AustLit

A film tracing the Kelly Gang's descent into bushranging to the eventual stand-off with troopers at Glenrowan.

Contemporary reviews were not entirely positive. The film critic for the Sydney Morning Herald, for example, wrote that

'"When the Kellys Rode" is not a master-piece. The dramatic element in the story has been thinly worked out, and the acting falls below the standard which present-day audiences demand. The appeal of the film lies in its lack of pretension. The naive simplicity of the treatment gives a freshness of impression which many other Australian productions have lacked. One charming feature is the series of landscape views which Mr. Tasman Higgins has photographed in the Megalong Valley and along Cox's River.'

Source:

'Banned Film. "When the Kellys Rode." Simple Adventure Story'. Sydney Morning Herald 18 May 1934, p.11.