Kangaroo 1952

In the 1900 Australian outback, Dell McGuire, Maureen O’Hara, frets over her missing father, Michael McGuire, Finlay Currie, a hard-living local grazier who is secretly drowning his sorrows in a Sydney boarding house. There, he crosses paths with Richard Connor, a desperate young man trying to raise money to return home to America, and with John W. Gamble, Richard Boone, who is equally broke. Michael mistakes Connor for his long-lost son, Dennis, whom he had abandoned to an orphanage years before. After a drunken collapse, Connor and Gamble hatch a plan to rob a nearby gambling house. In the ensuing heist, the owner is killed, and the two men flee with the loot. They swing by the boarding house to grab Connor’s gear, and Michael—still drunk—hurls himself after his supposed son, only to collapse again in the street. On Connor’s person they discover papers about a vast station and a boat ticket, and a reckless idea takes root: pose as McGuire’s business partners, slip aboard the boat, and vanish to an Outback ranch where they can hide out and start anew.

Arriving at the station, the pair find themselves unexpectedly drawn to Dell, while Len Leonard, the local trooper, remains wary of the newcomers despite Dell’s growing interest in them. The newly minted “partners” lend a hand to the station, rescuing stray cattle, averting a stampede, and even taking part in a tense, life‑or‑death repair of an out‑of‑control windmill during a furious windstorm. Dell begins to sense a complicated future with the man she’s coming to know, Connor, even as her father’s hopeful, mistaken belief that Connor is his son shapes the fragile circles around them all.

Back at the heart of the plot, Michael becomes convinced that Connor is indeed his boy, and he shares this fragile dream with Dell. The revelation unsettles Connor, who feels bound to confess the truth: he and Gamble are wanted for murder, and the romance with Dell forces them to confront a moral crossroads. Gamble, however, sees their carefully laid plan unraveling under the weight of conscience, and he urges a retreat from the dangerous path they’ve chosen. The lovers’ resolve and the criminals’ curses collide on a night that tightens the noose around their fragile alliance.

When Len finally closes in, the pursuit erupts into a brutal bullwhip showdown. Gamble makes a failed bid to shoot Len, but Connor’s quick reflexes pull the weapon away in a desperate feint. The duel ends fatally for Gamble, and Len retrieves Connor, bringing him back to the McGuire station where he is cared for and offered clemency for saving Len’s life. In the quiet aftermath, a future with Dell begins to take shape for Connor, as trust and redemption become the quiet pulse of the story.