An Australian biopic about the life of pioneering aviator Charles "Smithy" Kingsford-Smith. The film is unusually frank about the controversies that occasionally dogged him. PG Taylor and Billy Hughes both make appearances playing themselves.
He's had his portrait on a dollar coin and an airport named after him, but who exactly was Charles Kingsford-Smith? Well this lengthy but quite engaging biopic casts Ron Randell in that role and we follow his quite remarkable story. He's a budding aviator, injured and decorated by the King during the war, who is determined to make long-haul flights connecting his home of Australia to the rest of the world a reality. Initially it's London to Sydney he wants to attempt, but money is tight and nobody in political office believes he can make the 12,000 mille trip. Maybe there's more success to be had getting to the USA? Well that's where he meets with a little more promise, but there's still a gruelling and perilous task ahead of him. Randell turns in quite a likeable effort here as the young pioneer and there's quite a bit of decent aviation photography, albeit rather rudimentarily stitched together, to help tell the story of a brave and visionary man who wasn't afraid to grasp the nettle. The assembled supporting cast do their jobs well enough and he frustrations of the red tape and indifference he squared up against are presented loud and clear as it portrays a man of determination quite powerfully. Sure, there's a soupçon of romance but not enough to stall the pace and this fits in nicely to the "The First of the Few" (1942) group of films.