AustLit

'Set a century ago, it starts with some of the marauding rebels (the Tyrones) bailing up an Australian bush town. Palmer (Gerard Kennedy) and Ben (Gus Mercurio) team up to outwit the bandits.

'The news of their bravado soon reaches high-ranking members of the Administration who offer the two the deadly mission (well-paid, of course) of killing the Tyrones' leader and destroying his camp.

'Needing more men. Palmer blows Ned (Hu Pryce) and Dick (Christopher Pate) out of jail, and Alex (Rod Mullinar) joins them after a dawn duel over a lady.

'They seize the local undertaker's best hearse, raid a police stockade for dynamite and set out for the Tyrones' camp.

'They return victorious only to find they've been done out of half of their promised payment. However, they think nothing of arriving, bloodied and dirty, at the relevant official's mansion in the middle of a ball to collect their dues.

'This is a hilarious scene with the grimy crew wooing the ladies at the ball while Palmer goes to collect the money. But they have walked into a trap'.

Source:

Deidre Nolan, 'Raw Deal', Australian Women's Weekly, 9 February 1977, p.43.