A film tracing the life and career of Fred Ward: imprisoned on Cockatoo Island for horse stealing, he escapes and reinvents himself as the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt.
The National Film and Sound archive has a number of images related to this film available on their Flickr page, in two sets of images:
(Sighted: 17/7/2014)
Contemporary newspaper reports indicate that adjustments were made to the narrative with a view to export to Britain:
'Unfortunately the requirements of British censorship do not permit the inclusion of the true and highly romantic story of the association between Thunderbolt and the half-caste [sic] girl, Mary Ann Bugg' (Sunday Herald, 8 April 1951, p.1S).
Contemporary reports indicate plans to spin the film into a television series:
'THOSE who have seen the Australian film, "Captain Thunderbolt," which was released last week at the Plaza Theatre, Northcote, wondered why producer John Wiltshire permitted the notorious bushranger to escape at the end of the picture instead of being killed, as actually happened.
'"Television" was the reason why Thunderbolt was allowed to elude his pursuers. Mr. Wiltshire and his film company, I understand, intend using Thunderbolt for a prolonged adventure series when TV operates in Australia!' (Argus, 20 August 1955, p.41)
The projected television series was not produced.
'Although born in New Zealand, Cecil Holmes is nevertheless one of the most significant and ambitious filmmakers to work in Australia between the 1950s and the 1970s. A dedicated leftist, in fact a communist, his work consistently demonstrated a humanitarian commitment to the socially disenfranchised, ranging from the underlying capitalist conditions that force decent citizens into bushranging and stealing, to the social, political, cultural and economic conditions confronting Indigenous communities in contemporary Australia. After starting his career with New Zealand’s National Film Unit – where he made the Grierson-like short, The Coaster (1948), and Golden Bay (1949), amongst others – Holmes instigated the first public-service strike in his homeland, and not long after fled to Australia. His initial work in his new country was completed under John Heyer at the Shell Film Unit, hardly the most apt or nurturing environment for a filmmaker of Holmes’s overriding political, social and cultural allegiances. Moving out from under such corporate and governmental patronage was certainly the making of Holmes as a filmmaker, even if he then often struggled to get his subsequent films of the 1950s into the marketplace and onto screens.' (Introduction)
'Although born in New Zealand, Cecil Holmes is nevertheless one of the most significant and ambitious filmmakers to work in Australia between the 1950s and the 1970s. A dedicated leftist, in fact a communist, his work consistently demonstrated a humanitarian commitment to the socially disenfranchised, ranging from the underlying capitalist conditions that force decent citizens into bushranging and stealing, to the social, political, cultural and economic conditions confronting Indigenous communities in contemporary Australia. After starting his career with New Zealand’s National Film Unit – where he made the Grierson-like short, The Coaster (1948), and Golden Bay (1949), amongst others – Holmes instigated the first public-service strike in his homeland, and not long after fled to Australia. His initial work in his new country was completed under John Heyer at the Shell Film Unit, hardly the most apt or nurturing environment for a filmmaker of Holmes’s overriding political, social and cultural allegiances. Moving out from under such corporate and governmental patronage was certainly the making of Holmes as a filmmaker, even if he then often struggled to get his subsequent films of the 1950s into the marketplace and onto screens.' (Introduction)
