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Clip description
Jack Braggan (Wilfred Lucas) drives Muriel Hammond (Brownie Vernon) along an outback road. An Aboriginal man rides up and momentarily keeps pace with their buggy. The Aboriginal man is ordered away by Braggan, who explains that the man is a black tracker looking for cattle thieves.
Curator’s notes
Uncredited, Bess Meredyth co-directed The Man From Kangaroo including scenes in which her fellow director Wilfred Lucas appeared as the villain, Jack Braggan. This suspenseful, unsettling scene is one of the best, due in no small measure to Brownie Vernon’s performance as a woman instinctively uneasy in Braggan’s presence. The way in which the sequence is staged – the Aboriginal horseman riding up from the distance to stare at Braggan before riding onward – adds to the suspense. The name of the Aboriginal man who played the black tracker is unknown. His presence in The Man From Kangaroo continued Snowy Baker’s commitment, begun with The Enemy Within (1918), to show Aboriginal people in a positive light.
