Robert Bruning was an actor and producer whose Gemini Productions had made some TV series, drama and variety. He wanted to get into TV movies like Aaron Spelling so tried this - although I think this was also meant to be a pilot, about a private eye on the Gold Coast.
He later called it "terrible" and he was right. There's location work on film, including stuff on the Gold Coast, but the interiors are done on video tape. It looks cheap and its convoluted - I had trouble telling male characters apart (they had similar haircuts) and also the female characters.
Lots of weirdness, as you would commonly find in films written for Bruning by Bruce Wishart - rifle wielding bikers driving over sand dunes, epigrammatic dialogue, confusing plotting. Sheila Helpmann hangs around in a bar spouting lines, Eric Oldfield turns up with the same unisex haircut all the other men have, Tina Glenville (Mrs Bruning at the time) is the femme fetale. None of it looks very much like Surfers Paradise, even the scenes actually shot there - it just feels like a generic Grundys beach. A hard slog, though of definite historical interest.
No comments:
Post a Comment