The Man from Snowy River

The Man from Snowy River (1920)

A country boy, Jim Conroy, is living a dissolute life in the city, running around with vamp Helen Ross. When his father cuts him off, he is dumped by Helen and returns to the bush.

Date of release
1920-08-28
TMDB
9.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
1h 1m
Genres
Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance
Director
Beaumont Smith, John Wells

Casting

Interesting facts

The Man from Snowy River is a 1920 film made in Australia. The film was silent and filmed in black and white, and was based on the Banjo Paterson poem of the same name.

Production

Beaumont Smith bought the film rights to all the works of Banjo Paterson and spent two years writing a script. The copyright was held by Angus Robertson in entirety but they passed some of the money on to Paterson. The price for the rights to the poem was reportedly the second largest ever paid in the history of Australian filmmaking, only exceeded by The Sentimental Bloke.

Smith incorporated characters from various Paterson works, including squatter's daughter, Kitty Carewe, and swagman, Saltbush Bill. The character of Helen Ross, however, was Smith's original invention.

Smith later claimed the price of the film rights was the highest ever that had been paid in Australian cinema, with the exception of The Sentimental Bloke (1919).

In January 1919 Snowy Baker announced he would star in the film based on Smith's script. It was reported that "a start has already been made with the picture on Mr. Erie McKellar's station, where every facility is offered for the aiming of such thrills as the great ride from "Rio Grande," the bushranging scenes from "Conroy's Gap," and the tight from "Salt Bush Bill".

In May 1919 Smith announced he had delayed plans to make the film, unhappy with the rates of return he could get from exhibitors.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended