He encounters Richard Connor, a desperate young man trying to find money to return home to America.

Connor and Gamble assist the station in getting back on its feet, rescuing stray cattle, heading off a stampede, and culminating in a daring repair of an out-of-control windmill during a windstorm.

Overhearing her despair at this news, Connor feels he must confess, and Gamble sees their plan fail because of the annoying conscience of his partner.

Having not only confessed his true identity, but also the fact that both he and his companion are wanted for murder, Connor and Gamble are forced to flee the station, with trooper Len in hot pursuit.

In the end, Len fatally shoots Gamble, then takes Connor back to the McGuire station, where he recovers from his injuries.

In November 1948, 20th Century-Fox announced they wanted to make a films set in Australia at the turn of the century, called The Australian Story.

[13] In December 1949 associate producer Robert Snody and art director Lee Kirk arrived in Sydney to line up locations.

[14] In January 1950, Fox said the project would be an "actor drama" called The Bushranger produced by Robert Snody and written by Norman Reilly Raine about a family running a cattle station in the northwest circa 1895–1900.

[19] An early draft of the film reportedly featured reference to hordes of kangaroos wiping out a town, but this was deleted after input from the Australian crew.

[22][23] When he arrived, Milestone spoke highly to the Australian media about the quality of other Australian-shot films, The Overlanders and Bitter Springs.

"Station hands, townspeople, tavern keepers, barmaids, stage coach drivers, passengers, atmosphere players", he said.

[37] By the end of the month, the female lead was given to Constance Smith, who had just appeared in Fox's The Mudlark.,[38] (J. Arthur Rank reportedly would not loan out Simmons.

"[43] O'Hara's marriage was breaking down at the time and she says she had decided to divorce her second husband but was talked out of it by Mary and John Ford just before she left for Australia on 17 November 1950.

[46] In December 1950, Letty Craydon was cast as Maureen O'Hara's housekeeper under a monthly contract with a daily option up until six weeks.

He said: "I fell back to my second line trenches and resolved to narrow down the human story to the minimum and concentrate on the animals plight in the drought.

[51] In September, it was reported that: Australian authors working in the United States appear to have led Hollywood up the garden path with exciting tales about Australia.

[52] Shooting was to commence on October 15, 1950 but this date had to be pushed back to November due to unexpected rain, lack of material and contractual requirements of Finlay Currie.

Originally the film opened with Connor (Peter Lawford) and his bushranger friend Gamble (Boone) holding up a stage coach on a lonely road where he met Dell (O'Hara) who was a passenger.

"[61] There was a studio at Pagewood, but Milestone said it "ignored" it and "shot right inside houses, saloons, and natural interiors, utilizing as many historical locations as possible; in the country... we used little pubs and places like that, mainly in and around Port Augusta.

"[62] Milestone said: "one of the reasons I wanted to concentrate on Sydney's historic landmarks was to emphasize the fact we were actually in Australia: out in the wide open spaces you might as well have been in Arizona.

"[62] Premier Thomas Playford of South Australia donated a housing estate at Port Augusta to the film unit for use of the cast and crew.

[66][67] O'Hara arrived in Adelaide from Sydney on November 30, and attended a reception at Government House hosted by Premier Playford.

[73] During shooting, temperatures were very high in Port Augusta,[74] the script was constantly being rewritten, the isolated unit (dubbed "Zanuckville") had trouble sourcing materials,[75] and rain kept occurring at inopportune moments.

[83][84] On the shoot, a Christmas Eve concert was held on location by cast and crew, however Lawford and Boone asked to be excused.

He was replaced as stand in by Ian Jones, an arts student who had travelled from Melbourne to the unit hoping to find some stunt work.

[90][91] Lawford reportedly lost twelve pounds (5.4 kg) during the shoot and his hair started to fall out (this stopped when he returned to Hollywood).

He said he instructed the music department at Fox to accompany the cattle sequence, his favourite, with a soundtrack of Shostakovitch's Sixth Symphony and called it "really a masterpiece".

[103] When the movie was released in Australia, initial box office performance was strong, but reviews were bad and business soon tailed off.

[62] According to one book on Milestone, the director's "handling of the material was interesting in the extent of carrying sound and lack of dialogue to extremes, but the standard of playing was below par.

"[106] Charles Higham said the movie had "first rate action scenes" including "a drought sequence and a cattle stampede that gave Harry Watt's The Overlanders quite run for its money", adding the film "once again demonstrated that, as a master of natural environments, Milestone was second to none, capturing the sweat and dust and saddle leather of Australia's outback to perfection.