Frank Gardiner, the King of the Road
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Stanley Crick
| Frank Gardiner, the King of the Road | |
|---|---|
 Newcastle Herald 27 Sept 1911 | |
| Directed by | John Gavin |
| Written by | Agnes Gavin |
| Produced by | Herbert Finlay[1] Stanley Crick |
| Starring | John Gavin |
| Cinematography | Herbert Finlay |
Production company | JG Films[2] |
| Distributed by | Cricks and Finlay[3] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 3,500 feet (45 mins)[4][5] |
| Country | Australia |
| Languages | Silent English intertitles |
| Budget | £300[6] |
Frank Gardiner, the King of the Road is a 1911 Australian film about the bushranger Frank Gardiner, played by John Gavin, who also directed. It was the fourth consecutive bushranger biopic Gavin made, following movies about Captain Thunderbolt, Captain Moonlite and Ben Hall.
It is considered a lost film.
Sample headings
The movie consists of 25 scenes. Frank Gardiner, real name Frank Christie (John Gavin), is a Goulburn boy accused of theft by his father, and ordered to quit. He meets his future wife Annie Brown and starts bushranging. His sweetheart's father throws her into the sea but Gardiner saves her.
Gardiner partners with John Peisley in stealing horses. He is arrested and put in Pentridge Prison. He successfully escapes and joins Peisley. They rob the mailman and police. Then he steals over 2,000oz of gold on the Bendigo goldfields. He is chased by the troopers, but escapes to the Gumtree Inn, where Annie Brown's stepfather, in revenge, informs the police of Gardiner's whereabouts, and the latter is arrested. Annie Brown, then pays her debt of gratitude by pluckily bailing up the police and effecting Gardiner's escape to the bushrangers' cave in the mountains.
Then Annie and Frank leave for Queensland, and engage in storekeeping, but four years later the police identify him, and he is again arrested, and sentenced to 32 years' hard labor.
In Darlinghurst Gaol he again meets Brown, who attempts to murder a warder, but is frustrated by Gardiner. Brown attempts, as a revenge, to kill the little daughter of the governor of the gaol, but again Gardiner prevents the crime, and for this, after 10 years' hard labor, is released, and exiled to America, where he goes with his wife and daughter, and the closing scene is laid at his house in San Francisco, where he has adopted the motto, "Honesty is the best policy."[4][7]
According to the Evening News, "There are unrehearsed incidents in it also. One is where the troopers riding furiously after the bushrangers race through a ford In a river. One of the horses comes down with his rider, who is injured, while the animal sustained damaged knees. Again Gardiner fires a pistol point blank in a trooper's face. and the latter, of course, is burnt and blackened with the powder. Had there been a bullet in the weapon he surely would have been 'counted out'."[5]
- " The accusation,"
- " The denial,"
- " A father' sceurse,"
- " The old man's sorrow"
- " My son"
- " Gardiner's home,"
- " Annie Brown's home"
- " Brutal' stepfather,"
- "Fear of her life,"
- " Madman's fury,"
- " A fateful meeting,"
- " Attempted murder,"
- " Frank Gardiner to the rescue"
- " Sensational dive."[8]
Cast
- John Gavin as Frank Gardiner
- Alf Scarlett
- Mr. Mainsbridge, wife and daughter
- Charlie Lay
- John ("Fatty") Harris[9]
Production
John Gavin had starred in and directed two bushranger biopics for H. A. Forsyth, Thunderbolt and Moonlite before leaving Forsyth and going into business for himself with his own company, JG Films.[10] He made two more bushranger biopics, Ben Hall and His Gang followed by Frank Gardiner, which was announced on 9 January 1911. Gavin's wife Agnes wrote the script.[11][12]
During the shooting of a scene where troopers were chasing after Gardiner, a horse collapsed and damaged its knee. In another scene which apparently made the final cut, Gardiner fires a pistol point blank in a trooper's face, and the latter was burnt and blackened with the powder.[4]