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Robbery Under Arms (1907 Tait film)

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Robbery Under Arms
Based onRobbery Under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood
Produced byJohn Tait
Nevin Tait
Johnson & Gibson
Release date
31 October 1907[1]
Running time
over 5,000 feet[2]
CountryAustralia
LanguagesSilent
English intertitles

Robbery Under Arms is a 1907 Australian film based on the popular 1888 novel. It was from the team of J and N Tait and Millard Johnson and W Gibson, who had just made The Story of the Kelly Gang.[3][4][5] It is considered a lost film.

Another film based on the same the book came out the same year, which was filmed in Sydney.[6][7][8] This has led to some confusion as to whether the Tait-Johnson-Gibson film even existed.

Plot

According to a contemporary newspaper report, "All the incidents of the romantic bushranger Starlight are enacted, from the first incident, the branding of stolen cattle, to the "Last stand of Starlight and the Marston boys."[9] An advertisement for the film, to be shown at the Oddfellows' Hall in Wagga Wagga on the 8th and 9th of January 1908, describes Robbery Under Arms as "The Greatest Series of Dramatic moving Pictures Ever Taken". It details the major scenes in the film as "such well-known and famous incidents as – The First Downward Step, Captain Starlight Wounded by Police, The Cattle Sale, Terrible Hollow, The Runaway and Rescue, The Marstons at St. Kilda, Berrima Gaol, Sticking up the Goulburn Mail, Kate Morrison's Revenge, Robbing the Gold Escort, The Bushranger's Last Stand, and numerous other great and dramatic situations".[10]

Production

The film was completed by October 1907. It was shot in Melbourne[11]

References

  1. ^ "Advertising". Melbourne Punch. 31 October 1907. p. 27. Retrieved 18 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ "ENGAGEMENT". Melbourne Punch. 31 October 1907. p. 27. Retrieved 18 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ "Greenroom Gossip". Melbourne Punch. 10 October 1907. p. 34. Retrieved 18 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ ""Robbery under Arms."". Table Talk. Melbourne. 7 November 1907. p. 24. Retrieved 18 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "Film Year Book: The 1922-23 Film Daily Year Book of Motion Pictures" p 171. Retrieved 24 June 2015
  6. ^ ""ROBBERY UNDER ARMS."". The West Australian. Perth. 24 December 1907. p. 9. Retrieved 18 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "PICTURE PROFILES IN THE OLDEN DAYS". Winner. Melbourne. 9 February 1916. p. 11. Retrieved 18 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ W Gibson obituary which refers to film
  9. ^ ""ROBBERY UNDER ARMS."". The Telegraph. Brisbane. 11 February 1908. p. 5. Retrieved 20 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ Robbery Under Arms (advertisement), Wagga Wagga Advertiser, 7 January 1908, page 3.
  11. ^ "Music and the Drama". The Examiner (DAILY ed.). Launceston, Tasmania. 11 October 1907. p. 2. Retrieved 18 June 2015 – via National Library of Australia.