Kangaroo

Kangaroo could have been another King Solomon's Mines. It could have dwelt at length upon the mysterious denizens of Australia--aborigines, koala bears, kangaroos, and pit vipers. But it didn't. After spending ten minutes or so exhibiting savages, lizards, and bounding wallabies, Kangaroo turned out to be nothing but a displaced Western. The kangaroos had about as much to do with the proceedings as the man who tears your ticket in half at the door.

Kangaroo actually concerns itself with some goings-on in the South Australian cattle country during an unseasonable drought. But the full screenplay is hopelessly complicated and extremely disjointed, involving among other things a long lost son, a gambling house murder, a stampede, a dust storm, and a bull whip fight. Under these circumstances, the only way to retain your peace of mind is to abandon all attempts at following the story and take each incident as it comes.

Once having attained this blissful state, you can relax and enjoy some spectacular photography of the traditional Technicolor Western stripe and a couple of excellent individual sequences. Particularly impressive is a night cattle stampede which achieves some terrifying effects by the simple expedient of letting the cattle charge the cameraman.

The whole dreadful business comes to an epic climax in another fine scene in which cad Boone and bounder Peter Lawford fight it out with bullwhips, while on a crag high above them, the bush bobby stands like an ibex and dispassionately sees that justice is done.