Sons of Matthew (1949)

If you thought there were a lot of the “Waltons” then just wait til you meet the pioneering “O’Riordan” clan who are bent on carving themselves an home in the newly colonised Australia. It’s dad Matthew (John O’Malley) and wife “Jane” (Thelma Scott) who arrive with little but the clothes they stand up in, and over a generation raise five boys and two girls and make a go of their farm. Along the way, a neighbouring bush fire rendered the young “Cathy” (Wendy Gibb) orphaned, and so they have adopted her and she has become the firm favourite of “Barney” (Ken Wayne). Faced with the pretty exponential increase in the family, they decide that they have to branch out and with the government offering almost 500 acres per man to people who will take some risks, they pull their resources and set off into the hitherto untouched territory to establish farms of their own. Meantime, the strong, silent, brother “Shane” (Michael Pate) has also developed a bit of an interest in “Cathy” and so teed up a bit of a conflict with his sibling as she now seems to prefer him instead. With all these romantic shenanigans going on, the family also have to fight the brutal elements to prosper with something akin to a jungle having to be tamed; with trails to be blazed and cattle reared. It all comes to an head when the mother of all storms hits their farmstead and with the rain and the wind causing havoc, the brothers and “Cathy” must have their reckoning. The story itself, and the acting, isn’t especially notable but as the film gathers pace it really does illustrate just how tough it was for these families to set up homes amidst the unwelcoming and unforgiving wilderness. The location photography, especially towards the end, works quite well at demonstrating these difficulties whilst the writing allows us to follow quite a likeable family as they persevere through triumph and disaster with a typical mix of Anglo-Irish stoicism and opportunism along the way. I think this compares fine with many of it’s Hollywood counterparts, and I quite enjoyed it.