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How They Discovered the Print of Captain Thunderbolt

It was a cold night at Olinda, up in the hills outside
Melbourne, when in January 1952 the Melbourne
Film Festival did not show the Australian
bushranger film, Captain Thunderbolt. Evidently
it had been dropped from the feature film
competition for a Jubilee Award. There were no
other entries! Too bad, that would have been the
World Premiere.

One of the Jubilee judges was Robert Krasker from
Perth. Krasker had become a highly distinguished
international cinematographer. He insisted that the
film be given Special Commendation, saying
“Technically and dramatically, the photography in
both interiors and exteriors compared favourably
with world standards. The continuity, too, was
impressive” (The Film Monthly, February 1952).

For reasons perhaps part political and part
business, it was not until June 1955 that the
Australian Premiere was held at Hoyts in Armidale
NSW. There are still people who remember that
night. Other countries had long since seen releases,
some of a drastically shortened version. Finally, it
hit the theatres through Ray Films in September, at
GU’s old Lyric off Railway Square in Sydney and
Hoyts Thornbury Regent in Melbourne. Nobody took much notice. The Captain worked
his way mainly in country shows for years. I saw it at the Boroko native theatre in Port
Moresby around 1957. After that, nobody knows where the print/s went to. Neither the
negative nor any 35mm release prints have ever surfaced. Until…

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