The Story of the Kelly Gang

  • Frank Mills: Ned Kelly
  • Nicholas Brierley: Joe Byrne
  • Elizabeth Tait: Kate Kelly
  • Sam Crewes: Dan Kelly
  • Jack Ennis: Steve Hart
  • John Tait: School Master
  • Bella Cola
  • Vera Linden
  • Ollie Wilson
  • E. J. Tait
  • Frank Tait

The History of the Kelly Gang is an Australian Western from 1906, which is about the character of the legendary Australian outlaw Ned Kelly, is considered with its original running time of about 70 minutes as the world's first feature-length film. Today there are only a few minutes of the film.

Production

The film cost an estimated $ 2,250. The length of the film roll was originally 1219.2 meters. The interior scenes were in St Kilda, a city district of Melbourne, rotated. Other locations were Elthan, Greensborough, Heidelberg, Melbourne, Mitcham and Rosanna, all located in the state of Victoria in Australia. The producers wanted to portray the film as realistic as possible, but intervened in the selection of police uniforms back on unusual specimens in the Australian bush. This was justified by the fact that it is only by was possible to distinguish between the police and the gangsters in the age of black and white film. One of the suits used in the movie is said to have originally belonged to Joe Byrne, one of the historical models of the film.

Demonstrations

The film was first shown on 26 December 1906 Melbourne Town Hall. The film sparked again and again from discussions among politicians and the police, who saw the glorification of criminals in it. That's why he was banned in Benalla and Wangaratta in Victoria in 1907 and 1912. It was shown in Australia for over 20 years, also in New Zealand and the UK. The sponsors and exhibitors made ​​" a fortune with the film".

Restoration

Only about 17 minutes of the film were rescued today and have been restored by the National Film and Sound Archive Australia. Among the rescued pictures of the film include a scene in which the police in the bush shoots parrots, and another showing the capture of Ned Kelly. In addition, a program booklet could be obtained. It contains newspaper reports about the arrest of the gang, and a summary of the film, divided into six scenes. The latter part supplied the reader with additional information which later historians helped to interpret the content of the film.

The preserved and restored material for this first feature film in movie history was included in the list of world cultural heritage list by UNESCO in 2007.

1906 in film Screenplay Film score
237708
de