Ethel Turner's wonderful book about a strict army man, his young second wife, their child, and his six children from a previous marriage is here given a heavy-handed, badly acted and over-moralising film treatment. The later TV mini-series was much better. The biggest problem is Charles McCallum as the Captain - he plays the character with no love for wife or children at all, instead of suppressing love because of his belief in discipline. His miraculous transformation at the end is silly and completely unbelievable.
It is sad that this film is not better as so few films were made in Australia at that time - but when you consider that this amateurish and badly directed film was competing with "Gone With the Wind", "The Wizard of Oz" and "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" it's not hard to see why many Australians lost faith in our film industry.
It is sad that this film is not better as so few films were made in Australia at that time - but when you consider that this amateurish and badly directed film was competing with "Gone With the Wind", "The Wizard of Oz" and "Mr Smith Goes to Washington" it's not hard to see why many Australians lost faith in our film industry.