The Shiralee

A really enjoyable film that shows a mans love for his little daughter and her love for him. He sometimes dismisses her but comes to realise that he is more fond of her than he cares to admit when she nearly dies.

Also the attractive shopgirl reminds us how nice women were in the fifties!! Great film - dated of course - but still wonderful. Just thought it ended rather abruptly and left us wanting more.........

Peter Finch is terrific as a traveling swagman, traversing the Australian outback in search of work and shelter. Finding his Sydney based wife shacked up with another man, he takes his daughter (Dana Wilson) and resumes his wandering ways. The film does a good job of keeping a lid on sentiment and features outstanding cinematography by Paul Beeson, who usually worked on less inspired fare like Tarzan Goes to India, Die Monster Die!, and Starcrash. One of the last efforts of Ealing Studios, and a good one, though certainly not on a par with their Alec Guinness comedies.

I've seen this film twice, and on both occasions I found it immensely enjoyable. A simple tale, where a less than responsible husband and father, after finding out his wife is having an affair, decides to leave her, and taking his young daughter, Buster, with him, sets out on the road to find work. Peter Finch is perfectly cast as the dour, itinerant worker, drifting from job to job, with Buster, played by the delightful and irrepressible Dana Wilson. Finch, as Jim Macauley, dominates the screen with his physicality, toughness and sheer doggedness in trying to keep body and soul together while travelling across rugged terrain, with the added, awesome responsibility of looking after his daughter - his 'shiralee' (burden). The coherent and entertaining storyline, together with the 'punchy' dialogue and authentic looking locations, the film maintains interest right to the end. There is an economy of words from the laconic Peter Finch, as he sets out to negotiate every barrier which he comes up against. He immerses himself into the role of Jim Macauley to such an extent that he wins the audience over to his unenviable position. But Dana Wilson as 'Buster' takes huge credit for her 'tomboyish' persona and her extraordinary performance as the girl who loves her father so much, she will go that 'extra mile.' The film captures brilliantly the rough, tough love relationship between father and daughter, which never becomes too sugary. I would highly recommend this film.

This is a brilliant little film that is also something of an archaeological dig.

It is set against a backdrop of Australian culture and attitudes, which are now about as extinct as those of the Hittites. At the time, the lifestyle it depicted was fading fast if not already gone.

Peter Finch plays Jim Macauley, who rescues his young daughter, Buster, from her mother's unsavoury lifestyle in a Sydney noticeably devoid of high rise buildings. He takes her with him on his journey as an itinerant worker, a swaggy, around rural Australia.

"The Shiralee" is a British film from Ealing studios (one of five made in Australia) with Australian and English actors; even Syd James is in it. Peter Finch plays Jim Macauley. At the time, his character would have been seen as the quintessential Aussie male: forthright, independent, scrappy, game for anything and with a well-developed sense of fairness. He had played just about the same character as Joe Harman in "A Town Like Alice". Jim and Joe are close relatives of George Johnston's "My Brother Jack".

I saw this film in 1957. Back then we were amazed to see Australia depicted on the screen at all, especially by British studios and Hollywood. We were decades away from Australians regularly picking up Oscars at Academy Award ceremonies.

Many of the characters have Australian accents as yet uninfluenced by decades of overseas television, and Dana Wilson as Buster Macauley delivers a performance that would be hard to beat from any child star; sadly she died this year (2015) aged only 66.

It's a poignant story in many ways with complex characters and situations, but it also has a broad vein of humour. One troubling aspect of the story is that Jim seems overly trusting when he leaves Buster in the care of others. However, most of the characters are honourable and well-intentioned.

This was Peter Finch's favourite among his films. Superbly photographed in black and white, in many ways "The Shiralee" is like opening a time capsule.

In that Australia, you could go a long way before encountering any kind of body piercing let alone a woman with a tattoo, and ice was something you had with your scotch and soda. The 1957 version is probably hard to find today, but let's hope it doesn't disappear altogether.

The Shiralee ends on a curious note. Will it's protagonist Peter Finch ever shape up and realize he has responsibilities? After watching it today I kind of wonder.

I doubt during the days of The Code whether a lead character like Finch ever could have been in an American film. He's charming and determined to seed those wild oats until the well runs dry. One of those wild oats became Dana Wilson his little daughter and the two live like vagabonds, not unlike the Carmody family in The Sundowners.

They're not enjoying life like the Carmodys though. Finch takes work where he can find it in the Australian national industry of sheep raising. There's no family unity here as the Carmodys have because Finch is totally estranged from his wife Elizabeth Sellars. He's also not picking things up either with another former flame Rosemary Harris. And another little side dalliance with shop girl Barbara Archer is the cause of some near tragedy.

If Finch can ever stop thinking with his male member there's a chance he might just finally grow up. For the sake of his little girl he'd better.

Despite all these character defects Finch being the great actor that he is does make you have a rooting interest in his hopefully eventual maturity.

The Shiralee is a wonderful picture of Australia in the 50s and even today one of the most optimistic places I've ever visited. This one is a real charmer and don't let it get away.