Dan Morgan (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stanley Walpole
| Dan Morgan | |
|---|---|
 Daily Telegraph 22 May 1911 | |
| Directed by | Alfred Rolfe[1] |
| Produced by | Cosens Spencer |
| Starring | Alfred Rolfe "and company"[2] Stanley Walpole |
| Cinematography | Ernest Higgons[3] |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 3,500 feet[5] or 2,700 feet[6] |
| Country | Australia |
| Languages | Silent English intertitles |
Dan Morgan is a 1911 Australian film from Cosens Spencer about the bushranger Daniel Morgan.[7] It was said to be starring "Alfred Rolfe and company".[2] Rolfe directed three movies for Spencer, all starring himself and his wife Lily Dampier so there is a chance he may have directed this one and that it starred his wife. A prospectus for the Australian Photo Play Company said he directed it.[1] It is considered a lost film.[8]
The film consists of a series of episodes from the life and criminal career of bushranger Dan Morgan, leading up to his violent death at the hands of the police.
It started with Morgan's dismissal on a station, after which he steals his former employer's horses and begins his criminal career. He murders several people, including policemen and mailmen.[9]
In the words of The Sydney Morning Herald, "it is a candid tale of a cruel, evil life. Dan Morgan is not made into a hero, but something quite the opposite. His robberies and cold blooded murders inspire horror and leave no room for regret when he dies riddled with bullets."[10]
According to the Bathurst National Advocate, Morgan "shot people with as much compunction as a small boy would shoot flies. Consequently, it was with great relief that those present witnessed him get his just deserts—shot by police as he was in the act of crossing a stream by means of a fallen tree."[11]
The chapter headings were:
- dismissed for laziness;
- his first crime;
- horse stealing;
- Kirby joins Morgan;
- murder of gold buyer and a constable;
- discovery of murder by mail man;
- Morgan shoots Kirby to effect his own escape;
- burning of the homestead;
- sticking up the mail coach;
- the beginning of the end;
- the wages of sin.[12]
Cast
- Alfred Rolfe "and company"[2]
- Stanley Walpole as old stockman
Production
Spencer had previously made several popular films about bushrangers, The Life and Adventures of John Vane, the Notorious Australian Bushranger, Captain Midnight, the Bush King and Captain Starlight.[13] Unlike those, it appears Dan Morgan was written originally for the screen and not adapted from a play or novel.
Dan Morgan had appeared as a character in films based on plays such as Moonlite and The Squatter's Daughter.
Production took place at a time when there were rising fears about the negative influence of bushranger films on the general public. In April 1911 two teenage boys were sentenced to death for killing a woman and her daughter - in court one of them said they said been reading about Dan Morgan a week before the crime.[14][15][16]
Advertising tried to counterbalance this, claiming:
In the past some films descriptive of bushranging may have been inclined to create a false impression in the minds of young Australia. Mr Spencer has produced at great expense the true story of Dan Morgan, the notorious Australian outlaw, making no attempt to glorify his doings or palliate the heinousness of his crime, but presenting the subject in such a way as will point a strong moral lesson, and show the ultimate fate of all evil-doers, for the wages of sin is death.[4]
A 1946 article claimed the film was deliberately made to be anti-bushranger.[17] The Sydney Morning Herald said "The story is told in such a way as to point a good moral for the edification of the }m series."[18]
Theatre actor Stanley Walpole made his movie debut in the cast.[19]