This must have been incredible to watch on stage back in the day - Aussie society with its knockabout ockers smacking each other around, the verbal jousting, the machoness. What a writer.
This film is a worth encapsulation of the play. It's basically a filmed play but quite well done, with a superb cast. Everyone is perfect: Peter Cummins as the blustering cop, John Hargreaves as the callow newbie, Jackie Weaver as the dim sister, Kate Fitzpatrick as her wealthy sister, Chris Haywood as the supremely neutral removalist who only gets wound up when people say moving things are easy, Martin Harris as the vile husband.
The drama ebbs and flows, explodes and subsides. It's got Williamson flaws that we would see time and time again - both women just Want It - but the depiction of men are perfect: the little Hitler cop, the gangly youth, the ocker stud. The set is quite ugly. Tom Jeffrey generally directs well. There's some awkward bits like a close up of Jacki Weaver's boobs when she arrives.
Random observation - I wonder if this was even if subconsciously influenced by A Streetcar Named Desire... if Blanche married someone straight, this could be her coming to fetch Stella from Stanley's place.
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