Movie review - "They're a Weird Mob" (1966) ***1/2

Charming fish out of water comedy which will mean a lot to Australians and maybe Italians but probably not a lot to anyone else. Walter Chiari is very winning as the Italian migrant who moves to Australia to work for a magazine but finds it's been wound up so he has to go to work as a labourer. He wants to get married and when an Italian girl he's got his eye on turns up engaged he goes for hoity-toity Clare Dunne.

It's fascinating for the look at Australians: pushy, loud, very fond of a beer (keen to shout but quick to take offence if you don't join in), basically friendly, nosy (they listen in on his phone conversation but help translate), willing to forget the war (Slim de Grey was a POW of the Germans after Greece and picked up some Italian), lifeguards who can be snappy, up for a boisterous wrestle after work, quick to defend their mate against thoughtless racism of a brickie. The most racist intolerant person in the film is a drunk on the ferry who people laugh at. Chiari isn't Mr PC himself - he tells off Claire Dunne for being too manly and never having arrived late for a business appointment because she had to go to a beauty appointment (which she then does).

It's also great for the glimpses of Sydney at the time: the loud newspaper sellers, packed male-only pubs, smoko, St George football jerseys, boozing hard after work, Bondi Beach, the red brick houses, night time parties by the harbour, boozy BBQs, dishing trips. There's an appearance by a Chinese man and a reference to aboriginal people - Chiari points at an old aboriginal painting where he wants to build his house. Sydney rarely looked more gorgeous. It's basically a tolerant society, if male dominated, where you can make friends easily and quickly save up money to buy a house overlooking the harbour, where men are most comfortable drinking beer rather than scones but they pay due reference to women.

Some odd visual flourishes such as a long digging montage, including shot of Chiari through de Grey's legs and cut to a hammer and sickle lying down (what was this there for? I think for Powell to show everyone he was still Michael Powell); a second digging montage; a long scene of Chiari sitting around without a top as it rains; a rescue by life savers at the beach where we hear the breathing. Indeed, there's not a lot of story here - it would have been a better movie with more conflict (I kept expecting Chiari's cousin to turn up or Chips Rafferty to be nastier but it never happened).

The big subplot is a rom com between Chiari and leggy, beautiful Claire Dunne - even if she isn't as hot as the Italian chick he meets on the ferry. This is charming. Very good cast - Chiari is ideal with his puppy dog eyes (people keep referring to the fact he's bigger than a typical Italian); there's a very likeable group of friends in Ed Devereaux, Slim de Grey and John Meillion; Chips Rafferty an imposing potential father in law (his part should have been bigger); Jeanne Dynan is sweet as a young Aussie bride.