In Australian film history, is any actor more responsible for the success of the film in which he starred in than Graeme Blundell in Alvin Purple? Off the top of my head I can only think of a few – Jack Thompson in Petersen, Bruce Spence in Stork, Hogan in Crocodile Dundee. It’s hard to imagine who other than Blundell could have made Alvin work as well as he did: his sad eyes, gawky nature and unassuming nebbish face took the sting out of the central concept, and helped turn this one joke film into a massive smash. Alvin has not dated well – it’s repetitive and dull, all that nudity notwithstanding – but Blundell’s performance has.
There was something very Australian about Blundell – he was as Aussie in his way as the macho Chips Rafferty or Jack Thompson: shy best mates, quiet soldiers, Liberal voting businessmen who get bullied at Labor election night parties. And his background entirely suited his “look” – working class Melbourne lad, son of a ex-serviceman who worked in a shoe factory, loved cricket and died young, honourable and a little sad, (it was a shock to see a picture of Blundell’s father to find he didn’t look like Graeme Blundell).
At the time of Alvin, Blundell was already familiar to Australian cinema audiences through his lead role in The Naked Bunyip and support part in Stork. Indeed, with Alvin Blundell could make some claim to being the first new film star of the 70s revival. Unfortunately, he never enjoyed a follow up star part to match it in the way, say, Jack Thompson had in Sunday Too Far Away to follow Petersen. (Blundell did go into Don’s Party but that was an ensemble piece). Nonetheless, he was as busy as any actor in Australia during the 70s and 80s.
There was a lot more to Blundell than movies, though – he made an incredibly important contribution to Australian culture through his theatre work. He at the beginning of La Mama, the Pram Factory, the MTC; he was involved in early productions of Don’s Party, Norm and Ahmed (for which he was arrested for obscenity) and Dimboola; he helped set up Playbox and Kinsellas. Blundell’s never really been given credit for this – partly I think because of the Alvin thing, partly because of his problems with the Carlton set (he seems to have been politically a liberal rather than a hard-core leftist and those people seemed to cop it in the theatre land of the 70s). Nonetheless, it’s a massively impressive track record and it’s a shame he gave away setting up theatre companies after the late 80s.
For the past decade or so Blundell has mainly been a writer – his biography on Graham Kennedy is superb – and this autobiography is very well written, full of vivid descriptions and excellent analysis of various actors and directors eg George Ogilvie, John Sumner, Kennedy. I also think there’s a play (or a rom com) based on his experience writing a biography of Brett Whiteley with his de facto, Margot Hilton – it ended up ruining their relationship and Hilton ran off with the former lover of Whiteley’s wife.
Having said that, the book felt a little bogged down in places. I couldn’t think exactly what it was – maybe it a lack of joy and humour. Blundell seems tired by his experiences at times, particularly his marriages and the politics of the Australian theatre scene. There’s a little too much analysis and description and not enough life, if that makes sense. For instance, sketches of Frank Thring and Barry Humphries fairly leap off the page – maybe there needed to be more of this, or more stories. In particular I would have liked to have known a bit more about filming the various movies, putting on the shows (surely there was one decent anecdote from Pacific Banana?). But that’s just a personal opinion.
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