Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Friday 27 March 1953, page 16


* FILMS

; reviewed by

F. KEITH MANZIE

Hollytvood's latest por-trayal of Australia gives a Victorian actor his ^

first role in American

films, and a Sydney man a technical job.

. FAR LEFT: Star of "Botany Bay" is Alan Ladd, who plays part of American wrongfully convicted, sentenced to convict life in last-century Australia. . CENTRE: Patricia Medina plays a flouncy actress imprisoned for theft, and also deported to convict

settlement.

. ABOVE: Newcomer to Hollywood but not to acting is Victorian Murray Matheson, who is a convict clergyman in Hollywood film "Botany Bay."

THEY BRAVED

OUR 'ROOS

pARAMOUNT'S film "Botany Bay"

has some chance of having a true Australian flavor. It has, at least, five Australians in the cast, and

a Sydney-born man in charge of technicolor production, John Farrow.

The Aussies in the cast are four koalas flown to Hollywood from Sydney, and Vic-torian Murray Mathe-

son.

Murray comes from Casterton and went to London before the war. Theatrical experience, including shows with Australians Madge Elliott and Cyril Ritchard, led to films.

After service with the R.A.F., he played in "The Way to the Stars." with John Mills and had a leading role in Bea-trice Lillie's West End stage " revue, "Better

Late."

About three years ago he went to America. In "Botany Bay" he plays the part of a reverend gentleman con-victed of treason.

The film - starring Alan

Ladd as an American stuaent unjusth accused of highw a\ robberv James Mason as a cruel arrogant ships captain and Patricia

Medina as a Di un Lane actress being depoit^d for theft - open« in notorious Newaate Prison in 1787

That s whe e we meet

Ladd and Matheson and a nine-\ear-old iJohn HardM with his mother (Dorotlvs Patten) whose respectne crimes aie stealine a loaf of bread and sheltering a wounded hichwavman

Deported

'THEY are bearing their

imprisonment moie or less stoicallv when their calm is shattered bv the announcement that Kms Georee III has ordered that the\ be transported to the end of the world to a remote British settlement berne established at Botam Ba\ New South Wales

So the piKoners set off m an Australia-bouna ship

. REVENGE by a mother ( Dorothy Patten) whose son Mason has starved in solitary confinement. Bursting into the cap-tain's cabin, she at-tacks him with a knife.

commanded by James Mason, whose brutal and maitinet control closely re-sembles " that of Captain Bligh in the ' Bounty "

But the lashings keelhaulings and sontarj con-finements lmposea by tne tight-lipped captain are re-lieved somewhat bj the pre-sence on boaro of the vna(lous and spaikling-eved

Patricia Medina.

Charmer

jVJISS MEDINA, fresh

fiom her "Magic Cal pet" escapades, also

at the State Theatre, en-livens proceedings on the conuct ship b\ plaving a . double game ' w ith the cap-tain (Mason) and the man who resists" most stronelv lLadd)

The captain falls for the lao's charms and permits her the use of comparât« ely comfortable quaiters on the trip to Australia

But the fettered Ladd has not the same freedom for expressing his admiration When he is not undergoing the discomforts of beinc keelhauled or lashed with "the cat he is condemned to a solitarv existence below cecks

The. close attention of the sadistic skipper does not prevent Ladd from making several attempts to escape from the ship, with the co-operation of Malcolm Lee Beggs (a notorious "fence'

and London underwoild character), Jonathan Harris «another highway man >, Hugh Prjse (a pickpocket), the vouthful John Hardv, and his mother.

Terrors

DUT in spite of these

desperate bids 'for freedom, Alan Ladd eventually armes on the forbidding shores of NewSouth Wales with the rest of the prisoners.

The baleful eves of aborigines kangaroos, and kookaburras peer at them from the undergrowth as they m?ke their landina on the shores of Sjdnev Cove where Governor Phillip (Sir Cedric Harowicke) has es-tablished a settlement after finding Botany Bay unsuit-

able

The captain of the ship immediately demands that Ladd be hanged for his

. TRAPPED. Alan Ladd, a convict at Botany Bay, is thwarted in his es-cape plans by sadistic ship's cap-tain James Mason, who hopes to have Ladd hanged for his truculence and im-

pudence.

tiuculent behavior on the

wav out

But the Governor answers

him

There are two purposes behind transportation cap-tain To eive people a chance to reform and to open up a new world Neither is accom-plished with corpses

Later Governor Phillip tells the american medical student who has had to do quite a bit of fullv-fledged aoctoring on the wav out

This can be a great land given the same chance as jour America had

The ruthless Mason is not finished with Ladd vet ir spite oi Governor Phillips firm stand against his dicta-torial demand5

The captain sets a trap for the medical man bj leaving a waj open for his escape When Ladd swallows the

bait and is captured by Mason and his men as he attempts to steal a boat and make for Timor, things look black for the hero of the story.

But the Australian abongmes save the day.

In a burst of sudden hos-tility, the natives send their boomerangs whizzing through the air and their spears huitling into Mason's soldiers in an opportune fracas which solves a lot of problems for Ladd. the roguish Miss Medina and the rest of the convict crew.

Although Alan Ladd is given his pardon and the chance to return to England, he decides that Australia isn't a bad sort of place to stay in, anj-how.

Taking the not unrespon

I

sive Miss Medina' in his I

arms he tells her: I

"I have learnt a lot of thmes about this countrj* that makes pardons seem un-important. There is some-thing grand that is here for the taking ... for j'ou and for me with you-if j-ou'll have me!"

Well, there it is!