Most of the early episodes of Number 96 were wiped but we do have this quickie film knock off of the show, which proved enormously popular at the box office. Big screen spin offs of TV shows were popular in Britain in the early 70s - it's entirely appropriate that 96 followed suit since (for all the claims it reflected multicultural Australia with it's Hungarian Jew) it was a very British soap, full of blustering character actors doing vaudeville turns, half of whom seemed more English than Australian: Vera and Maggie seem English, Les was, ditto Alf and Lucy; Jack, Dorrie and Herb played types who could easily have slotted into a British soap.
But having said all that this is still a lot of fun, and you can see (admittedly with the benefit of hindsight) why it was so successful: there is some riotously over the top melodrama (gang rapes by bikies, two people scheming to drive a new bride insane a la Rebecca complete with a climax where they try to persuade her to jump out a window), nudity courtesy of Rebecca Gilling (and Tom Oliver in underwear), a gay love affair (John Orsick can't get it up for Elaine Lee but finds satisfaction in the arms of Joe Hasham), but lots and lots of comedy. Pat McDonald and Ron Shand play it up to the back rows, ditto Bunny Brooke - there's wacky antics with a secret marriage, slapstick at the bowls club, a sauna in the cellar and fancy dress party to wind things up. The cast act with complete and utter commitment and the action spanks along. This holds up a hell of a lot better than many old Aussie films.
No comments:
Post a Comment