The Shadow of Lightning Ridge

A charcoal dusk drapes Lightning Ridge, the eucalyptus-scrubbed canvas upon which a masked night-rider—known only as The Shadow—etching his vendetta in hoofbeats against the proud squatter Edward Marriott, whom he accuses of tarnishing his mother’s name. Cloaked in velvet rebellion, he waylays only Marriott’s drays and diligences, stripping them to the axle until gossip trembles down every dusty verandah. Into this nocturne strolls Dorothy Harden, Marriott’s porcelain fiancée, curiosity ignited by rumor; she becomes both witness and quarry, abducted first by The Shadow himself, then snatched from him by Ben, a rival bushranger whose grin glints like a broken shilling. Through brigand lairs, moonlit escarpments, and a prison of ironbark beams, the story pirouettes: capture, escape, pursuit, rescue, until the final revelation—Marriott’s innocence—collapses the architecture of revenge and leaves only the fragile scaffolding of love. In the last shot, The Shadow lifts Dorothy onto his saddle; the camera lingers, the outback sun bleaching their silhouettes into myth.