Bushrangers: Film - A starring role for the first “criminals of the bush”

Ben Hall was only young when he was shot by police. Ben made the statement that “you’ll never hang Ben Hall,” soon after authorities got him to surrender, and he became “our” outlaw. But he beat them at their own game.

So, Ben became the first bushranger to be outlawed. A week later, he was dead. 

At the age of 27, he shot dead by police on the morning of May 6, 1865. Police knew of his whereabouts at Billabong Creek, near Forbes, NSW.

He appealed to the tracker to finish him off but suddenly there was another hail of bullets and Hall was dead. 

There were over 30 bullet wounds found in his body. For 3 years the Hall gang audaciously plundered the area around Forbes and often “befuddling” police by stealing their uniforms. 

Some of Ben Hall’s exploits can be read in Rolfe Bolderwood’s Robbery Under Arms which he penned in 1888. Hall was born in 1838.

Main: Outlaw Ben Hall (at the end, right) and a group of “first criminals of the bush”.

Ben Hall ‘capture and death’.
 

In 1910 there was a spate of bushranging films to add to the drama already on display. Both in television and movies have never stopped. 

Movies started to appear with Moonlight, King of the Road, Starlight, Thunderbolt, Captain Midnight and Ben Hall.

The producer says “thanks” to his production team for their “down to earth” work in playing and photographing the Ben Hall production.

In Ben Hall and His Gang, there was scant attention that the film was Australian. Nevertheless, the publicity for the picture was “colourful and intriguing.”

The career of Hall covers his escape from prison, the sticking up of the Eugowra Mail and his body, riddled and gunshot wound, was buried. Two days later, at the Glaciarium, a large audience witnessed the first production of an Australia Biograph film.

The picture presented a seamy side to the life of Ben Hall – the Notorious Bushranger. Unlike the usual bushranging films, which glorified the villainy of the criminals of the bush, this one recorded a “triumph of the law over lawlessness.”
   

Dangerous John Vane on the loose!  
 

Among the early films to open in 1910, was one that would have the bushranger mutter “Thank God … free at last” and the curtain comes down. 

People talked about it for ages. 

In The Life and Adventurers of John Vane, which premiered in Melbourne, was the first of the bushranger’s type movie ever screened. 

The newspaper critics highly praised the film and the fact that a record number of spectators, and the “inclement” weather, didn’t stop them attending. 

One critic said that a man, despite the fact that he may have led an evil life, “may nevertheless … be possessed of sterling qualities.” 
 

The moon tends to fade every time Captain Moonlight is around.
 

For John Vane, he did not lack exciting incidents, despite its conventional ending. Here is synopsis of the story: Beginning a downward career, John Vane bails up a Chinaman. Vane is captured by police.

After his release, Vane began robbing banks, and later joins Ben (“You’ll never take me alive”) Hall for the raid on the Keightley homestead.

Vane suffered from remorse and leaves the gang. Vane surrenders to Father McCarthy and is sentenced to 15 years. 

 “Thank God, free at last.” Who was it who said, “Often from evil cometh good.” 

<< Frank Morris. The bushranger story is an adaption of three profiles on Hall.
 

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