Before Quigley
Down Under … long before!
Before World War II even, there was producer/director Hal Roach’s 1939
adventure tale of English and Irish prisoners sent Down Under to serve out
their sentences in exile. Australia of
the 1840s … a wild, near lawless frontier!
The film was titled
Captain
Fury and it starred the likes of Brian Aherne (nominated the same year
for Best Supporting Actor in Juarez) as Captain Fury (an Irish
rebel banished for his revolutionary ways), Victor McLaglen as the scalawag Blackie
(a heart of gold, but prone to thievery and other mischief), June Lang as the
lovely Jeanette (who catches Fury’s eye) and George Zucco as the evil land
baron, Arnold Trist (think: Alan Rickman’s Elliot Marston character in Quigley
Down Under).
Other familiar
faces in this Australian story are Douglass Dumbrille as Trist’s enforcer, John
Carradine as one of Fury’s fellow prisoners, Paul Lukas as Jeanette’s
wishy-washy father and Charles “Ming the Merciless” Middleton as Mergon,
another one of Trist’s men. An entirely
English and American cast starring in an Australian frontier saga that was film
on location in … Malibu and Chatsworth!!!
Word arrived this week
that the wait is finally over for this Hal Roach’s Oscar-nominated Captain
Fury (for Best Art Direction) as it will be making its DVD debut on Aug.
1 courtesy of VCI Entertainment!
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