Shiralee, The (1957)

reviewed by
Dennis Schwartz


SHIRALEE, THE (director: Leslie Norman; cast: Peter Finch (Jim Macauley), Dana Wilson (Buster Macauley), Rosemary Harris (Lily Parker), Tessie O'Shea (Bella), Elizabeth Sellars (Marge Macauley), Sidney James (Luke), Reg Lye (Desmond), George Rose (Donny), 1957-Australia)

Kids are notorious scene stealers, and as sharp a performance as was put on by Peter Finch, nevertheless, the kid still stole the show from him, as the native Australian, returning to Australia after successfully building a budding career in England, and from working with Laurence Olivier, and as rumored, having an affair with Mrs. Olivier, should be glad to be home again.

SHIRALEE could be at times a very penetrating and hard look at a proud and independent man, who has fallen more in love with the Aussie countryside and outback, than he has with settling down and being a responsible family man. Peter Finch is well up to the task of being this rugged individualist, Jim Macauley, who is known as a scagman, someone who seeks only temporary work and is more interested in moving about whenever he sees fit to.

At other times, the film drifts off into soapy sentimental territory, becoming contrived and not sure if it wants to be that honest and truthful about the bitter-sweet story it is telling.

The story is a rather plain one, Mac comes home to find his wife Marge (Sellars) in bed with the man she is living with, Donny (Rose), while he was away; and, in the same room, is his young daughter asleep, and the room is cluttered with beer bottles. He acts indignant, hears a lecture from his wife that he ignored her, as she says to him, what did you expect me to do, sit here and wait for you forever? He then beats up Donny, puts the little girl over his shoulder and he is back on the road.

The girl's name is Buster (Dana), and she is cute, tempestuous, and hardy, the best reason for watching this film, as she becomes the Shiralee, which is the aborigine word, meaning a burden, and it is hearbreaking to see her on the road, as no matter what the hardship she shows an unspoken love for her father, who is aloof in his real love for her, but is won completely over by the film's end.

Mac retraces his previous routes, and as expected, we see them caught in many a tough situation, as they roam the country's back roads, with the father getting into a big fight, meeting up with colorful acquaintances again, meeting new colorful characters, going over some beautiful Australian scenic routes, as the father painstakingly is breaking the little girl into his routine. She takes solace in a doll one of Mac's friends gives her, which is used to compensate for her loneliness.

It is a movie made by Ealing, a British studio, that actually used mostly a British cast, making the film seem more British than Aussie. It is a film that Disney could have easily made; and, it should be noted that this film was made into a successful television sitcom.

The subplot did not play really well, that had Mac being kicked off a farm he previously worked at 7-years ago, even though Buster has a high fever, as the owner of the farm, who despises Mac for making his daughter Lily (Harris) pregnant and then leaving her, feels he has to do that. Mac didn't know that she was pregnant and that she had lost the baby.

There is also some comedy thrown into the mix, that acts to soften the story, as a couple (Bella & Luke) that are so good that they seem like the were created only for sitcoms, take Mac and Buster under their wing, and some contrived humor is squeezed out, before Mac leaves to get work in another town, and Buster refuses the comfort of a real bed this warm couple offers, and insists she go along with her dad as he searches for work.

The crises point of the film comes when Buster's mom gets a court date to prove that she would be a better parent than the father to the child, but Buster, when chasing after her father who fails to return home because he is with a woman, gets hit by a car, and it is touch-and-go whether she will live or die, as melodramatics take over and the film is now reduced to being a sentimental weepie, but it is still packed with enough sustaining power to make it a pleasant enough viewing, but no more than that.

REVIEWED ON 5/12/99         GRADE: C

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

ozus@sover.net
http://www.sover.net/~ozus

=A9 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ


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