''Robbery Under Arms'' is a 1957 British

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combi ...

directed by Jack Lee and 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 ...

, Ronald Lewis,

David McCallum David Keith McCallum Jr. (born 19 September 1933) is a Scottish actor and musician. He first gained recognition in the 1960s for playing secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the television series '' The Man from U.N.C.L.E''. In recent years, McCall ...

Laurence Naismith Laurence Naismith (born Lawrence Johnson; 14 December 1908 – 5 June 1992) was an English actor. He made numerous film and television appearances, including starring roles in the musical films '' Scrooge'' (1970) and the children's ghost fil ...

and

Jill Ireland Jill Dorothy Ireland (24 April 1936 – 18 May 1990) was an English actress and singer. She appeared in 16 films with her second husband, Charles Bronson, and was additionally involved in two other of Bronson's films as a producer. Life and ca ...

. It is based on the 1888 Australian novel ''

Robbery Under Arms ''Robbery Under Arms'' is a bushranger novel by Thomas Alexander Browne, published under his pen name Rolf Boldrewood. It was first published in serialised form by ''The Sydney Mail'' between July 1882 and August 1883, then in three volumes i ...

'' by Thomas Alexander Browne who wrote under the pseudonym Rolf Boldrewood.

Plot

In 1865 Australia, the two Marston brothers, bold Dick and sensitive Jim, are drawn into a life of crime by their ex-convict father Ben and his friend, the famous cattle thief Captain Starlight. They help take some cattle their father and Starlight have stolen across the country to

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

, where they are sold, with Starlight impersonating an English gentleman claiming to own the rustled herd. The two brothers take their share of the money and go to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

. On board ship, they meet the Morrison sisters: greedy Kate and nice Jean, who are romanced by Dick and Jim respectively. They read that Starlight has been arrested, and return home, where they and their father narrowly escape arrest. The brothers are then reunited with Starlight, who has left prison, and join him and some other men in robbing a coach, in which a trooper is shot and killed. Dick and Jim go to the gold fields to make enough money to escape to America. There, they are reunited with Kate, who is married but is still interested in Dick, and Jean, who Jim marries. Just as the brothers are about to leave to start a new life, Captain Starlight and his gang (including Ben Marston) arrive to rob the local bank. During the robbery, several people are killed by Starlight's gang (although not by Starlight), including a mother protecting child. Jim Marston is captured by locals and is about to be lynched, but is rescued by a trooper who comes to arrest him. Dick rescues Jim from the trooper, but is killed in the attempt. Jim hides out with Starlight and his father, but misses his wife too much and goes back to see her. Starlight and Ben Marston are killed in a shoot out with police. Jim Marston is arrested.

Cast

– Captain Starlight * Ronald Lewis – Dick Marston *

– Ben Marston * Maureen Swanson – Kate Morrison Mullockson *

– Jim Marston *

Vincent Ball Vincent Martin Ball OAM (born 4 December 1923) is an Australian retired character actor of radio, stage and screen, active in the industry for nearly 55 years (with a brief return) firstly in Britain and then his native Australia. He has also a ...

– George Storefield *

– Jean Morrison * Dudy Nimmo – Eileen Marston *

Jean Anderson Jean Anderson (12 December 1907 – 1 April 2001) was an English actress best remembered for her television roles as hard-faced matriarch Mary Hammond in the BBC drama '' The Brothers'' (1972–1976) and as rebellious aristocrat Lady Jocelyn " ...

– Ma Marston * Ursula Finlay – Grace Storefield * John Cadell – Warrigal, black rustler *

Larry Taylor Samuel Lawrence Taylor (June 26, 1942 – August 19, 2019) was an American bass guitarist, best known for his work as a member of Canned Heat from 1967. Before joining Canned Heat he had been a session bassist for The Monkees and Jerry Lee Le ...

– Burke, new rustler *

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 ...

– Banker Green * Max Wagner – Sergeant Goring * Bartlett Mullins – Paddy *

Ewen Solon Peter Ewen Solon (7 September 1917 – 7 July 1985) was a New Zealand-born actor, who worked extensively in both the United Kingdom and Australia. At the outbreak of World War II, Solon became a member of the First Echelon, 2nd NZEF that saw ...

– Sergeant Arthur

Production

Development

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 ...

had planned to make the film after '' The Overlanders'' (1946) and ''

Eureka Stockade The Eureka Rebellion was a series of events involving gold miners who revolted against the British administration of the colony of Victoria, Australia during the Victorian gold rush. It culminated in the Battle of the Eureka Stockade, whic ...

'' (1949), and they hired William Lipscomb to do the script.

Gregory Peck Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the 12th-greatest male star of Classic Hollywood ...

at one stage was announced as a possible star. In June 1949 Ealing announced Ralph Smart would direct the film after ''Bitter Springs'' at an estimated budget of £250,000 with John McCallum as a possible star. Ken G. Hall wanted to direct. However plans to make the film were hampered by the closing of Pagewood Studios. Leslie Norman was keen to produce. Then in the mid 1950s director Jack Lee and Joe Janni had a big hit with the Australian-themed '' A Town Like Alice'' (1956), starring Peter Finch and written by Lipscomb. Rank put Lee and Janni under contract for two years and had Finch under contract. The three were reunited for the movie.

had made '' The Shiralee'' (1957) in Australia immediately before. Jack Lee later said:

I made a mistake choosing ''Robbery Under Arms'', a complicated Victorian novel with masses of plots and subplots and too much moralising. However I went ahead and chose the part for Peter Finch, who complained that he was overshadowed by everyone else, and in a way he was right. Janni and I weren't happy with the script and would have liked to put it off for another year. But we were under pressure from Rank and we had to go ahead with an inadequate script. There are one or two nice scenes in it but it's too slow and talky.Brian MacFarlane, ''An Autobiography of British Cinema'', Methueun 1997 p 357-358

Shooting

Shooting began in January 1957 on location in Australia at the

Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhabit ...

, South Australia and near

Bourke, New South Wales Bourke is a town in the north-west of New South Wales, Australia. The administrative centre and largest town in Bourke Shire, Bourke is approximately north-west of the state capital, Sydney, on the south bank of the Darling River. it is also ...

, with two days filming at Pagewood Studios. In April the unit moved to the UK where interiors and exteriors were shot at Pinewood studios in Buckinghamshire.Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, ''Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 225 During the making of the film, on-screen couple

and

fell in love off screen as well, and married once they returned to England.

Reception

The film was popular at the Australian box office, although reviews were poor. ''Filmink'' magazine said "there's no real theme or story uniting it all... There's no interesting mystery or enigma to Starlight... All the cool things he does in the book... are cut out except for the bit where he impersonates a gent from England. There's no real relationship between Starlight and the boys... A real dull mess."

References

External links

* *
''Robbery Under Arms''
at

AustLit AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (also known as AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway; and AustLit: The Resource for Australian Literature), usually referred to simply as AustLit, is an internet-based, non-profit collaboration betwee ...

''Robbery Under Arms''
at Oz Movies
'Killing the Narrator: National Differences in Adaptations of Robbery Under Arms' by E Webby, National Library of Australia, 2006
{{Bushrangers , state=collapsed 1957 films Films directed by Jack Lee 1957 crime drama films Bushranger films Films set in the 19th century British crime drama films Films set in colonial Australia Films based on Australian novels Films shot at Pinewood Studios Films shot in Flinders Ranges 1950s English-language films 1950s British films