The Life Story of John Lee, or the Man They Could Not Hang is a 1912 Australian silent film based on a stage play about the true life story of John Babbacombe Lee.

It was the first of three films (to date) on this story, and is considered a lost film.

It is one of the most profitable early Australian films ever made. According to one writer "The man who produced it never made any money, but the person to whom he sold it did. He would not call it a good picture; the title drew the public. It was a self-advertised film by reason of the history attached to it."^[4]

In 1920 The Bulletin called it "rather crude, but highly popular."^[7]

John Lee returns home to Babbacombe after a number of years service in the navy. He becomes engaged to his childhood sweetheart Kate Merton but his rival, Fred Masterville, tries to frame him by depositing twenty pounds in his bed. However he is stopped when Lee's friend Dicky Dood sees this and takes the money for his own use.

Masterville breaks into Miss Cleveden's house with an accomplice, Jim Wells, intending to commit robbery. He is spotted by Miss Cleveden and kills her, putting the bloodstained knife in Lee's room. Wells accidentally sets fire to the room. Lee is arrested, tried, found guilty and sentenced to death. Three times he is taken to the scaffold but three times it fails.

Lee is given a life sentence. Masterville presses his claim but Kate remains true. Twenty two years later Masterville and Wells are caught attempting to rob Kate's house. Wells turns in Masterville, Lee is released and marries his old sweetheart.^[8]

• Mr Barrington as John Lee^[1]
• Edna Phillips as his sweetheart
• Bobby Scott
• Bob Henry
• Fred Cope

The film was based on a popular four-act play, which was adapted from Lee's true life story. (Another account says Lytton based the script on a book.^[1]

Rights for perform the play in Australia were obtained by Philip Lytton. At one stage Lytton wanted to bring Lee to Australia on a lecture tour but Lee was too ill.^[9]

According to one actor who appeared in the touring production of the stage play, "the weird horror drew the backblocks better than Hamlet."^[10]

According to Alex Hellmrich, once the film was completed, Lytton turned down an offer of £900 for the film. Then "some months later he made it a present to Messrs. [Frederick] Haldane and [Arthur] Sterry, who had been in his employ for some considerable time for their past good services."^[6]

Lytton was apparenty unenthusiastic about the film's commercial prospects.^[11][12] Sterry and Haldane, distributed the film themselves throughout Australia, New Zealand and England, often giving a lecture to accompany screenings.^[1]

Hellmrich says the film was "first released at one of Mr. Herbert’s shows at Newcastle in 1909 [this date may be incorrect], and the business was so great thatit went back to that city four times within the next three months. It was afterwards screened throughout Australia with satisfactory results."^[6]

In September 1917 the film screened in Sydney where audiences were turned away and its commercial reception was regarded as "something phenomenal."^[1]

In April 1921 it was reported Sterry was back from New Zealand where the film had been "phenomenally successful, playing capacity everywhere."^[13] A piece the following month said it had played in New Zealand for two years and been "a wonderful money spinner."^[14] The film then continued to play country areas.^[15]

In 1925 Hellmrich estimated the film would earn £50,000.^[6] This means it could arguably be one of the most profitable Australian movies of all time.^[5] (Another account puts the gross at £20,000.^[3])

Sterry and Haldane remade the movie in 1921.

A 1922 article said the play (or film) was dramatised by Edmund Cording who sold it to Sterry adding "Cording made practically nothing out of the deal, but it is a shame to think just what Sterry got from this feature which owes a good deal to the title."^[16]

In 1926 Everyones reported the film was still playing in Britain for several years, although this may have been the 1921 version. A columnist said " I well remember Phillip Lytton being so disgusted with the picture that he gave it to his servitors, Sterry and Haldane, who, utilising publicity to some extent, made a fortune out of it."^[17]

According to one review it was "a lecture picture" where Sterry prepared "the audience at the outset for the story" and "speaks in an enlightening manner throughout the screening of the film and the most telling of all he simulates in voice the characters in the picture who from time to time speak through him."^[1]