FILM · 1985 · AUSTRALIA
Robbery Under Arms
54 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (54)
- #001
It took the South Australian Film Corporation only 15 days to raise the $7.3 million budget.
- #002
The production involved 120 crew members, 148 actors, 200 locations, 1,200 cattle and 2,000 extras.
- #003
The finished production was released both as a feature film and as a television mini-series.
- #004
This production is the longest of the four adaptations of Rolf Boldrewood's novel "Robbery Under Arms."
- #005
It was the fifth and last of the five feature films that British television director Ken Hannam shot in Australia. Hannam's first four films were Sunday Too Far Away (1975), Break of Day (1976), Summerfield (1977) and Dawn! (1979).
- #006
The film was made and released roughly a century after Rolf Boldrewood's source novel "Robbery Under Arms" was first published. Measured from the novel's first appearance in serial form in the Sydney Mail in 1882 and 1883, the gap is 102 or 103 years; measured from the novel's first publication in book form in 1888, the gap is 97 years.
- #007
It was the third and last of the three feature films director Ken Hannam made for the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC). Hannam's first SAFC film was Sunday Too Far Away (1975), and his second was Dawn! (1979).
- #008
This fifth version of Rolf Boldrewood's classic Australian novel "Robbery Under Arms" was made and released about twenty-eight years after the previous (fourth) version, Robbery Under Arms (1957).
- #009
Both this 1985 production and the previous version of Rolf Boldrewood's "Robbery Under Arms," Robbery Under Arms (1957), were shot in South Australia and share the Flinders Ranges and Wilpena Pound as locations.
- #010
It was the first version of Rolf Boldrewood's novel "Robbery Under Arms" made for television.
- #011
According to the production notes, the easiest part of making "Robbery Under Arms" was getting the money. It took the South Australian Film Corporation only fifteen days to raise the record $7.3 million budget. According to the film's press kit, this was unprecedented in the Australian film industry. Yet "Robbery Under Arms" had set many precedents in the ninety-six years since Rolf Boldrewood sent his manuscript to the printer. The fourth film made in this country was adapted from the book. The story of Captain Starlight and his cheerful men had fascinated filmmakers ever since. This is the fifth version of "Robbery Under Arms."
- #012
Only a few days after the film's prospectus was published, Robert Holmes à Court's international company ITC committed half the budget. According to the press kit, this was the largest single investment ever made in a local South Australian production. ITC also bought the world distribution rights. Other film investors were quick to follow Robert Holmes à Court's example.
- #013
Producer Jock Blair's shopping list for the production included: two directors; a country town; two farmhouses (both of the 1860s period); 148 actors; 120 crew members; 2,000 extras; 200 locations; 1,200 cattle; a stud bull; 56 horses; 12 brawlers; 2 elephants and a hot-air balloon.
- #014
Captain Starlight's (Sam Neill) horse was named "Rainbow."
- #015
The South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) assigned both two senior directors and two senior screenwriters to the production. The directors were Ken Hannam and Don Crombie, and the writers were Tony Morphett and Graeme Koetsveld. Hannam and Crombie had directed a number of films for the SAFC.
- #016
The production's official publicity described it as a "blockbuster." The press kit read: "A blockbuster. But sooner or later the coming together of S. A. F. C. [South Australian Film Corporation] and Blockbuster was inevitable. The Company introduced itself to the cinema world with 'Sunday Too Far Away' [1975], the first Australian film invited to the Cannes Film Festival ten years earlier. It was the antithesis of the Blockbuster. Just the same, so it was. 'Storm Boy' [1976], the Company's children's classic. But in recent years the Company has been moving toward bigger productions."
- #017
Pre-production on this production included two weeks of rehearsal in Adelaide, South Australia.
- #018
The source novelist Rolf Boldrewood was the pen name of Thomas Alexander Browne (1826-1915).
- #019
The promotional material for Robbery Under Arms stated that on the biggest day of shooting, around one hundred and twenty crew members would be working on set.
- #020
According to the production's promotional material at the time, a crew of seventy people was one of the largest ever assembled for a production filmed in Australia.
- #021
The production features an opening title card that reads: "S. A. F. C. [South Australian Film Corporation] Productions Ltd. In association with ITC Entertainment presents".
- #022
The television mini-series version of the production consisted of three episodes. Each ran approximately ninety minutes, for a total of about four and a half hours. The broadcast running times of each episode were specifically as follows: Part One: 90 minutes, Part Two: 95 minutes and Part Three: 88 minutes; the total running time of the television mini-series version is approximately 4 hours 34 minutes.
- #023
The theatrical feature-length version of the production consists of two parts and therefore has an intermission during screenings.
- #024
Producer Jock Blair likened the five-hundred-kilometre movement of the cast, crew, sets, locations and animals from Adelaide to the Flinders Ranges leg of the shoot in South Australia to a "troop movement".
- #025
'Captain Starlight or A Gentleman of the Road' (1911) was the only filmed version among the five film adaptations of Rolf Boldrewood's 1880s novel 'Robbery Under Arms' that was not titled 'Robbery Under Arms'.
- #026
The two versions of the production, a two-part feature film and a three-part television mini-series, were shot and filmed simultaneously.
- #027
The production was shot in the first half of 1984; the theatrical feature-length version was released in cinemas the following year, in 1985, and the television mini-series version first aired the following year, in 1986.
- #028
The Flinders Ranges leg of the shoot, at locations such as Wilpena Pound and Brachina Gorge, lasted about four weeks.
- #029
The mini-series version of the production aired on Australian television over three consecutive nights.
- #030
The western town of Dusty Creek was a backlot set built in the rural Adelaide Hills around the rural South Australian town of Hahndorf.
- #031
Producer Jock Blair claimed that the final budget cost figure was within about one thousand Australian dollars of the cost budgeted in the original prospectus presented to investors for the production.
- #032
Several real-life figures are said to have inspired source novelist Rolf Boldrewood to create the character of Captain Starlight, played by Sam Neill in the production. These included Australian bushrangers Frank Pearson, Captain Moonlite (Andrew George Scott) and Captain Melville (Thomas Smith, also known as Francis Melville), and the cattle thief Henry Redford, nicknamed Harry (also known as Henry Readford). In an interview published in the May 1985 issue of the Australian magazine 'Cinema Papers', producer Jock Blair said: "['Robbery Under Arms' source novelist Rolf] Boldrewood was a magistrate and he wrote it to persuade colonial youth not to be led astray by these bushrangers. His [Captain] Starlight was a combination of a bushranger whose name I forget, Ben Hall, and a man called Harry Radford. Boldrewood apparently stole a mob of cattle and drove them down to Adelaide. Boldrewood was appalled at the number of colonial youths coming before his bench, so it was a pretty grim warning of what would happen."
- #033
The project to remake 'Robbery Under Arms' was first conceived by producer Jock Blair in 1981, while he was working as head of drama at the South Australian Film Corporation.
- #034
The director of the previous version, 'Robbery Under Arms' (1957), Jack Lee, was, ironically, chairman of the South Australian Film Corporation between 1976 and 1981, when this remake was first developed in 1981, though he was not directly involved in the production.
- #035
Both this production and the previous filmed version of the story, 'Robbery Under Arms' (1957), were shot in South Australia's Flinders Ranges, and both productions used the location of Wilpena Pound there.
- #036
Second unit director Ken Hannam said in an interview published in the May 1985 issue of the Australian magazine 'Cinema Papers': "We just directed for hours and hours. Don (second unit director Donald Crombie) has a strong background in documentaries and features, but I don't think he'd done a series before. Whereas I'd done a lot and I was going back to doing a mini-series that could be a feature. It was cut out."
- #037
This production of 'Robbery Under Arms', the fifth, was made and first released thirty years after the previous version of the same name, the fourth, was released in 1957. The fifth version was shot in 1984, about twenty-seven years after the fourth; the film version was released in 1985, about twenty-eight years after the previous remake, and the mini-series version first aired in 1986, about twenty-nine years after 'Robbery Under Arms' (1957).
- #038
In an interview published in the May 1985 issue of the Australian magazine 'Cinema Papers', producer Jock Blair said: "The origins of this remake go back to 1981. It had been around as a good property for a long time and one of the attractive things about it is that there's no copyright! But when it was budgeted, it turned out it would be very expensive, costing a little over a million dollars an hour. And as it stands, that means a loss for investors. So we decided to drop a feature in order to share the investors' risk."
- #039
The production was originally intended to be a television mini-series made by the South Australian Film Corporation, but it was later decided to make two versions of the story; the feature film version was released first, and the longer TV mini-series would air a few years later. That happened the following year.
- #040
In an interview published in the May 1985 issue of the Australian magazine Cinema Papers, second unit director Donald Crombie said: "From the first day of shooting we cut the series first. The moment we had a fine cut of the TV series, we went in and cut the feature. Interestingly, we started putting in the least amount of story, I think our first cut was 110 minutes, and then we pulled the material back until we were absolutely sure that this was it. Normally, you go the other way and when you do that, two years later you look at the same film and say 'You could take out ten minutes'; I'd be interested to see whether that will happen with Robbery."
- #041
Second unit director Donald Crombie once said of this production: "I must admit that when Jock [producer Jock Blair] first rang me and said 'Robbery Under Arms', I thought, oh-oh, another period show… you know, coaches, horses, costumes… But when I read the script and realised it was done with a bit of humour, I thought, that's it."
- #042
Second unit director Ken Hannam said in an article published in the Australian magazine Cinema Papers in May 1985 that he would direct this production together with co-director Donald Crombie: "Of course we have different styles. I think a lot of people who say two directors can't work together are in for a big surprise."
- #043
Producer Jock Blair once said of this production that it was "a bargain on everyone's lips". "What we offered was, for example, a double-length feature film for [Australian] 4 million dollars and a six-hour mini-series for [Australian] 3.3 million dollars. Investors have two chances to make a profit."
- #044
A review published by Time Out labelled the production "Wankabout", a reference to the earlier classic Australian feature film Walkabout (1971), which was partly shot in South Australia but has very little connection to this production in terms of story elements. Both productions were shot on salt flats, as was Walkabout (1971), which was shot on the Lake Eyre salt lake in South Australia. Both productions were shot in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia.
- #045
The first cinema film and the first television mini-series for the actors Liz Newman, Jane Menelaus and Christopher Cummins.
- #046
One of four major filmed productions shared by the actors Sam Neill and Steven Vidler, both of whom had previously appeared in Claude Chabrol's Blood of Others (also known as Le sang des autres) (1982) and later appeared in both The Umbrella Woman (1987) and In Her Skin (2009).
- #047
Although the film was first released in cinemas in 1985, the home video was released a few months later the same year, and the mini-series did not air on Australian television until 1986, the production's editing cut the mini-series version first and the feature film second.
- #048
The theatrical feature film version was cut from the editing of the longer six-hour television mini-series version. Second unit director Donald Crombie told the Australian magazine Cinema Papers that this was done "by putting in the least amount of story and then setting the material aside until you are absolutely sure that this is the best story in the shortest time possible".
- #049
Most of the exterior night scenes were shot using the day-for-night technique, in which night scenes are filmed during the day using a filter that imitates the evening hour. This shooting method allows the viewer to see the landscape in the darkness of night.
- #050
The western town in the story of this Australian production was called "Dusty Creek". It is fictional, but in the US state of Arizona there is a construction company in the city of Scottsdale called Dusty Creek Builders Inc; the United States is in fact the home and creator of the western film genre.
- #051
According to Adrianne Evans of the 'Australian Cinema' website, "the [Australian] production set a precedent in [Australia] by having two directors of international renown [Ken Hannam and Donald Crombie] work together to deliver a large-scale double presentation of [both a feature cinema film and a television mini-series]".
- #052
The later Australian film Sweet Country (2017) was not the first feature film classified as a "western" to be supported, produced, financed or co-financed by the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC). The SAFC films Dark Frontier (2009) and Robbery Under Arms (1985) were classified as "westerns"; the latter was the SAFC remake of the pre-SAFC western Robbery Under Arms (1957), which was also shot in South Australia.
- #053
One of the few films classified in the western genre that were shot or partly shot in the Australian state of South Australia. The films include: Kangaroo (1952), Dark Frontier (2009), Robbery Under Arms (1957), The Rancher's Daughter (1931), Sweet Country (2017) and Robbery Under Arms (1985) (for the latter see also 'Robbery Under Arms' (1985)). Adventure films "related to the western genre" were also shot in the state of South Australia, such as Bitter Springs (1950) and The Sundowners (1960); the latter was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture (and for the latter see also 'The Sundowners' (1960)).
- #054
The mini-series version ran 3 x 120 minutes. The cinema version ran 165 minutes.
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