AustLit
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Adaptations
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form
y
Keane of Kalgoorlie
( dir. John Gavin
)
Australia
:
Crick and Finlay
,
1911
6189247
1911
single work
film/TV
crime
adventure
'The picture "Keane of Kalgoorlie" was shown in two parts. Frank Keane, a Sydney clerk, is betrothed to Tess Murton, who bids him a tearful farewell at Circular Quay as he sails away to the West to make a rapid fortune After his departure one Gregory Harris proposes to Tess. Rejected, he finds out the reason then treacherously arranges with [?] Ross to have a telegram sent stating that Keane has been married to a Kalgoorlie barmaid. Believing the story, Tess accepts and is married to Harris. Ten years later Keane and Tess meet again. The former is now a rich man and has come back to Sydney to run a horse in the Sydney Cup. Soon after his arrival he meets the man who sent the telegram and the Iatter discloses that Harris give him £I00 to do so. Ross shoots himself and when dead is robbed by Harris, who is attracted by the fatal revolver shot. A "dosser" is also attracted and he attaches himself to Harris, levying blackmail upon him. Tess overhears the two plotting to abduct Keane so that his horse shall not win the Cup. She cannot stop the abduction, but she finds and releases Keane in time for him to start his horse and win the great race. Harris then played a trump card, accusing Keane of the murder of Ross. At the trial the stolen watch is produced and proves Keane's innocence, also that Harris was at the bottom of all the trouble. Harris in turn kills himself. Then Keane marries Tess and lives happily ever after. It is a very dramatic set of pictures, with rather much tragedy and crime, but seemed to appeal to most of the andience.'
Source:
'Wonderland Pictures: "Keane of Kalgoorlie",' Mildura Cultivator, 2 September 1911, p.8.
Notes
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Richard Fotheringham in Companion to Theatre in Australia (1995): 421 states the play was staged in 1908. He says: 'There were real horses in a brumby hunt in Coo-ee in 1906 and in the Sydney Cup in Keane of Kalgoorlie in 1908. Both plays were huge successes.' Bruce Mansfield also confirms the play was produced in 'O'Sullivan, Edward William (1846 - 1910)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, MUP, 1988, pp 106-108.
Production Details
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Staged by E. I. Cole in April 1908.