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Kangaroo (1952)
3/10
Uninspired dusty outback tale, centered on moos, not roos.
18 April 2014
Maureen O'Hara, in her prime, is wasted in this rather dreary , pointless, outback yarn, shot in Technicolor, on location in Australia. Fortunately, she would rebound with 2 of her best roles, in "The Quiet Man" and "Against All Flags", where she had more interesting leading men(John Wayne, Errol Flynn) than the badly miscast urbane Peter Lawford, barely recognizable behind all that facial hair.

In a minimal effort to justify the title, we do see a couple of roos hopping about in one scene. But, at times, we see many more thirsty, hungry , cattle, who only have wind-blown dust to eat much of the time. The plot is an unfocused mishmash, that never really grabs our attention and never comes to any dramatic conclusion, aside from a big rainstorm that finally ends the long drought, that has the townies doing 'a rain dance'. Shortly before this, Lawford and Boone engage in a bizarre fight with bullwhips and a rifle, after being spotted in the bush by a couple of lawmen. ......Maureen, after begging to be included, wanted out after discovering what it was really going to be like. Perhaps the only saving grace for contemporary audiences was the brief shots of some of the native animals and natives, at a time when such weren't commonly available.
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