The Phantom Stockman is a 1953 Australian Western film written and directed by Lee Robinson and starring Chips Rafferty, Victoria Shaw, Max Osbiston and Guy Doleman.
Adopting the name Ted Simpson, the Sundowner arrives at Kim's station with his Aboriginal offsider, Dancer.
[3] Chips Rafferty and Lee Robinson had both failed to raise finance for individual projects.
Rafferty wanted to make a £120,000 13-part series and film, The Green Opal, about immigration problems.
[5] The two men knew each other because Robinson wrote scripts for Rafferty's radio show, Chips: the Story of Outback.
They decided to team up together and make a film that cost under £10,000, with Robinson directing and Rafferty starring.
What's the good of imitating English and American pictures when we can get into places these foreign production units can't reach for sandflies and skeeters?
[7] The movie would focus around Chips Rafferty, playing a version of the character he portrayed on radio.
[10] Charles Tingwell was meant to play a role but was unable to fit it in his schedule and was replaced by Guy Doleman.
He helped them a good deal by walking through scenes with them on his own and getting things sorted out, timing their dialogue and so on.
[8] The Sun Herald wrote that: The film was made in a hurry, and looks like it; and the editing of many scenes is ludicrously slow.
Hopalong Cassidy could probably clean up a dozen mysteries in the time it takes Chips Rafferty to draw wisely upon a cigarette.
There were some satisfactory punches on the jaw, and a little gunplay later on, but generally there is not enough action to make the "dead heart" come to life.
[17]Rafferty and Robinson managed to sell the Pakistan, India, Burma and Ceylon rights for £1,000.