Kangaroo is a 1952 American film directed by Lewis Milestone

Lewis Milestone

Lewis Milestone was a Russian-American motion picture director. He is known for directing Two Arabian Knights and All Quiet on the Western Front , both of which received Academy Awards for Best Director...

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The film is also known as The Australian Story (American subtitle).

Plot summary

An Australian "Western" set at some vague time perhaps a century ago. Richard Connor (Lawford) is a desperate young man in Sydney, Australia, trying to find the money to return home. While staying at a boarding house, he is mistaken by the drunk Michael McGuire (Currie) for his long-lost son, Dennis, whom McGuire had abandoned to an orphanage as a child, a deed for which he now deeply blames himself. Later that night, Connor attempts to rob John Gamble (Boone) outside a gambling house, but after he finds him equally broke, he is talked into assisting him in robbing the establishment, during which the owner is shot. Connor and Gamble make off with the loot, stopping at the boarding house to get Connor's gear, whereupon McGuire, still drunk, pursues his "son" down the street until he collapses. They find on him information on his extensive ranch (for which he was trying to secure loans in Sydney) and his boat ticket, and decide to pose as his business partners to get on the boat and away to hide out with him in the back country. The next day, the now sober McGuire does not remember anything, and is at first suspicious of them, until he finds he has the $500 they claimed to have paid him for cattle (planted on him from the stolen loot). Along the way (first by boat, then by horse) they subtly drop hints that Connor (now calling himself Dennis Connor) may be his lost son, without letting on that McGuire himself had talked about him, in this way hoping to gain possession of the ranch. Arriving at the ranch, they are both smitten by his daughter Dell (O'Hara), but held in some suspicion by the local trooper Len, who has been Dell's local beau. Gamble does his best to scotch a budding attraction between Dell and Connor, because it will spoil the plan to pass him off as her lost brother. Biding their time both to develop their plan and hide out from the law, they end up helping the ranch get back on its feet, rescuing stray cattle, heading off a stampede, and culminating in a daring repair of an out-of-control windmill during a windstorm. McGuire is finally convinced that Connor is his son, and seeing the romantic interest of his daughter in him, tells her his conclusion. Overhearing her despair at this news, Connor feels he must confess, and Gamble sees their plan fail on the brink of success because of the annoying conscience of his partner. Having confessed not only to not be Dennis, but to be wanted in the murder of the gambling house owner, Connor and Gamble flee the ranch, with trooper Len in hot pursuit. When he catches up to them, Gamble is about to shoot him when Connor pulls the gun away with a bullwhip. The two partners in crime now have a vicious bullwhip fight. Gamble retrieves the gun and shoots at Connor, but Len fatally shoots Gamble. Len then takes Connor back the McGuire ranch, where he recovers from his injuries, being promised clemency for saving Len's life, and with the promise of a future with Dell.

Cast

• Maureen O'Hara
  Maureen O'Hara
  Maureen O'Hara is an Irish film actress and singer. The famously red-headed O'Hara has been noted for playing fiercely passionate heroines with a highly sensible attitude. She often worked with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne...
  
   as Dell McGuire
• Peter Lawford
  Peter Lawford
  Peter Sydney Ernest Aylen , better known as Peter Lawford, was an English-American actor.He was a member of the "Rat Pack", and brother-in-law to US President John F. Kennedy, perhaps more noted in later years for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting...
  
   as Richard Connor
• Finlay Currie
  Finlay Currie
  Finlay Jefferson Currie was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television.Currie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1878. His acting career began on the stage. He and his wife Maude Courtney did a song and dance act in the US in the 1890s. He made his first film in 1931...
  
   as Michael McGuire
• Richard Boone
  Richard Boone
  Richard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for starring in the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.-Early life:...
  
   as John W. Gamble
• Chips Rafferty
  Chips Rafferty
  Chips Rafferty MBE was an iconic Australian actor. Called "the living symbol of the typical Australian", Rafferty's career stretched from the 1940s until his death in 1971, and during this time he performed regularly in major Australian feature films as well as appearing in British and American...
  
   as Trooper "Len" Leonard
• Letty Craydon as Kathleen, McGuire's Housekeeper
• Charles 'Bud' Tingwell as Matt