Caloola, or The Adventures of a Jackeroo | |
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Directed by | Alfred Rolfe |
Based on | novel Caloola by Clement Pratt [1] |
Production company | |
Release date |
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Running time | 2,000 feet [3] |
Country | Australia |
Languages | Silent film English intertitles |
Caloola, or The Adventures of a Jackeroo is a 1911 Australian silent film directed by Alfred Rolfe based on a novel published the previous year by Clement Pratt. [4] [5]
An Englishman, Charlie Hargreaves, is falsely accused of an embezzlement and goes to Australia, where he finds work as a jackeroo at Caloola Station. He falls in love with Hilda, the station owner's daughter, but they are both captured by aboriginals.
The girl's parents arrange a search party and come to the rescue, but the chief of the tribe takes the girl. He is about to throw her over a cliff when the jackeroo comes to the rescue. He encounters a bushfire and manages to escape death in a watery grave. [8] [9] [10]
Chapter headings were:
The movie was advertised as being available for release on 4 October 1911. [12]
The bushfire sequence was heavily promoted in advertising. [13]
One report said the film had been "a strong draw". [14]
Raymond Longford was a prolific Australian film director, writer, producer, and actor during the silent era. Longford was a major director of the silent film era of the Australian cinema. He formed a production team with Lottie Lyell. His contributions to Australian cinema with his ongoing collaborations with Lyell, including The Sentimental Bloke (1919) and The Blue Mountains Mystery (1921), prompted the Australian Film Institute's AFI Raymond Longford Award, inaugurated in 1968, to be named in his honour.
Alfred Rolfe, real name Alfred Roker, was an Australian stage and film director and actor, best known for being the son-in-law of the celebrated actor-manager Alfred Dampier, with whom he appeared frequently on stage, and for his prolific output as a director during Australia's silent era, including Captain Midnight, the Bush King (1911), Captain Starlight, or Gentleman of the Road (1911) and The Hero of the Dardanelles (1915). Only one of his films as director survives today.
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