A boxer turned pastor! His land-owning sweetheart! Her unscrupulous overseer! Action! Adventure! Romance! Discover one of Australia's earliest feature films, the action-driven 1920 classic The Man From Kangaroo, and revel in Ernesto Maurice Corpus' improvised score on the Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ. Sit back and delight in the film that was billed over 75 years ago as 'a tense and thrilling drama of Australian 'Outback' life [with] a strong, vigorous romance [racing] through the story like a wind-driven bushfire.'

Made by the Carroll-Baker production company'E.J. Carroll distributed the smash hit The Sentimental Bloke the previous year and Reg L. 'snowy' Baker was an actor and local legend'The Man from Kangaroo was devised as a film to attract an international audience. The call went out to Hollywood and the two men recruited a top-notch team of talent, led by the husband and wife team of director Wilfred Lucas and screenwriter Bess Meredyth. They helped devise a film that showcased the production's biggest asset''snowy' Baker in the title role, complete with Douglas Fairbanks-style stunt-work and athleticism. The film was a worldwide hit. Audiences embraced the story of the underdog boxer-cum-clergyman who fought a gang of thugs, led by the ruthless Red Jack Braggan, and saved his girl, Muriel, and all with a great deal of charm, knockabout antics and plenty of fun.

D Wilfred Lucas P E.J. Carroll, Reg L. 'snowy' Baker S Bess Meredyth WS ScreenSound Australia L Silent w/English intertitles TD 35mm/B&W/1920/70mins,

Wilfred Lucas was born in Ontario, Canada in 1871. Films include: An Outcast Among Outcasts (1912), Hands Up! (1917), The Sphinx (1933).

Print courtesy of ScreenSound Australia, the National Screen and Sound Archive