The first in a series of TV movies made as co productions between the ABC and America's Transatlantic Enterprises. They would feature American stars and directors, and usually American writers. At least the stories made allowances for the Americans to be here.
This one is a thriller which is... Hitchcock-ian I guess, with Richard Benjamin as the innocent hero who is in Sydney to do some PR for an orchestra and winds up accused of murder of which he is... innocent I guess only he did shoot someone (a flunky... Grant Page is another flunky). The only person who helps him is a fellow American who is living in Australia, Paula Prentiss.
Writing that out, the film sounds fun - I mean two superb light comedians trying to be Cary Grant an Eva Marie Saint... sure! But Hitchcock films are harder to make than they seem and this isn't very good. It's confusing, and the tone is heavy as opposed to light. There's some car chases around Circular Quay, and betrayal. The film seems uncertain of its tone - the bones are light hearted Hitchcock but it seems infused with 70s seriousness. And it's about corporate espionage which never seems to work on screen. Apparently the script was rewritten a fair bit and you can tell.
Barry Sullivan is heavy handed as Benjamin's boss but Noel Ferrier and Ray Barrett offer fine support. Benjamin and Prentiss play the roles straight which is annoying - I mean, if you've got those two, why not let them do their thing? Maybe they didn't want to. Occasionally like when Prentiss wears a florally dress at the end and acts a bit silly you go "oh that's what this film should have been" but not nearly enough.
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