16 Aussie films of the 1940s & 50s, and where to watch them

Above: A very impressive action still taken during the filming of Charles Chauvel’s The Rats of Tobruk (1944), with the sand dunes at Sydney’s Cronulla substituting for the Libyan desert. Photographed on 7 September 1943. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Courtesy ACP Magazine Ltd. Original image is here

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A Directory of 16 Australian feature films 1940-1955

* This is a list of Australian feature films of 1940s & early 1950s that you can access – in most cases online – and mostly, at no cost.
* At the time of writing – January 2025, all the links are live. Films are listed in rough order of release from 1940 -1955. However, the list is not definitive, and sadly, a number of films that are known to survive are not even available for purchase!
*  Garry Gillard’s list of all Australian films can be consulted at the Australian Cinema website. The National Film & Sound Archive (NFSA) website and Andrew Pike & Ross Cooper’s 1980 book are referred to throughout.^[1]

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1. Dad Rudd MP 1940

• @ The Administrator Channel on Youtube [Watch here]
  
  Comment: Made available to us in 2025 by the good folk at youtube’s Administrator channel, this film from Cinesound has long been hard to find. It is the last feature film made by Ken Hall before the studio closed down because of the war. As Pike & Cooper point out, rather than being another comic rustic pioneer story from Steele Rudd, this was a “small town family comedy” in the style of the popular Andy Hardy series, with Dad Rudd now “a bastion of middle-class morality.” The film was a financial success and was released in Britain.^[1]Pike & Cooper (1980) p249

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2. Forty Thousand Horsemen 1940

• @ Brollie.com.au [Watch here with free account]
• @ Jack Channel at OK.RU [Watch here]
  
  Comment: Charles Chauvel’s (1897-1959) World War One epic proved to be a great commercial success. Chauvel had been interested in making a film based on the exploits of his uncle General Sir Harry Chauvel (1865-1945) and the Australian Light Horse, for some time. The desert fighting and the famous charge of the Light Horse at Beersheba were spectacularly re-created in the sand dunes at Cronulla, and even with the passage of time, the action impresses. The three lead players – Grant Taylor (1917-1971), Chips Rafferty (1909-1971) and Pat Twohill (1915-1989), presented Australian soldier-larrikin characters – a stereotype still familiar today. As Pike & Cooper note, “the nationalist sentiment glorifying Australian manhood … clearly hit the right note in 1941.”^[2]Pike & Cooper (1980) pp253

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3. The Rats of Tobruk 1944

• @ Dockermania channel on Youtube. [Watch here]
• @ Brollie.com.au [Watch here with free account]
  
  Comment: When Charles Chauvel began shooting his second war film, the siege of allied forces in Tobruk was still very fresh in Australian minds. Less than two years before, the exploits of the 9th Australian Division in leading the defence of the port city from surrounding German and Italian forces had gripped the public imagination. As in Forty Thousand Horsemen, Chauvel again used the exploits of three Australian servicemen to drive the plot, and again two of the heroes are killed in action.^[3]Chauvel also used Chips Rafferty and Grant Taylor again Adding to the realism, Chauvel effectively integrated contemporary newsreel material with the film. And as Paul Byrnes at the NFSA writes – the fighting depicted in The Rats of Tobruk is “graphic… and convincingly chaotic.”^[4]Pike & Cooper (1980) p257

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4. Smithy 1946

• @ NFSA Shop $ [Buy here]
• @ John S channel at OK.RU [watch here]
  
  Comment: Six years after Dad Rudd MP, Ken Hall (1901-1994) returned to directing, with Smithy, a bio-pic about Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith (1897-1935). It was not a Cinesound film, but was entirely funded by Columbia Pictures, whose film hire revenue had been frozen in Australia by wartime restrictions. Featuring radio stars Ron Randell (1918-2008) and Muriel Steinbeck (1913-1982), the film was another success for Hall., although it was his last feature film. Unfortunately, the head of Columbia, Harry Cohn (1891-1958), had no intention of making more films in Australia. Smithy was also severely cut for US release – Pike & Cooper suggest this was to disguise the fact the film had been made in Australia. ^[5]Pike & Cooper (1980) p265-266
  

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5. A Son is Born 1946

• The Administrator channel on youtube [watch here]
  
  Comment: Eric Porter’s(1911-1983) melodrama was an interesting choice for a first film. As Pike & Cooper note, the largely humourless plot was “novelettish” with two very surly and unappealing central characters (Peter Finch and Ron Randell).^[6]Pike & Cooper (1980 p266 Made on a very tight budget, it still manages a high degree of sophistication and is notable for its cast of leading Australian players of the era – Muriel Steinbeck, Peter Finch, Ron Randell, Jane Holland, Kitty Bluett and John McCallum.

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6. The Overlanders 1946

• @ Daily Motion The Museum of Cinema [Watch here]
• @ Jack’s channel at OK.RU [Watch here]
• @ John S channel at OK.RU [Watch here]
  
  Comment: Harry Watt’s(1906-1987) film was both influential in the development of Australian cinema and extremely successful commerically. It had started as a wartime propaganda concept by the Australian government and had been referred by the British Ministry of Information to Michael Balcon (1896-1977), Head of Ealing studios. He assigned the project to Watt, who travelled to Australia and developed the script, about a massive wartime cattle-drive. The film was completed after the war’s end – and as Paul Byrnes writes, it was “a film of great quality, made with uncompromising authenticity, about a strongly Australian subject.”  Pike & Cooper note that the film presented Chips Rafferty’s character as the essential Australian man, while Daphne Campbell (1924-2013) portrayed one of the most vivid of Australian bush heroines.^[7]Pike & Cooper (1980) pp 267-8
  

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7. Bush Christmas 1947

• @ Jack’s channel at OK.RU [Watch here]
  
  Comment: Ralph Smart (1908-2001) had worked on Ealing’s The Overlanders. As Pike & Cooper note, the film was the first to be produced by the Rank Organisation’s Children’s Entertainment Film Unit. Smart wrote the script, which followed a simple formula – a group of five children as the key protagonists, on a quest to get a prized horse back from a group of thieves. The children, competent in bush craft (thanks to one of their number, an Aboriginal boy called Neza), are victorious in the end. The film was a triumph – a great success in Britain and Australia.

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8. Always Another Dawn 1949

• @ The Administrator Channel on Youtube [Watch here]
• @NFSA shop [Buy here]
• @ Kanopy [Watch here with library card]
  
  Comment: The first of three films made by Tom McCreadie (1907-1992) who with brother Alec, formed the production company Embassy Pictures. This was a wartime melodrama written by New Zealand born writer Zelma Roberts (1915-1988), set on an Australian navy destroyer. It featured Charles Tingwell (1923-2009) and Guy Doleman (1923-1996) in leading roles. Unfortunately the film was indifferently reviewed and it only had a short run in Australian cinemas. Perhaps the combat death of Tingwell’s character was too much of a painful reminder of the recent conflict for post-war audiences. A cut-down version was released in the UK in 1949.^[8]Pike & Cooper (1980) p 270

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9. Eureka Stockade 1949

• @ John S Channel at OK.RU [Watch here]
• @ Shadows of the Dark channel at Internet Archive [Watch here]
  
  Comment: In the wake of the success of Ealing’s The Overlanders, Harry Watt’s film of the Eureka Stockade rebellion of 1854 was a disappointing commercial failure, although it had the backing of the Rank Organisation and the Australian government. As most film historians agree, Chips Rafferty was miscast as the rebel leader Peter Lalor (1827-1889). His well established larrikin persona did not sit convincingly with that of Lalor, the Irish political agitator. The Rank organisation had insisted on his taking the role however – he was now under contract. It took six months to film – because of numerous delays – most importantly concerns about the potential impact of a new British film tax. According to Paul Byrnes, the production had a budget of £200,000.

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10. Into the Straight 1949

• @ The Administrator Channel on Youtube [Watch here]
  
  Comment: This was the second McCreadie brothers film, the script was again written by Zelma Roberts. NFSA curator Richard Kuipers observes that this film about horse-racing contained an unusual mix of genres – “the trackside action belongs to a no-nonsense B-movie.” while other sequences “play like a ‘weepie’ movie of the times”. And there is also a traditional cowboy singalong. Perhaps the McCreadies devised this so as to cater for as many tastes as they could, with an eye to international markets. Charles Tingwell took one of the leading roles.

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11. Sons of Matthew 1949

• @ Youtube Movie & TVs $ [Rent or Buy here]
• @ Brollie.com.au [Watch here with free account]
  
  
  Comment: Charles Chauvel’s film was based on two books about a pioneering Queensland family by Bernard O’Reilly (1903-1975). The script was by Maxwell Dunn (1895-1963) and Gwen Meredith (1907-2006). The film suffered delays in production, in part due to arduous location filming in one of Queensland’s worst ever wet seasons. As Pike & Cooper note, the lengthy production revealed “Chauvel’s passionate urge to risk any cost and hazard in expressing his deeply nationalistic vision of people in their struggle to conquer the most hostile of terrains.”^[9]Pike & Cooper (1980) p273-275 The film eventually recouped its costs with the help of release in the UK and US. It also launched the careers of Michael Pate (1920-2008), Dorothy Alison (1925-1992) and others.
  

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12. The Kangaroo Kid 1950

• @ The Administrator Channel on Youtube [Watch here]
• @ Mark Reedman channel on Youtube [Watch here]
  
  Comment: The third of Tom McCreadie’s films was made with an even clearer eye to international distribution. In this case McCreadie used US director Lesley Sleander (1900-1979) (famous for directing Westerns). Four Leading players were imported from Hollywood, including Jock Mahoney (1919-1989) and Veda Ann Borg (1915-1973). As Pike & Cooper point out, very little distinguished the film as Australian – notably the occasional close-ups of Australian wildlife. Only two locals had roles of substance – Alec Kellaway (1894-1973) and Guy Doleman. ^[10]Pike & Cooper (1980) p276. Thus the film might just as well have been made in the US. Location work was done in the old mining town of Sofala in New South Wales. This was the end of the McCreadie’s involvement in feature film production.

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13. Bitter Springs 1950

• @ John S Channel at OK.RU [Watch here]
  
  Comment: Despite the experience of Eureka Stockade, Ealing studios leapt into another Australian film production, with Bitter Springs. It was written and directed by Ralph Smart and intended to be a serious treatment of the relations between white settlers and Aborigines.^[11]Pike & Cooper (1980) pp 275-6 As Paul Byrnes points out however, the final result was a disappointing compromise. Smart’s script was “rewritten by head office at Ealing Studios [and] he was forced to include a role for Tommy Trinder,(1909-1989) an English comedian who was completely out of place in the story.” In addition, Smart was not allowed to film the ending he planned. 
  

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14. The Glenrowan Affair 1951

• @ The Administrator channel on Youtube [Watch here]
• @ NSFA Shop $ [Buy here]
• @ Hunt Angels – docudrama. (2006) Throwback TV channel [Watch here]
  
  Comment: This is the only feature film by director Rupert Kathner(1904-1954) that is easily available today, and it is best understood by first watching Alec Morgan’s very entertaining 2006 docu-drama about Kathner, Hunt Angels.^[12]Hunt Angels was a stage name used by Kathner – he has a small role as Aaron Sherritt in the film The genesis of The Glenrowan Affair was actually with Harry Southwell (1881-1960) in 1947, Southwell having directed three previous versions (1920, 1923 and 1934) of the Ned Kelly story. But Southwell left the project after falling out with Kathner – who took over the project. It is easy to find fault with the film today – it is bad in almost every respect – the oversized Ned kelly armour shown here being only one example. “A typical review in the Sunday Herald 19 August 1951, commented that Kathner seemed ‘content to assume that this Australian legend has enough appeal in itself to need less than the minimal requirements of filmcraft.’ ” ^[13]Pike & Cooper (1980) p278

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15. King of the Coral Sea 1954

• @ NFSA Shop $ [Buy here]
• @ Jack’s channel at OK.RU [Watch here]
• @ Kanopy [Watch here with library card]
  
  Comment: Chips Rafferty and Lee Robinson (1923-2003) had collaborated to make the successful film The Phantom Stockman in 1953. This, their second collaboration, was again a success – both overseas and in Australia. Filmed on Thursday Island, the plot concerns an illegal immigration racket and pearl diving. ^[14]Pike & Cooper (1980) p285 It was the first film for Rod Taylor (1930-2015), who travelled to Hollywood to further his career in 1955. Robinson and Rafferty collaborated again on Walk into Paradise in 1956 .
  

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16. Jedda 1955

• @ brollie.com.au [Watch here with free account]
• @ sbs on demand [Watch here with free account]
  
  Comment: Charles Chauvel’s remarkable film was important for several reasons. It was the first time Indigenous actors – Robert Tudawali (1929 – 1967) and Ngarla Kunoth aka Rosalie Kunoth-Monks (1937-2022) – took the leading roles in an Australian film. But even more importantly, as Paul Byrnes points out, the film – a love story – “is arguably the first Australian film to take the emotional lives of Aboriginal people seriously.” Also Australia’s first colour feature, it was critically well received – being nominated for the Golden Palm Award at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. Sadly, it was the last Chauvel made. He died in 1959.

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