The Story of the Kelly Gang

The Story of the Kelly Gang
Poster for film's 1910 re-release
Directed byCharles Tait
Written byCharles Tait
John Tait
Based onpossibly the play The Kelly Gang by Arnold Denham
Produced byWilliam Gibson
Millard Johnson
John Tait
Nevin Tait
StarringElizabeth Tait
John Tait
CinematographyMillard Johnson
Orrie Perry
Reg Perry
Distributed byJ & N Nevin Tait
Release date
  • 26 December 1906 (1906-12-26)
Running time
60 minutes[1]
CountryAustralia
LanguagesSilent
English intertitles
Budget£400[2]–£1,000[3]
Box office£25,000[2][4][5]

The Story of the Kelly Gang is a 1906 Australian Bushranger film directed by Charles Tait. It traces the exploits of 19th-century bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly and his gang, with the film being shot in and around Melbourne. The original cut of this silent film ran for more than an hour with a reel length of about 1,200 metres (4,000 ft), making it the longest narrative film yet seen in the world.[6][7] It premiered at Melbourne's Athenaeum Hall on 26 December 1906 and was first shown in the United Kingdom in January 1908.[8][9] A commercial and critical success, it is regarded as the origin point of the bushranging drama, a genre that dominated the early years of Australian film production. Since its release, many other films have been made about the Kelly legend.

As of 2020, approximately 17 minutes of the film are known to have survived, which, together with stills and other fragments, have undergone restoration for theatrical and home video releases. In 2007, The Story of the Kelly Gang was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register for being the world's first full-length narrative feature film.[10]

  1. ^ "THE STORY OF THE KELLY GANG". The Register. Adelaide. 22 December 1906. p. 4. Retrieved 13 August 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ a b "THE RESEARCH BUREAU HOLDS AN AUTOPSY". Sunday Mail. Brisbane. 17 February 1952. p. 11. Retrieved 13 August 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ Graham Shirley and Brian Adams (1989), Australia Cinema: The First Eighty Years, Currency Press. Page 17-18. ISBN 0868192325
  4. ^ Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper (1980), Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, pages 7-9. ISBN 0 19 554213 4
  5. ^ ""KELLY GANG" FILM BEGAN ERA OF "FEATURE" PICTURES". The Sunday Herald. Sydney. 9 October 1949. p. 9 Supplement: Features. Retrieved 13 August 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ Sally Jackson and Graham Shirley (2006), The Story of the Kelly Gang. National Film and Sound Archive, Australia "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ^ Ray Edmondson and Andrew Pike (1982) Australia's Lost Films. p. 13. National Library of Australia, Canberra. ISBN 0-642-99251-7
  8. ^ "THE KELLY GANG". The Argus. Melbourne. 27 December 1906. p. 5. Retrieved 14 August 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ Ina Bertrand and Ken Robb (1982) "The continuing saga of...The Story of the Kelly Gang." Cinema Papers, No. 36, February 1982, pp. 18–22
  10. ^ Chichester, Jo. "Return of the Kelly Gang". The UNESCO Courier (2007 #5). UNESCO. ISSN 1993-8616. Archived from the original on 1 July 2007.

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