Directed by Bruce BeresfordProduced by Phillip Adams
Written by Bruce Beresford & Barry Humphries
Starring Barry Crocker,
Barry Humphries,
Spike Milligan,
Peter Cook
Music by Peter Best
Cinematography Donald McAlpine
Editing by John Scott, William Anderson
Distributed by Columbia Pictures Video Ltd.
Release date 1972
Running time 114 minutes
Country Australia
Language English/Strine
This was on Fox Classics last night and I must admit that I did enjoy it quite a bit. It is a million times better than its sequel because it sticks to the unsophisticated fish out of water story, and satirises the pretentious artsy fartsy types, of whom Humphries would have been (I’ve read his book and all the boring tedious stuff on Dadaism) and the poms, who I guess considered themselves culturally and intellectually superior to us.
Unlike the sequel there isn’t an overload of offensiveness used just for the sake of offending people. I think the only really offensive thing would be the overloaded use of the word abo, which as Mal Brown has recently taught us, wasn’t really considered to be offensive in the 1970s. How things have changed for the better.
There is some nudity and bouncing breasts are featured a bit. This was before we became such a prudish nation and boobs were considered bad.
It’s not all that funny and a bit cringe-worthy, but the film is watchable, although I must say that both Spike Milligan and Peter Cook are wasted in their roles.
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