When the Kellys Rode

When the Kellys Rode is a 1934 Australian film directed by Harry Southwell about Ned Kelly.

When the Kellys Rode
Directed byHarry Southwell
Written byHarry Southwell
StarringHay Simpson
CinematographyTasman Higgins
Production
company
Imperial Feature Films
Distributed byBritish Empire Films
Release date
August 1934 (NZ)
October 1934 (Australia)
June 1948 (re-release)
CountryAustralia
Budget£10,000[1] or £8,000[2]
Box office£750[2]

Plot

The story of Ned Kelly and his gang. A policeman comes to arrest Dan Kelly, which results in him being shot and Ned Kelly going on the run with his gang. They rob several banks but are captured and killed at the Glenrowan Hotel.

Cast

Production

The film was produced by Imperial Films which was incorporated in 1933 with a capital of £20,000.[4]

Southwell had planned to call the film The Kelly Gang, but the Commonwealth censor objected to the use of the word gang in the title.[5]

It was filmed on location in the Megalong Valley in the Blue Mountains and in Cinesound's Studio at Rushcutter's Bay. Southwell hired a crew from Cinesound Productions.[6]

The film is considered to be first adaptation of the Kelly story with sound.[7]

Release

The film was forbidden from being exhibited in New South Wales for more than ten years under the ban on bushranging films.[8] The government thought that the film glorified bushrangers, and showed the police in a bad light.[9] The filmmakers protested but were unsuccessful.[10] However the movie was passed, with cuts, for screening in Victoria and other states.[11][12]

Critical response was unenthusiastic.[13] The film performed poorly at the box office and only returned £750 of which £500 went to the producers.[2]

The ban was lifted in 1942[14] and the film was re-released in 1948.[15][16]

Leslie Hay-Simpson, a Sydney solicitor, who played Ned Kelly, was later lost at sea between Lord Howe Island and Sydney. He had been on Lord Howe Island during October 1936, acting in Mystery Island, a Paramount Pictures film directed by J. A. Lipman.[17]

References
  1. "Belated HUSH-HUSH About OUR Bushrangers". The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia. 19 May 1934. p. 2. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  2. "Counting the Cash in Australian Films"', Everyones 12 December 1934 p 19-20
  3. "Kelly Gang theme of new talkie". The Courier-Mail. 15 January 1934. p. 18. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
  4. "EMPIRE FILMS". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 8 November 1933. p. 12. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  5. "The Kelly Film". The Sydney Morning Herald. 11 December 1933. p. 5. Retrieved 19 June 2012.
  6. "HISTORY". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 5 January 1934. p. 8. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  7. essay "Films on Ned Kelly" by Justin Corfeild, first published in 2003 in "The Ned Kelly Encyclopaedia"
  8. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 166.
  9. "POLICE PROHIBIT FILM "GLORIFYING CRIMINALS"". The Argus. Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 16 May 1934. p. 9. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  10. "BANNING OF FILM". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 16 May 1934. p. 13. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  11. ""WHEN THE KELLYS RODE"". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 9 July 1934. p. 9. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  12. "HOLLYWOOD Bushranger Film is "OUT"". The Australian Women's Weekly. National Library of Australia. 27 October 1934. p. 4. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  13. "BANNED FILM". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 18 May 1934. p. 11. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  14. "FILM OF KELLY GANG". The West Australian. Perth: National Library of Australia. 7 January 1942. p. 4. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  15. "KELLY GANG FILM FOR PERTH". The Daily News. Perth: National Library of Australia. 9 April 1949. p. 18 Edition: FIRST. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  16. "NEW FILMS IN SYDNEY". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 21 June 1948. p. 2. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  17. "Mystery Island Distribution by Paramount". The Sydney Morning Herald. 11 February 1937. p. 4. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
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