Curly

"Curly: I'm studying to be supervisor. Jim Craig: Studying to be stupid."

"I heard you broke in more then the colt while we were away. Did you have to use your spurs, boy!?!"

- Curly.

Curly is the main antagonist of the 1982 Australian film The Man from Snowy River. He is an English station hand who wants to get Jim Craig in trouble by stealing Harrison's horses.

He was portrayed by Chris Haywood.

Role
Harrison tells Clancy he has no brother, and gradually Jim becomes aware of a long-running feud in the family, but first, he has to deal with other problems, not least relentless bullying by Curly, though Jim's helped out by the tough-minded but fair hand Frew. The tightly wound Harrison gets even more muddled when Jim declares his love for Jessica, but things go badly for Jim when Curly sneaks out in the dead of night and lets the prized colt run free, hoping that Jim will be blamed.

The benevolent Spur indulges in some saucy banter with the station cook Mrs Bailey (June Jago) and cheerfully tells Jim he's set to inherit his father's share of the gold mine, and things seem to be looking up until Clancy rides up to tell them about the colt going missing, and how Harrison is blaming Jim for it.

The Brumbies knew how to use the rough terrain to escape the hard-riding men. When the mob heads down an impossibly steep descent, Harrison pulls his reins and the other fortune-hunters give the game away, even Clancy couldn't stay this course. But Jim lad takes up the challenge, rides hell for leather down the steep incline, collars the colt, and herds the Brumbies back to the station with a crack of his whip.

Personality
Curly is an extremely greedy, selfish, dimwitted and manipulative man who hates Jim Craig. He jeers at Jim, cheats at cards, smokes in the stables, and eventually sets free the colt that was worth a thousand pounds, so that Harrison will blame Jim for it after a fight in the bunkhouse when Curly is joshing Jim about Jessica. He also has the mind of a gutter rat.