. In their time together in the barren landscapes of the outback, father and daughter bond. The child is the "shiralee", an Irish or Aboriginal word meaning "swag", or metaphorically, a "burden." Having returned to Sydney from "walkabout", he finds his wife living with another man. He beats up the man and takes his daughter, Buster, with him. Macauley tries to get a job with a previous employer, Parker, but he angrily tells Macauley to go away, saying he had left his daughter Lily pregnant. Macauley tries to leave Buster with some friends of his, but she runs after him and he relents. Macauley narrowly prevents his wife making off with Buster, but after Buster is hit by a car and badly injured, he finds out that his wife is divorcing him and trying to gain legal custody of Buster. He returns to Sydney to fight it, leading to a violent confrontation with his wife's new lover.

Cast

as Jim Macauley * Dana Wilson as Buster Macauley * Elizabeth Sellars as Marge Macauley * George Rose as Donny * Rosemary Harris as Lily Parker *

Russell Napier Russell Gordon Napier (28 November 1910 – 19 August 1974) was an Australian actor. Biography Russell Napier was born in Perth, Western Australia. Originally a lawyer, Napier was active as an actor on the stage as early as 1936; on the scree ...

as Mr. W.G. Parker *

Niall MacGinnis Patrick Niall MacGinnis (29 March 1913 – 6 January 1977) was an Irish actor who made around 80 screen appearances. Early life MacGinnis was born in Dublin in 1913.

as Beauty Kelly *

Tessie O'Shea Teresa Mary "Tessie" O'Shea (13 March 1913 – 21 April 1995) was a Welsh entertainer and actress. Early life O'Shea was born in Plantagenet Street in Riverside, Cardiff to newspaper wholesaler James Peter O'Shea, who had been a soldier and ...

as Bella Sweeney * Sid James as Luke Sweeney *

Charles 'Bud' Tingwell Charles William Tingwell AM (3 January 1923 – 15 May 2009), known professionally as Bud Tingwell or Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, was an Australian film, television, theatre and radio actor. One of the veterans of Australian film, he acted in his ...

as Jim Muldoon *

Reg Lye Reginald Thomas Lye (14 October 1912 – 23 March 1988), was an Australian actor who worked extensively in Australia and England. He was one of the busiest Australian actors of the 1950s, appearing in the majority of locally shot features at th ...

as Desmond *

Barbara Archer Barbara Janet Archer (born in London in 1933) is a British actress. She is perhaps best known for her appearance in the 1958 film ''Dracula'', starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Selected filmography * '' A Kid for Two Farthings'' (1955 ...

as Shopgirl *

Alec Mango Alec Mango (16 March 1911 – 7 November 1989) was an English actor. He is best known for portraying El Supremo in the 1951 ''Captain Horatio Hornblower'', he also appeared in '' South of Algiers'' (1953), ''The Strange World of Planet X'' (195 ...

as Papadoulos * John Phillips as Doctor * Bruce Beeby as solicitor *

Frank Leighton Frank Leighton (1908–1962) was an Australian actor best known for two leading roles in films for Ken G. Hall, ''Thoroughbred'' (1936) and '' Tall Timbers'' (1937). Biography Leighton was born in Sydney and studied at St John's School, Darlinghur ...

as barman *

Nigel Lovell Nigel Tasman Lovell (27 January 1916 – 13 December 2001) was an Australian stage, radio, film and television actor, and producer of opera and both stage and radio drama. History Lovell was born in Sydney, a son of Tasman Lovell, Professor of ...

as O'Hara * John Cazabon as Charlie the Butcher * Mark Daly as Sam * Ed Devereaux as Christy *

Guy Doleman Guy Doleman (22 November 1923 – 30 January 1996) was a New Zealand born actor, active in Australia, Britain and the United States. Early life Doleman was born in Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand, later moving to Australia. Career During the 1 ...

as Son O'Neill *

Lloyd Berrell Lloyd Berrell (13 February 1926 – 30 December 1957) was a New Zealand actor who played Reuben "Roo" Webber in the original Sydney production of ''Summer of the Seventeenth Doll''. He worked extensively in Australian radio and theatre, appearin ...

* Bettina Dickson * Gordon Glenwright * Fred Goddard * Clifford Hunter * Stuart McWhirter as person placing bet on swagmen *

Betty McDowall Betty McDowall (1924 – 1993) was an Australian stage, film and television actress. She was born in Sydney, New South Wales in 1924. Her television appearances include episodes of ''Z-Cars'', '' The Saint'' and ''The Prisoner''. On stage, she ...

as Girl at Parkers *

Henry Murdoch Henry Murdoch (17 September 1920 - 24 April 1987), born as George Henry Murdock, was an Australian aboriginal actor and stockman who appeared in Australian films of the 1940s and 1950s. He was working as stockman in Rockhampton when discovered b ...

* Frank Raynor * Lou Vernon * David Williams * Chin Yu *

as a shopkeeper (uncredited) * Ron Whelan

Production

Leslie Norman said he read the book, "loved it" and sent it to Michael Balcon at Ealing. According to Norman, "Mick roasted me, said it was full of foul language and how dare I? I said that it wouldn't be in the film, so he said all right and to get him a script."Brian McFarlane, ''An Autobiography of British Cinema'', Metheun 1997 p441 Ealing had paid a reported £10,000 for the film rights to the book. Norman says he wrote a script, showed it to Balcon who "claimed it was a different story, so we called in Neil Patterson to rewrite. He only rewrote one scene but it was enough to appease Mick. I suffered a lot from Mick." Ealing signed an agreement with MGM for the latter studio to distribute their films worldwide; ''The Shiralee'' was to be the first film they made together. Leslie Norman arrived in Sydney in April 1956 to begin preproduction. Finch arrived in July and an extensive talent search was conducted to find the actress to play Buster. Eight-year-old Dana Wilson of Croydon, Sydney, was cast. The film was shot in the last months of 1956, first on location in north east New South Wales near

, then at MGM's studios in London. Child stars were not encouraged in British cinema so Dana Wilson's presence was downplayed by the studio during the English leg of production. The cast included several Australian actors working in London.

Reception

The film was the tenth most popular film at the British box office in 1957 and earned $920,000 worldwide ($60,000 at the US and Canadian box office). After costs of production and distribution, the film made a profit of $149,000. Peter Finch later said the film and his role in it were among his favourites in his career."THE LOCAL FILM SCENE: Young Producer On the Go -- British Cooperation -- Mr. Finch's Story" by HOWARD THOMPSON. ''New York Times'' 2 Aug 1959: X5. Norman says Finch "was marvellous... it was great working with him. Of course he was not a Balcon sort of character at all – too wild a lifestyle."

Music

The song "Shiralee" used as soundtrack was sung by Tommy Steele and reached #11 on the United Kingdom Singles Chart in 1957.

References

Bibliography

# Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 224. # Albert Moran and Errol Vieth, ''Historical Dictionary of Australian and New Zealand Cinema'', Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2005.

External links

*
''The Shiralee''
at

Australian Screen Online The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national c ...

''The Shiralee''
at Oz Movies {{DEFAULTSORT:Shiralee, The 1957 films 1957 drama films British drama films Films based on Australian novels Films set in Australia Ealing Studios films Films directed by Leslie Norman Films produced by Michael Balcon Films scored by John Addison Films shot at MGM-British Studios 1950s English-language films 1950s British films