{{short description|1953 film by Lee Robinson}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} {{Infobox film | name = The Phantom Stockman | director = Lee Robinson | producer = George Heath<br>Chips Rafferty | writer = Lee Robinson | starring = Victoria Shaw <br> Chips Rafferty <br> Max Osbiston <br> Guy Doleman | music = William Lovelock | cinematography = George Heath | editing = Gus Lowry | studio = Platypus Productions | distributor = Universal Pictures (Australia)<br>Astor Corporation (US)<br>Renown (UK) | released = {{Film date|1953|06||Australia|1953|09|15|United States}} | budget = £10,800<ref name="sun">{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28672096 |title=FEATURES. |newspaper=The Sunday Herald |location=Sydney |date=12 July 1953 |accessdate=25 August 2012 |page=14 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> | gross = £23,000 (outside Australia)<ref name="sun"/> | runtime = 67 minutes | country = Australia<br>United States | language = English }} '''''The Phantom Stockman''''' is a 1953 Australian Western film written and directed by Lee Robinson and starring Chips Rafferty, Victoria Shaw, Max Osbiston and Guy Doleman.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/60655 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090118182833/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/60655 | url-status=dead | archive-date=18 January 2009 | title=The Phantom Stockman | publisher=British Film Institute | accessdate=19 May 2010}}</ref>
It was the first of several movies produced by Lee Robinson in association with Chips Rafferty in the 1950s.<ref name="phantom">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/the-lee-robinson-chips-rafferty-story-part-one-the-phantom-stockman/|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|date=1 June 2025|access-date=1 June 2025|title=The Lee Robinson-Chips Rafferty Story Part One: The Phantom Stockman}}</ref>
==Plot summary== Kim Marsden inherits a cattle station near Alice Springs after the death of her father. Kim becomes convinced her father was murdered. She sends for a legendary local bushman called the Sundowner, who was one of her father's best friends.
Adopting the name Ted Simpson, the Sundowner arrives at Kim's station with his Aboriginal offsider, Dancer. They are given work by the station manager, McLeod.
The Sundowner and Dancer discover that cattle rustlers have been stealing stock. The realise the person behind the murder is Kim's neighbour, Stapleton, who is in league with the cattle rustlers and is romantically interested in Kim.
The rustlers kidnap Sundowner but he uses telepathy to get Dancer to come to his rescue. Kim is united with her true love, McLeod.<ref>Mayer, Geoff. "The Phantom Stockman: Lee Robinson, Chips Rafferty and the Film Industry that Nobody Wanted". ''Metro Magazine: Media & Education Magazine'', No. 142, Autumn 2005: 16-20.</ref>
==Cast== * Chips Rafferty as The Sundowner * Janette Elphick as Kim Marsden * Max Osbiston as McLeod * Guy Doleman as Stapleton * Henry Murdoch as Dancer * Bob Darken as Roxey * Joe Scully as the Moth *George Neil * Albert Namitjira as himself
==Development== Chips Rafferty and Lee Robinson had both failed to raise finance for individual projects. Rafferty wanted to make a £120,000 13-part series and film, ''The Green Opal'', about immigration problems.<ref name="opal">{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18257578 |title=ACTOR CRITICISES RULING ON FILMS. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=22 January 1952 |accessdate=18 March 2015 |page=4 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Robinson wanted to make a thriller, ''Saturday to Monday'' which later became ''The Siege of Pinchgut''. Both were stymied by a government rule at the time which prohibited invent in non-essential industry over £10,000.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145627127 |title=Money defence[?] not film. |newspaper=Daily Advertiser |location=Wagga Wagga, NSW |date=23 January 1952 |accessdate=18 March 2015 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
The two men knew each other because Robinson wrote scripts for Rafferty's radio show, ''Chips: the Story of Outback''. Both were frustrated at the lack of film production in Australia. They decided to team up together and make a film that cost under £10,000, with Robinson directing and Rafferty starring. (Robinson had experienced directing documentaries and been an assistant on ''I Found Joe Barton''.)
They were joined by cinematographer George Heath and formed Platypus Productions. Said Rafferty at the time: <blockquote>We nutted it out this way. What's the good of imitating English and American pictures when we can get into places these foreign production units can't reach for sandflies and skeeters? We'll pick locations and backgrounds the world knows nothing about. We'll study them for dramatic values. But we're not buying stories. The stories will just come out of our heads and still leave enough wood to make chairs.<ref name="sun"/></blockquote> Robinson later elaborated: <blockquote>We said, "Let's forget what the Australian public thinks about, what they might take to, because if you put an Australian tag on a film it was the worst possible thing you could do."... The thing was to try and go for different locales and different lines, new material but fairly standard in the international approach... It was something that Les Norman (the producer of ''Eureka Stockade'') said to us. "If you are working in a known background like London or New York you can go for very different story lines, but if you are working in a new background that is unfamiliar to your audience you have to be a bit conventional in your story line because audiences find it difficult to accept a totally new background and a really new story line at the same time." So I think there was a bit of that inherent in all of those early films with Chips. <ref name="moran"/></blockquote> It was decided to make the film in the Northern Territory where Robinson had worked for a number of years.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=50 Meat Pie Westerns|date=24 July 2019}}</ref> The movie would focus around Chips Rafferty, playing a version of the character he portrayed on radio.<ref name="gs">{{cite interview |last=Robinson |first=Lee |interviewer=Graham Shirley |title= Lee Robinson |type=Oral history |date=15 August 1976 |publisher=National Film and Sound Archive|url=http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;page=0;query=lee%20robinson%20graham%20shirley;rec=4;resCount=10}}</ref><ref name="phantom"/>
The film was originally known as ''Dewarra'', ''Platypus''<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59836607 |title=Film Shooting Nears Completion. |newspaper=Centralian Advocate (Alice Springs, NT : 1947–1954) |location=Alice Springs, NT |date=1 August 1952 |accessdate=30 August 2015 |page=1 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> then ''The Tribesman''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27096598 |title=Bouquet For Beauty. |newspaper=The Mercury |location=Hobart, Tas. |date=30 June 1952 |accessdate=22 March 2012 |page=14 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
===Casting=== Charles Tingwell was meant to play a role but was unable to fit it in his schedule and was replaced by Guy Doleman. Doleman and Max Osbiston were experienced Sydney radio actors.<ref name="phantom"/>
Seventeen-year-old Jeanette Elphick, 1952 model of the year, was cast in the lead.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44524715 |title=VICTORIA SHAW: "I have been true to myself". |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly | date=11 February 1976 |accessdate=25 August 2012 |page=4 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18270466 |title=17-year-old Girl Star of New Film. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=26 June 1952 |accessdate=18 March 2015 |page=11 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Her voice would be entirely dubbed by June Salter.<ref name="gs"/>
==Shooting== It was shot around Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia starting July 1952.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59841905 |title=Film Production Underway. |newspaper=Centralian Advocate |location=Alice Springs, NT |date=4 July 1952 |accessdate=22 March 2012 |page=1 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59834810 |title=Farewell to Keith Price. |newspaper=Centralian Advocate |location=Alice Springs, NT |date=11 July 1952 |accessdate=22 March 2012 |page=10 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Several days shooting were lost due to unexpected rain.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59841521 |title=Inigo Jones and the Rain. |newspaper=Centralian Advocate |location=Alice Springs, NT |date=18 July 1952 |accessdate=22 March 2012 |page=1 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Interiors – the girl's house – were shot in Sydney at a small studio in North Sydney owned by Mervyn Murphy.<ref name="gs"/>
Robinson later recalled: <blockquote>My experience with actors was limited. Chips on the other hand had by now made quite a number of films and he was an impeccable technical actor.... There were people in the picture of course who had never made a picture before. There weren’t the opportunities here for them to do so. He helped them a good deal by walking through scenes with them on his own and getting things sorted out, timing their dialogue and so on. The other thing was that we were working in actual locations. We decided right from the beginning we would never, ever build sets. We were working to a large extent in situations that were fairly genuine. The Aboriginal involvement, the themes were genuine themes. I suppose, given my documentary background and the fact that you are on actual locations and in many cases using actual people, it was inevitable that that would come through.<ref name="moran">[http://www.screeneditors.com.au/newsletter-33-may-1999/ "KING OF THE CORAL SEA: An Interview with Lee Robinson" by Albert Moran, Continuum:The Australian Journal of Media & Culture vol. 1 no 1 (1987) Australian Film in the 1950s Edited by Tom O’Regan] accessed 30 March 2015</ref></blockquote> The cameo of painter Albert Namatjira, who appeared as himself, may have been the first of an Australian artist in a feature film. Lee Robinson had previously made a documentary about Namitjira called ''Namatjira the Painter''.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/z-non-white-aussie-movies-tv-white-australia/?fbclid=IwAR2a3frfNd9RfNEqJta07m8mnH4x5RejXkRemRiAUmojmurXyhJAAMPuEUE|title=The A to Z of Non-White Aussie Movies and TV in White Australia|date=May 25, 2020}}</ref>
Robinson says that George Heath did not get along with Chips Rafferty or Robinson.<ref name="gs"/>
==Release==
===Critical=== The ''Sun Herald'' wrote that: <blockquote>The film was made in a hurry, and looks like it; and the editing of many scenes is ludicrously slow. Hopalong Cassidy could probably clean up a dozen mysteries in the time it takes Chips Rafferty to draw wisely upon a cigarette. The romance is developed clumsily by script and direction. There were some satisfactory punches on the jaw, and a little gunplay later on, but generally there is not enough action to make the "dead heart" come to life.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18519478 |title=REVIEWS OF NEW FILMS... |newspaper=The Sunday Herald |location=Sydney |date=19 July 1953 |accessdate=18 March 2015 |page=15 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref></blockquote> According to ''Filmink'' the movie wasn't "a great film": <blockquote>It’s too slow, much of it feels like a filmed radio play, and Max Osbiston isn’t handsome enough to play the romantic lead. But there’s enough good stuff to get by – the photography and locations, Rafferty being Rafferty, Elphick being pretty, Guy Doleman as a villain, Henry Murdock as a sidekick, that random Namatjira cameo. The Rafferty-Robinson collaboration would eventually turn sour, but on the first movie, they pretty much did everything right, within their limitations of talent, time and money.<ref name="phantom"/></blockquote>
===Box office=== Rafferty and Robinson managed to sell the Pakistan, India, Burma and Ceylon rights for £1,000. While filming ''The Desert Rats'' in Hollywood, Rafferty sold the American rights for $35,000, then the English rights for £7,500.<ref name="sun"/> (The movie would later screen on US TV as ''Return of the Plainsman''.<ref>"Other 39 -- No Title" ''Chicago Daily Tribune'' 21 July 1956: c6.</ref>)
Robinson later claimed that the film recouped its costs within three months of being filmed.<ref name="moran"/>
The film was distributed in Australia by Universal. The deal was done through Herc McIntyre who had supported a number of local films.<ref name="moran"/> Robinson says McIntyre gave the film a very advantageous financial deal.<ref name="gs"/>
===Foreign release=== In the United States it was released as ''Return of the Plainsman'' whilst the working title was ''The Sundowner''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/item/itemDetailPaged.aspx?itemID=441932 | title=Alan Bardsley – film and television scripts, 1952, 1959 | publisher=State Library of New South Wales | accessdate=19 May 2010 }}</ref> In Britain the film was known as ''Cattle Station'' or ''The Tribesman''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49082472 |title=Film Made By Australian. |newspaper=The West Australian |location=Perth |date=25 February 1953 |accessdate=18 March 2015 |page=14 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==Legacy== Heath left the team and tried to get up his own film, called, ''The Jackaroo'', but was unsuccessful.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18517960 |title=DEMAND FOR LOCAL FILMS. |newspaper=The Sunday Herald |location=Sydney |date=2 August 1953 |accessdate=25 August 2012 |page=14 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Elphick later went to Hollywood and enjoyed a successful career under the name "Victoria Shaw".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mayer |first1=Geoff |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1cbhBqzye1MC&dq=Janette+Elphick+Victoria+Shaw&pg=PA45 |title=The Cinema of Australia and New Zealand |last2=Beattie |first2=Keith |date=2007 |publisher=Wallflower Press |isbn=978-1-904764-96-0 |pages=45 |language=en}}</ref> Rafferty and Robinson went on to make several more movies together as producer.<ref name="phantom"/>
==See also== * Cinema of Australia
==References== <references/>
== External links == * {{IMDb title|0046185|The Phantom Stockman}} * [http://colsearch.nfsa.gov.au/nfsa/search/display/display.w3p;adv=;group=;groupequals=;holdingType=;page=0;parentid=;query=the%20phantom%20stockman;querytype=;rec=1;resCount=10 ''The Phantom Stockman''] at the National Film and Sound Archive *[https://aso.gov.au/titles/features/the-phantom-stockman/ ''The Phantom Stockman''] at Australian Screen Online *[https://www.ozmovies.com.au/movie/phantom-stockman ''The Phantom Stockman''] at Oz Movies *[https://archive.org/stream/variety191-1953-08#page/n69/mode/1up/search/%22chips+rafferty%22 Review of film] at ''Variety'' {{Lee Robinson}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phantom Stockman}} Category:1953 films Category:1953 Western (genre) films Category:Films directed by Lee Robinson Category:Australian Western (genre) films Category:Australian black-and-white films Category:1953 English-language films Category:English-language Western (genre) films Category:1953 Australian films Category:Films set in the Northern Territory Category:Films shot in the Northern Territory