Raymond Chandler on the Gold Coast, brilliantly pulled off by star Ray Barrett (in the role of a life time) and writers Denny Lawrence and Bob Ellis. It's a Gold Coast that doesn't exist in this way any more but certainly did then - in tropical, socialist hating Queensland, with its dingy clubs, discos, drag shows, cults, right wing political movements and military bases. (It actually seems more interesting)
There's some beautiful dialogue - Ellis at his most wonderful, perfectly delivered by Barrett. The plot isn't bad either, with Barrett chasing various clues as he tracks down a missing girl and encountering various characters (many of whom are familiar to Barrett... unlike say Philip Marlowe he's not entering a strange world, he's participating in a world he knows very well).
Great cameos from Kate Fitzpatrick (politician's second wife), Paul Chubb (seemingly dodgy ex cop), Lex Marinos (local tour guide), wondrous Robyn Nevin (an old flame of Barrett's), Mark Hembrow (night club guy), Grant Dodwell (sleazy Sea World type), Don Pascoe (old Labor senator), Kris McQuade (hooker), Guy Doleman (pukka officer), Tex Morton (politician), John Clayton (hippie). Many of these are not what they seem - wonderfully, Clayton and Doleman are in cahoots for a coup so that the Gold Coast can secede from the rest of Australia (a superb conceit), McQuade works for ASIO, Hembrow for army intelligence, Dodwell tries to assassinate someone, etc.
Not surprisingly for an Ellis script the young women are weak and all want to hump middle aged men - the girl who plays the first Cathy is especially terrible. And it's a shame Barrett is so passive at the end - I felt he should have helped expose the coup more, at least taken revenge for Nevin's death.
But it's got a lovely texture - melancholic, haunting - with decent action. A real cult movie.
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