Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Movie review - "End Play" (1975) **1/2

Tim Burstall made this as a way to keep cash coming in while preparing Eliza Fraser and it's a very solid thriller, with a particularly memorable opening where Delvene Delaney plays a hitchhiker in tight shorts who hops in a car, pashes the driver - then is murdered. We are then thrown into a story about two brothers, one who disposes of Delvene's corpse, and the other who is in a wheelchair... which is more than one thing about this movie that reminded me of Who's Afraid of Baby Jane?

This doesn't have Joan Crawford or Bette Davis - maybe it should have had bigger stars but John Waters and George Mallaby are both excellently cast because both are enigmatic, and could be good or evil. Mallaby was a superb actor - it's a shame he didn't make more movies. These two ensure this is very watchable for the most part; Burstall keeps things moving and there's a suspenseful score from the always-reliable Pete Best, plus prettiness from Belinda Giblin.

However it does go for too long - it needed about 20 minutes cut out, and Burstall in particular loses points for the climax, which is ten minutes of exposition. May have been better as a TV movie or a play, but its an entirely respectable thriller.

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