The Breaking of the Drought

This Australian silent film, meticulously reconstructed by the National Film and Sound Archive, features some magnificently photographed footage of a drought stricken outback. Starving sheep and cattle, crows feasting on carcasses, a dust-storm, dried up rivers and cracked earth - these are powerful and indelible images.

Unfortunately the film-makers felt compelled to accompany this footage with a very weak plot about a farmer and his family. The family go broke, not because of the drought, but because of a wayward son who is lost in the charms of a very portly middle-aged vamp, played with no menace at all by Marie La Varre. There is murder, mayhem and coincidences galore in this poorly constructed and dull journey into debauchery. How much more interesting it would have been if the plot concerned the farmer's struggle with the drought.

Add to this the fact that the actors were obviously nowhere near the drought stricken areas (we never see them in it, and the farmhouse they live in is surrounded by lush lawns and gardens), and we have a deeply flawed film with some truly remarkable moments - and one horse stunt to die for!

The print has some heavy nitrate damage and some original colour tinting.