The Story of The Kelly Gang - Plot

Plot

The Story of the Kelly Gang's tone is of sorrow, depicting Ned Kelly as "the Last of the Bushrangers, and his friends Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne," presenting the police hiding under the bed when Aaron Sherritt is shot ('This is the Only Blot on the Police,') and portraying school master Curnow's action of warning the train as heroic ('Thank God, he Saved the Train.')

Among the surviving images are two scenes that suggest considerable sophistication for that time. The scene of the police shooting parrots in the bush skillfully positions the shooter in the middle ground to the left of the image, firing upwards toward the far right, with the gang watching him from close foreground. The capture of Ned is shot from the viewpoint of the police, as Ned advances, an impressive figure weaving towards them under the weight of his armour and the shock of the bullets.

According to the synopsis given in the surviving program, the film originally comprised six sequences. These provided a loose narrative based on the Kelly gang story.

• Scene 1: Police discuss a warrant for Dan Kelly’s arrest. Later, Kate Kelly rebuffs the attentions of a Trooper.
• Scene 2: The killings of Kennedy, Scanlon and Lonigan at Stringybark Creek by the gang.
• Scene 3: The hold-up at Younghusband’s station and a bank hold–up.
• Scene 4: Various gang members and supporters evade the police and the gang killing of Aaron Sherritt.
• Scene 5: The attempt to derail a train and scenes at the Glenrowan Inn. The police surround the hotel, Dan Kelly and Steve Hart “die by each other’s hands” after Joe Byrne is shot dead.
• Scene 6: The closing scenes. "Ned Kelly fights hard” but is shot in the legs.“He begs the Troopers to spare his life, thus falls the last of the Kelly Gang…”

Some confusion regarding the plot has emerged as a result of a variant poster from the film dating from 1910. Its similar (but different) photos suggest that either the film was being added to, or altered, or an entirely new version was made by Johnson and Gibson, as the poster proclaims. Fragments of another version of the story, “the Perth fragment,” shows Aaron Sherritt being shot outside, in front of an obviously painted canvas flat. This now appears to be from a different film altogether, perhaps a cheap imitation by a theatrical company, keen to cash in on the success of the original.