Thursday, July 12, 2012

Movie review - "Squeeze a Flower" (1970) **

They're a Weird Mob was a big hit so Walter Chiari was hired to play another Italian newcomer to Australia. But whereas Mob was full of charm and accuracy, this takes place in a la-la land Australia. Chiari's a monk who has a recipe for wine, and gets a job with Jack Albertson (as an Italian immigrant!), who tries to get the recipe off him in cahoots with his son in law (Dave Allen!). So they try to get ad girl Rowena Wallace to seduce him, unaware he's a monk.

Chiari does what he can but anyone would struggle in a role which requires him to talk to God a lot. Its interesting to see some glimpses of Sydney at the time and hear the odd Aussie accent, but you don't hear a lot, what with Albertson, Allen and Chiari taking centre stage. The girls have some crazy hair cuts. It's a really stupid story - I think wacky monk films were big in Italy in the fifties or something, maybe that's why they made it. But it doesn't work.

Bobby Limb and Dawn Lake make cameo appearances. There's a lot of Italian accents. Amateurish direction. It isn't even well shot.

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