Kangaroo

Director: Lewis Milestone Lewis Milestone

Overview

Besotted by alcohol, Australian cattle-station owner Michael McGuire (Finlay Currie) is led to believe that crooked gambler Richard Connor (Peter Lawford) is his long-lost son. Connor and his partner-in-crime Gamble (Richard Boone) go along with the gag, convincing McGuire's daughter Dell (Maureen O'Hara) that they've arrived to help the old man save his livestock, when in fact they're planning a major swindle. The scheme goes awry when Connor falls genuinely in love with Dell. The arrival of mounted policeman Leonard (Chips Rafferty) sets the ball rolling for an onslaught of violence, renunciation and redemption. Vividly filmed on location in Australia, Kangaroo was remade in Africa as The Jackals in 1967.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/15/2015
UPC:	0644827455423
Original Release:	1952
Source:	Reel Vault
Language:	English
Sales rank:	48,035

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Maureen O'Hara	Dell McGuire
Peter Lawford	Richard Connor
Richard Boone	John W. Gamble
Finlay Currie	Michael McGuire
Chips Rafferty	Trooper Leonard
Letty Craydon	Kathleen
Charles Tingwell	Matt,Matt
Ron Whelan	Fenner
John Fegan	Burke
Guy Doleman	Pleader
Reg Collins	Ship's Officer
Clyde Combo	Aborigine Stockman
Henry Murdoch	Black Tracker
Syd Chambers	Sailor
Joe Tomal	Sailor
Archie Hull	Sailor
James Doogue	Sailor
Bill Bray	Sailor,Sailor
Ossie Wenban	Sailor
Alexander Cann	Sailor
Kleber Claux	Sailor
Larry Crowhurst	Cockatoo at Door
Dennis Glenny	Well-Dressed Cockatoo
Stan Tolhurst	Policeman
John Clark	Ferret Face
Frank Catchlove	Publican
Eve Abdullah	Woman Servant
Frank Ransome	Burton, Station Foreman
Douglas Ramsey	Kelly, Station Foreman
Alan Bardsley	Cook on Cattle Drive
Marshall Crosby	Gambler
Alexander Cross	Sailor
Steve Dodd	Sailor

Technical Credits

Harry Kleiner

Robert Bassler	Producer
Lewis Milestone	Director
Harry Kleiner	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Lewis Milestone had a knack for shooting difficult to film stories involving actors working and living in adverse conditions and getting great work out of them -- witness All Quiet on the Western Front, A Walk in the Sun, Halls of Montezuma, and Pork Chop Hill. Kangaroo, although it isn't a war movie, is of a piece with them, shot entirely in Sydney and in the Flinders Ranges, which looks to be some of the roughest country in South Australia, and he not only got great work out of his cast, but wove together a fine, exciting drama. Peter Lawford is the big surprise here, turning in a far grittier kind of performance than he was known for in the role of a two-bit grifter who discovers his better nature; he's matched by Richard Boone as a daring yet totally larcenous and utterly amoral villain; and they're surrounded by Finlay Currie, Maureen O'Hara, and Chips Rafferty doing their usual excellent work, and all in Technicolor. There's not much more to say about the relatively simple story, except that the Australian setting gives it added allure, recalling such earlier works in a vaguely similar vein as The Overlanders.

All Movie Guide - Bruce Eder