The fourth, screen-telling of Rolf Boldrewood's popular tale about bushranger, Captain Starlight, is saved only by Peter Finch in the lead and the panoramic photography of Harry Waxman. Away from the savage beauty of the Australian wilderness, former documentary film-maker, Jack Lee, drains all the drama from the round of robberies, escapes and betrayals that engulf brothers, David McCallum and Ronald Lewis, when they join the bandits. Finch is not seen enough, leaving us stuck with the tensions within the gang and the stormy relationship between Lewis and the duplicitous Maureen Swanson. The 1985 version (starring Sam Neill) was scarcely better.

During the mid 1860s, brothers Dick and Jim Marston are drawn into a life of crime by their ex-convict father Ben and his friend, infamous cattlethief Captain Starlight. Making their way to Melbourne with the proceeds of a recent raid, the brothers meet and romance the Morrison sisters, Kate and Jean, whom they eventually marry; but just as they are poised to start a new life in America, Captain Starlight and his gang arrive in town, planning a raid at the local bank.