It's a great pity that Hollywood never had a crack at this story in the hey day of the classical system, for it's a great yarn - hero unjustly convicted of a crime he didn't convict, sent to the colonies, gets involved in a mutiny and later a convict uprising, then a gold rush and escape. You can imagine somewhere like MGM or Warners would have really known how to do it - or, rather, Gainsborough with obvious roles for Stewart Granger, James Mason, Margaret Lockwood and Elisabeth Shue (i.e. Phyllis Calvert).
This mini-series version is still watchable, thanks to a decent budget and adaptation, but has this awful mediocre Crawfords handling and some shocking performances (eg the girl who plays young Sylvia, most of the fifty worders). You're kind of embarrassed that they made this for an international audience (it was financed by Filmco, a notorious 10BA company - whose founder, Peter Fox, died in a car accident and to whom the mini series is dedicated).
Colin Friels is perfectly cast as Rufus Dawes - handsome, tortured, noble. Rod Mullinar doesn't quite get all the juice out of the dream potential-scene-stealing part, that of Captain Frere (the one I think James Mason should have played) and Penelope Stewart is cardboard in the Elisabeth Shue part, the bland pretty Sylvia (its not all her fault, though - it's a nothing role, she just loses her memory for a dramatically convenient period and tells her husband Mullinar to "be nicer to the convicts"; Colin Friels would have been far better off with the Spanish chick, who is not only sexier and better looking, but is nicer and works for a living whereas Sylvia is just a ninny (If you ever remade this you'd have to make this more action filled). Sue Lyons is better value in the Margaret Lockwood role, the "fast" woman who just can't help loving a scoundrel (Robert Coleby, who is OK).
There are some international names, such as Patrick MacNee (good), Diane Cilento (good - though note how the plot depends on her and Stewart losing their memory - what is it with Victorian novels and memory loss?) and Anthony Perkins (I remember being flattered he was in an Aussie mini-series but his performances is all twitches and torment); is this why the support cast is so remarkably devoid of familiar Aussie actors - no Vincent Ball, Dinah Shearing, John Ewart,etc - there was no money in the budget? Or maybe they were all busy doing other convict stuff? For about ten years ye olde convict melodrama used to be a staple for Australian actors, just like cop shows and beer ads. (Glyn Nicholas makes an early appearance as a convict who appears to be Rufus Dawes' boyfriend).
Despite some shoddy writing the adapters made the sensible decision of not following the original novel, which ends with Dawes and Sylvia killed in a storm - they add on a gold rush scene and come uppance finale, which is far more satisfactory.
On the debit side they don't include two great sequences which were in the 1927film - there's no convict uprising and only hint at cannibalism(presumably for censorship reasons).
If you remade it again, what would you do? Keep the ending happy, It hink. Make more of the Sylvia character - have her less of a ninny (she can still marry Frere out of gratitude - maybe also make it financial.Keep the convict uprising - it can happen after Dawes' escape, you could kill off Frere here. Show the cannibal section - maybe even have Dawes as part of it initially. Perhaps to avoid having two mutinies, just have one.
Anyway it could be done. Whether anyone is willing to stump up the cash is another matter.
1 comment:
who played Sir Richard Devine (Rufus father)?
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