Celluloid

How has Glenrowan been portrayed on film?

Link to a site showcasing some great photos of Cast & Crew of The Last Outlaw.

Screen Scoundrels news article. 7:30 Report on the 1906 film.

Story of the Kelly Gang 1906 book. (2006)

Possibly the world's first feature film was the 1906 'The Kelly Gang'.
The interesting thing about this film is that only 11 minutes of the film survives and yet in
that short time we see the Glenrowan siege and Ned's capture!

This year (2006) marks the centenary of the Melbourne premiere of The Story of the Kelly Gang,
widely considered the world's first feature film. The tale of a small band of mates,
hopelessly outnumbered, digging in for the climactic firefight at Glenrowan, was already
the stuff of legend. The landmark film was criticised by authorities, who believed it told
only one side of the story. (Source SMH)

Despite one film having the title 'The Glenrowan Affair', no film
has been made which deals specifically with this event.
I do not know why, there certainly would be more than enough action.
What has happened is that Glenrowan is seen as part of an overall film.

See http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/ncas/resources/mediality/kelly/KELLFLM1.HTM

Screen scoundrels
Douglas Kennedy
November 26, 2006

Charles "Bud" Tingwell chuckled as he recalled how Australian movie
pioneer Rupert Kathner conned him into doing the narration for his 1951
Ned Kelly feature, The Glenrowan Affair, for a miserly fee.
The 83-year-old actor said he hadn't realised he'd been dudded until he
saw the film, with his name in the opening credits, about 15 years ago.
He's been laughing at the memory since.
"Rupe was one of those larrikin villains who engage in skulduggery, but
whom Australians love to worship," Tingwell said from his Melbourne
home.
"He would beg, borrow or steal for a roll of film, but at least he was
among those who believed that Australians should be telling their own
stories on the big screen at a time when Hollywood ran the show."
Tingwell is among a handful of home-grown pioneers who help to tell the
story of "Australia's movie-making Bonnie and Clyde" in Alec Morgan's
new docu-drama, HuntAngels.
The movie, with Ben Mendelsohn as Kathner and Victoria Hill as his
partner Alma Brooks, follows the pair from the 1930s until Kathner's
death in 1954.
Australian film historian Andrew Pike sums up Kathner as an archetypal
movie-making maverick from an era when home-grown movies counted for
little.
"He and Alma Brooks may have been scoundrels, incompetent technically,
quixotic. But they did touch on iconic images and themes that are
central to Australian popular culture," he said.
Tingwell recalls: "I was doing post-production work on a movie called
BitterSprings starring Chips Rafferty and British comedian Tommy
Trinder, when I bumped into Rupe and got stung.
"He explained to me that he had been in Victoria's Kelly Country filming
a feature telling the outlaw's story called The Glenrowan Affair,
starring someone called Bob Chitty, and was thinking of asking me to do
the narration.
"I said I would love to, as it would probably be worth about 25 quid
(about $800 today) to me. With that, he pulled out the script and asked
me to give a reading there and then. I was a bit reluctant to do that or
accept the five quid he offered as a tip, arguing that it could all be
done in the studio when we came to do the recording, but he was
insistent and so I accepted.
"I never heard anything more from Rupe or about the proposal, until I
eventually saw the film. I guess he had planned the encounter and was
carrying some sort of small concealed tape recorder around with him."
Kathner's son Paul, 71, is delighted with Morgan's movie: "It
demonstrates that Dad and Alma did have a place in the history of the
film industry."
Hunt Angels opens in Brisbane on Thursday.

Source: The Courier Mail. (Thanks S Hollingsworth)

7:30 report on the film 28 Nov 2006.

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1799674.htm

Above: some film posters of The Glenrowan Affair found on E-Bay.

"The Glenrowan Affair"

Tracking down this film has been rather complicated.

There was a story circulating, that scenes for a film about the bushranger Ned Kelly, entitled "A Message to Kelly", had been filmed at Newnes, but that the film had "never been released". Now that ScreenSound Australia has released the film "The Glenrowan Affair", the mystery can at last be resolved.

It would appear that filming for "A Message to Kelly" commenced near Benalla in Victoria, but that this work was suspended. The director, Rupert Kathner, subsequently finished the film as "The Glenrowan Affair".

One interesting aspect of the finished film was that it was advertised as having been "entirely filmed in Kelly country" and the DVD also mentions this. In fact, although Kathner may have used Benalla footage from the original "A Message to Kelly", "The Glenrowan Affair" was finished in and around Sydney. The several railway scenes were all taken on the Richmond to Kurrajong railway. The "Glenrowan Hotel" was adapted from an old miners cottage at Newnes (and burnt for the climax of the film). One end of the Newnes Hotel appears very briefly as the Jerilderie bank.

The film itself is not a very remarkable one, but it does have curiosity value for it's Newnes connection.

ScreenSound Australia (The National Film and Sound Archive) has released the film "The Glenrowan Affair" on DVD - Catalogue number: 55DVD 805. This DVD also has a demonstration trailer for "A Message for Kelly".

The above was via : http://www.lisp.com.au/~newnesk/hist/hmovie.htm

Screen scoundrels
Douglas Kennedy
November 26, 2006
Charles "Bud" Tingwell chuckled as he recalled how Australian movie
pioneer Rupert Kathner conned him into doing the narration for his 1951
Ned Kelly feature, The Glenrowan Affair, for a miserly fee.
The 83-year-old actor said he hadn't realised he'd been dudded until he
saw the film, with his name in the opening credits, about 15 years ago.
He's been laughing at the memory since.
"Rupe was one of those larrikin villains who engage in skulduggery, but
whom Australians love to worship," Tingwell said from his Melbourne
home.
"He would beg, borrow or steal for a roll of film, but at least he was
among those who believed that Australians should be telling their own
stories on the big screen at a time when Hollywood ran the show."
Tingwell is among a handful of home-grown pioneers who help to tell the
story of "Australia's movie-making Bonnie and Clyde" in Alec Morgan's
new docu-drama, Hunt Angels.
The movie, with Ben Mendelsohn as Kathner and Victoria Hill as his
partner Alma Brooks, follows the pair from the 1930s until Kathner's
death in 1954.
Australian film historian Andrew Pike sums up Kathner as an archetypal
movie-making maverick from an era when home-grown movies counted for
little.
"He and Alma Brooks may have been scoundrels, incompetent technically,
quixotic. But they did touch on iconic images and themes that are
central to Australian popular culture," he said.
Tingwell recalls: "I was doing post-production work on a movie called
Bitter Springs starring Chips Rafferty and British comedian Tommy
Trinder, when I bumped into Rupe and got stung.
"He explained to me that he had been in Victoria's Kelly Country filming
a feature telling the outlaw's story called The Glenrowan Affair,
starring someone called Bob Chitty, and was thinking of asking me to do
the narration.
"I said I would love to, as it would probably be worth about 25 quid
(about $800 today) to me. With that, he pulled out the script and asked
me to give a reading there and then. I was a bit reluctant to do that or
accept the five quid he offered as a tip, arguing that it could all be
done in the studio when we came to do the recording, but he was
insistent and so I accepted.
"I never heard anything more from Rupe or about the proposal, until I
eventually saw the film. I guess he had planned the encounter and was
carrying some sort of small concealed tape recorder around with him."
Kathner's son Paul, 71, is delighted with Morgan's movie: "It
demonstrates that Dad and Alma did have a place in the history of the
film industry."

NED KELLY 2003/2004.

The 2003 (2004 in USA) release of Ned Kelly with Heath Ledger contains a good
portion of the film on Glenrowan. Unfortunately not much is historically accurate.
The major flaw was turning it into a wild west shootout (to interest the American viewers)
and missing completely the reason why Ned was returning to the Inn.

Filming of the Glenrowan Inn battle took place in the You Yangs at Earth Sanctuary.

The building seen here (an odd looking Inn), was
burnt down for the film and therefore obviously
no longer exists.
The set for Greta can be seen at the Earth sanctuary.

The OFLC decision on this film. Link.

MICK JAGGER AS NED KELLY 1970.

Every one seems to have an opinion about the Kelly film starring Mick Jagger.

Made in 1969/70, this film was reasonably accurate. Apart from having the bootmaker
fight in Beechworth rather than Benalla and a Mick Jagger devoid of his moustache
it was not so bad.

It seems that the biggest mistake this film made was in fact recruiting Jagger.

At the scene in Glenrowan 'Ned' is captured walking along the railway line, rather than
heading for the Inn as was really the case.

The National Archives had this information about the film:
"A Glenrowan publican said that bringing Mick Jagger to
Australia to play Ned Kelly was like sending Normie Rowe
to England to play Robin Hood, except that Normie was a
decent bloke. Not that local opinion really mattered.
The British film director thought that Glenrowan ‘does not
approximate Kelly country’, and shot the film near Canberra."

THE LAST OUTLAW 1980

A very close interpretation of the 'battle at Glenrowan', can be seen in the mini-series,
'The Last Outlaw'. (1980)
Written by Ian Jones & Bronwyn Binns, this series captured every detail of the
siege at Glenrowan.
It is available on DVD.

The view from within looking out for Ned..............The Glenrowan Inn.

** Follow this link to see a site of photos of Cast & Crew during filming of The Last Outlaw.

I stumbled across this gem whilst researching and after contacting its creator Kevin Dobson
have been given permission to link to the site. Kevin was one of the Directors on The Last Outlaw.