Sue Blankenship
Don't waste your time on this. Irene Dunne could do much better. As for Richard Dix, he looked like a combination of a poor man's John Barrymore and Clark Gable who was trying to act like Douglas Fairbanks. Spoilers follow: They would have the audience believe that Hilda would throw away a career as the 19th century equivalent of a rock star, staying at luxury hotels with her personal maid and her manager--a nice guy who loves her and wants to marry her--to go off and live on the lam with a convicted felon who escaped from prison and his idiot sidekick, setting herself up as an accomplice and risk going to prison herself. What a load of crap! I finished it only because I was waiting for him to get killed so she would come to her senses, since the 30's were full of "crime doesn't pay" movies, but the last scene was so awful it was funny and I don't think it was intentional.
JLRMovieReviews
Richard Dix and Irene Dunne, both from Cimarron, star in this very strange little film about an opera-loving outlaw on the run. Richard Dix happens to meet Irene Dunne and hears her sing. When Mary Boland (who is a total hoot as a self-absorbed patron of the arts and herself), from Greer Garson's Pride and Prejudice, won't let her audition for an influential friend, but only sings herself in her own off-key and shrill way, Dix fixes it so that Irene can audition for the V.I.P., despite the fact he puts himself at risk in doing so. As usual, Dix likes to ham it up, but endears himself at the same time. Ms. Dunne has never sung better in some very dramatic songs. And, what this film may lack in some technical ways and by feeling rather dated and old, it makes up for in originality and presentation. Overall, I liked it, despite its flaws and its incredibly unrealistic ending! Just go with the flow with Stingaree!
st-shot
Highwayman Stingaree ( Richard Dix) is the terror of down under as he plunders travelers and humiliates the local constabulary with his audacious crimes. When he becomes smitten with Hilda Bouverie (Irene Dunne) he risks his freedom to make her a great opera singer.Preposterous as the plot is in this piece of costume claptrap directed by William Wellman, Dix is dashing, Dunne exhibits a decent set of pipes and Marie Boland remains wonderfully oblivious to give Stingaree a certain degree of life and humor. Wellman directs like he's doing a silent though and the film ends up in an ill fitting time warp between pre-talkie swashbuckler and the musical pairing of Eddy and Mc Donald.
szath
It was a static bore, and there wasn't a single actor in it remotely believable as an "Australian." I stayed up until 2Am to watch it, but it wasn't worth it. Only surprising thing was that Irene Dunne occasionally had a look which reminded me of how beautiful she really was at that time, I finally understood how the likes of Cary Grant could lust after her on screen. Otherwise, there's very little to this one. Richard Dix may have been a big star post-"Cimarron," but his over-emoting and head-wagging hearkened back here very obviously to the silents. And he and Andy Devine (of course, in this instance) both looked suspiciously well-fed for bandits beating their perilous way through the OutbackSo yes, it's basically a clinker.
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