thunderscriptdiscussion

| Captain Thunderbolt 1951 | Historical References | Mary Ann Bugg | Script |

Title frame, Captain Thunderbolt (1951)

1. Introduction

The following is an analysis and discussion of the type-written Captain Thunderbolt - Shooting Script by Creswick Jenkinson, with additional cinematographic notes by Ross Wood. Held in the National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra, as part of the Charles "Bud" Tingwell Collection, it dates from February-March 1951 and comprises 64 loose-leaf, single-sided pages in a spring back folder. The script was the property of Associated TV Pty. Ltd., Rushcutter’s Bay, N.S.W., and included a note that it needed to be returned to them upon completion of the film. Associated TV Pty. Ltd. was the company producing and making the film, and the primary copyright holders, though various individuals may have maintained copyright in their preliminary work, such as the scriptwriter, unless contracts to the contrary were signed.

This is the copy which was in the possession of the Alan Blake character, played in the film by Tingwell. It contains a few minor amendments in pencil on a couple of pages. Physically, it is typed on a single side in black ink and numbered pages 1-62, plus an unnumbered title page and a loosely inserted unnumbered page typed in blue ink. The label on the cover of the folder reads “Charles Tingwell” written in black ink. This would suggest that a number of copies of the script were given to individuals such as the lead actors, camera man, and director.

The text includes camera position input from Ross Wood, the movie's chief cinematographer, Abbreviations and terms used throughout to describe camera actions include the following:

• BCU - big close up
• BG – background
• CU - close up
• DISSOLVE
• DOLLY
• FADE
• FG – foreground
• LMS - long medium shot
• LS - long shot
• MS - medium shot
• MLS - medium long shot
• MCU - medium close up
• PAN
• TRACKING
• VBCU – very big close up

The shooting script has been typed in a typical format for the day, with each scene numbered #1 to #337. Each scene contains some, or all, of the following elements:

1. Camera directions
2. Physical description of the scene, as in location
3. Actors present
4. Movements of the actors and other props, such as horses
5. Dialogue.

A transcript was made by Michael Organ in January 2024, and the analysis undertaken in July. At that point in time there were two surviving copies of the film in Australia - the first being the short, 16 mm television version dating from circa 1960 and which the present writer had seen one time at the NFSA in Canberra during March 2024. The other is an original 1951 35 mm print from the Czech Film Archive in Prague which is currently (July 2024) undergoing preservation and copying. The word count for the script is approximately 13,200. It is unclear at this stage as to the precision between the shooting script and the footage filmed and subsequently included in the initial cut as presented at the Prague premiere during 1952. 

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2. The Shooting Script

The content of the script reflects the fact that Creswick Jenkinson had for a number of years been a writer of radio plays, a very popular form of entertainment in Australia prior to the introduction of television in 1956. There was obviously narrative input from the members of the production team, such as the producer and director, though it is not clear what book or play the scenes were based on.

The main body of the text was the descriptive narrative content and dialogue by Jenkinson. It is unclear whether the latter relied on a published text as the basis for initial development of the script. As a result, there are some significant changes in the script compared to the known historical facts around the life and times of the real Captain Thunderbolt (Frederick Ward). These include:

1. In the film, the young Fred Ward falls in love with, and wants to marry, a woman called Joan. In real life, Fred Ward (1835-1870) was married to the Aboriginal woman Mary Ann Bugg (1834-1905).
2. In the film, Ward's fictional sidekick Alan Blake marries an Aboriginal woman by the name of Maggie.
3. In the film script Fred Ward does not die at the final shootout - his offsider Alan Blake dies - and Ward escapes with the now widowed Joan to start a new life. In real life there were rumours that Fred Ward escaped to America. However these have never been substantiated.

The filming of Captain Thunderbolt is part of a long and ongoing tradition of Australian bushranger films going back to The Story of the Kelly Gang in 1906, which also happened to be the world's first full-length (five reels long) feature film. The Americans have their Westerns; the Japanese their Samurai; the British their Robin Hood and J.R.R. Tolkien Middle-earth legendarium. All of these are stories of ordinary people fighting against injustice, good versus evil, and encountering opposition from the forces of evil, corruption and vested interest.

The script is more than simply historical and lively, as it contains some of the most vile racist language put on paper - language which nevertheless reflects the truth of certain aspects of colonial society during the 1870s period in which the movie is set, and continuing in part through to the time of filming. Subjects addressed include racism toward the Australian Aborigines and the Chinese who came to the country in connection with the gold rushes of the 1850s and 1860s. Corruption is seen in the way in which the landowner who brings charges against Fred Ward and Alan Blake conspires with the judge of their court case to have 7 year jail terms imposed upon them, when it was the will of the jury that, due to their young age, they not be given any such jail sentence. We also see the cruel treatment of Alan Blake by the Cockatoo Island gaoler Mannix, and his subsequent manipulation of the Aboriginal woman Maggie Blake to reveal the whereabouts of Ward and Blake, which leads to their capture and the death of Blake, Maggie's husband.

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| Captain Thunderbolt 1951 | Historical References | Mary Ann Bugg | Script |

Last updated: 14 July 2024

Michael Organ, Australia (Home)