The sh*tness of this version really gets to me. Why did it have to be so bad? I mean, I guess they tried. But it's bad.
The play was very effective. Simple. Didn't have to cost a lot. Nothing wrong with setting it in Sydney. I get they wanted things like the Harbour and Luna Park.
But they stuffed the structure. They don't set up Bubba and the boys, there's a weird middle section where Roo has a fight with the wrestler and Dowd is all forgiving. And the ending is shocking - Roo makes up with Barney and then Roo and Olive seem to reconcile. The piece loses all its power.
The acting is bad. Burt Lancaster and Rita Hayworth would've been great... if they didn't want to do it then surely it could have been reworked for Peter Finch who did The Shiralee with Leslie Norman. He was a good enough actor to act older.
Ernest Borgnine and John Mills can act but they just feel wrong - they never seem like mates. Anne Baxter and Angela Lansbury are also fine actors but they struggle with their accents. They seem so uncomfortable. Vincent Ball and Janette Craig aren't very good as the young ones - they're fine, but I wished at least Rod Taylor (who had done a movie for HHL) had the role.
"The Americans" copped the blame for this but I think it was more the British.
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