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Just perfect...

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

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.

Years ago I wrote a fan letter to Irene Dunne listing several titles that I had seen over the years and enjoyed. She wrote back her favorites were the comedies she made with Cary Grant, MY FAVORITE WIFE & THE AWFUL TRUTH. And that's the singing Irene I like the best AWFUL TRUTH (SHOW BOAT, is a close second! Then ROBERTA and JOY OF LIVING.) And speaking of the awful truth, I don't like STINGEREE. I saw it once because of the director, lead actors and wonderful character actors (still I think the best part of this turkey.) The second time was to give it a second chance, and TCM did run a better print, but the story, script and acting don't mix. It's like a salad dressing that continues to separate, oil on top (that's the opera) and vinegar (that's the western) at the bottom of it all. SPOILERS: Richard Dix plays the title-role, of a highwayman and bandit in 1870's Australia, in this strange mix of swashbuckler and musical. Irene Dunne is Hilda Bouverie, an impoverished serving girl who wants to sing. Left orphaned and homeless by the deaths of her parents, Hilda is now a servant in the home of the Clarksons, the wealthiest family in the province. Hilda is glad to have a roof over her head and three meals a day, but won't really be happy unless she gets a chance to sing, and she has the voice to match her aspirations. Mr. Clarkson (Henry Stephenson) is kind and encouraging enough to her, but his wife (Mary Boland) is a noisy, irritating, no-talent singer who treats Hilda and her other maid Annie (Una O'Connor) as little better than slaves; and Mrs. Clarkson is especially jealous of Hilda, as she also aspires to a singing career, and is eagerly awaiting a visit by London-based composer and impresario Sir Julian Kent (Conway Tearle). And then in rides Stingaree (Richard Dix), a highwayman new to the province, who is already a legend elsewhere in Australia. The authorities, led by the boorish Inspector Radford (George Barraud), know he is there and are set to catch him, but he's smarter than they are and faster on his feet, and outwits them. Stingaree kidnaps Sir Julian and, learning of the Clarksons and their wealth, plans to rob them masquerading as Sir Julian. But when he chances to hear Hilda singing, and gets to meet her, he abandons his plan and, instead, decides to help her — his ruse is uncovered, however, and he is forced to flee, and takes the unwilling girl with him. Together in his lair in the forest, Hilda discovers that Stingaree truly does love/lust after her — he is a man who takes whatever he wants and wants everything, but, as he tells her, "You are as safe here as you wish to be." Stingaree arranges a daring raid on the Clarkson home that allows Hilda's singing to be heard by Sir Julian — the impresario offers her the chance to go to London, and at a career as an opera singer. She's reluctant to accept because Stingaree has been captured, but the highwayman insists that she do it, telling her that he happily gave up his freedom to give Hilda hers. And she conquers the operatic stages of Europe, in a career that takes her to Berlin, the Paris Opera, La Scala, and London's Covent Garden, and leading roles in Trovatore, Martha, and the rest of the major operatic repertory of the period. But she can't forget the sacrifice that Stingaree made for her, or the love they share for each other, and decides that even if it means giving up everything, she must return to Australia to find him. Or at least a point to this rambling and contrived love story...

The red flags went up the moment I spotted William A. Wellman's name as the director of this hybrid western/musical which has RICHARD DIX as an Australian bandit named "Stingaree" who also happens to be a noticeably ungifted song writer responsible for some of the numbers IRENE DUNNE is forced to sing in this film. He's a bandit who finances the career of a pretty operatic singer. (One number, in particular, gets quite a tiresome workout from Dunne's quavering soprano).Wellman's name is usually associated with much sturdier material than he has here--films like WINGS, BEAU GESTE and THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY. On the other hand, STINGAREE is not a formulaic musical so perhaps he knew what he was getting into.While Miss Dunne is one of my favorite actresses (and I know she was chosen to play Magnolia in James Whale's SHOW BOAT), she has never been one of my favorite sopranos and this film didn't change my mind at all. Indeed, the film itself does nobody any great favor because the plodding script goes off in so many different directions, you're never quite sure whether it's meant to be serious or comic. Only when ANDY DEVINE and MARY BOLAND give out with some non-subtle comic relief in supporting roles can we be sure what the intentions are.Let's just say that not every film that turns up on TCM's "lost and found" package of RKO films deserves to be resurrected--nor are they necessarily classics, so to speak. STINGAREE is one of them, best forgotten as an outmoded and lumbersome sort of film easily ignored unless you happen to be an ardent admirer of either Miss Dunne or Mr. Dix, both of whom have done better work elsewhere.Dunne excelled in the '30s and '40s as a woman who was usually one step ahead of, and smarter than, the man (a more feminine version of the characters Katharine Hepburn often played). As the ingenue of a mixed up western, she's not exactly in her element and Richard Dix (even with a mustache) is just as hard to believe as a bandit as Nelson Eddy was in THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST. At least he and Jeanette had some good songs to sing.For comic relief, we have reliables like ANDY DEVINE, MARY BOLAND (a stridently over-mannered performance), HENRY STEPHENSON and UNA O'CONNOR on hand, but nothing really helps.Summing up: A curious misfire that must have had a target audience once upon a time in pre-code 1934, but that audience no longer exists outside a small clique who love anything made in the '30s, whether good, bad or indifferent, as long as TCM presents it. The title song sounds suspiciously like a Rudolf Friml reject.Trivia note: Dunne and Dix were both better received in CIMARRON made three years earlier and without music.

STINGAREE was the first of the great Irene Dunne musicals: SWEET ADELINE; ROBERTA; SHOW BOAT; HIGH, WIDE, & HANDSOME; and JOY OF LIVING, count ‘em, six films (aside from 1930's LEATHERNECKING, but no one counts that!) is all you got. How can that be? She's my favorite! She sang in other pictures, but these six were the full-blown star vehicles for Kern's favorite movie soprano. Without a doubt, STINGAREE is the strangest, and, oh yeah, Jerome Kern is no where to be heard. We get some "Martha" and "Faust," and mostly several reprisals of a song called "Tonight is Mine," written by the talented Australian bandit, the Stingaree, himself. He let's her have this song, dedicated to her, and thus sets her on her path to international Opera acclaim. Sure, she is assisted by impresario Conway Tearle, and along the way we meet dignitaries and governors and even Disraeli, but no one can ever touch her true heart like the Stingaree could. And why not, after all, it is RKO's resident veteran stud, the Rod Taylor of the Twenties, Mr. Richard Dix who is portraying the dashing, debonaire, and musically inclined robs-from-the-rich, etc, legend. We get the music, the scenery, the costuming, the lush period detail, the horses, the chases, the fisticuffs, the... hey, what is this, a Richard Dix western, or is it one of the great Irene Dunne musicals? Well, there you have it. Based on E. W. Hornung's (RAFFLES) novel, STINGAREE is one of the most neglected, forgotten hybrids of the decade. It was screened in Syracuse last year, and while everyone questioned the reasoning behind its creation, all agreed it was an unusual, entertaining achievement. For STINGAREE is, in fact, a rather exciting (if fabulously improbable) action picture AND a desert topping. It was one of the big RKO releases of that season, and as such, boasts the best the studio could muster, and this included some important character work by some of our finest, including Andy Devine as Mr. Dix's (and the pictures') comedy relief side-kick (another vote for "it's a western"). Henry Stephenson (DOUBLE HARNESS; HEARTS DIVIDED; CONQUEST), not to be confused with another marvelous actor, James Stephenson (THE LETTER), is on hand to play the husband of a flighty, self-important woman who attempts to stand in poor Irene Dunne's way, and who else could portray such a woman but the great Mary Boland? Not simply a pitiful comedic plot device, Boland's fearless performance blends the charming and the likeable (and often purposefully annoying) Mary Boland, with un-reigned egoism, calculated duplicity, and an unexpected Agnes Moorehead-level guile. Let's hope they can find the funding to restore this classic!