Duet for Four

(1981)

Johnny's comments:

Duet For Four is a drama written by Don's Party writer David Williamson about the chaos that surrounds the life of Ray Martin (Mike Preston). Currently in a relationship with Barbara (Wendy Hughes) and living with her and her children and is pressuring marriage, his life is made complex by his ex-wife Margot (Diane Cilento) who keeps him on his toes especially with her new, much younger lover. Their daughter Caroline (Sigrid Thornton) is running with the wrong crowd and is getting into trouble with drugs. Mike works at a toy company with his very good friend and right hand man Terry (Gary Day) and things are changing rapidly at the company. Interest to buy out a local toy company has come from America and Al Geisman (Michael Pate) has come to Australia to suss out the companies and make the final decision. It looks as though Al is going to go with Ray's company, but as this happens, Ray's daughter Caroline overdoses. This changes Ray's perspective on life and he will make a major life changing decision that will change everything. Well, it's no Don's Party, but there are elements that work well, particularly the final act turn of events, but the film just isn't interesting enough. Ray seems to have it all and lives well, but apart from his daughter's issues, his problems seem relatively minor. Who cares that his partner wants to get married to him? Who cares that he will be bought out and become richer? Who cares about his issues with his ex? His midlife crisis looks pretty good to me. The most ridiculous thing in this film has to be some of the proclamations about the future that are made, all of which are way off. Embarrassingly so...

And mark down another nude scene from Wendy Hughes. I'm slowly getting through them all. Must be close to ten films she's appeared nude in. The others I've done so far are A Dangerous Summer and Hoodwink.

Clare Binney film clip

Wendy Hughes film clip

Dimboola

(1979)

Dimboola is a 1979 comedy focusing around the upcoming wedding between Morrie and Maureen (Bruce Spence and Natalie Bate). In the country Victorian town of Dimboola, English journalist Vivian Worcester-Jones (Max Gillies) has come to experience how the locals celebrate a wedding. First, the respective parties have a bucks/hen's night, which Vivian experiences both (dressed as a woman for the hen's party). A photo of Morrie with the stripper (Clare Binney) surfaces and gets in the hands of Maureen, who calls off the wedding. Vivian tries to make his move on the vulnerable Maureen, to no success, but Morrie finds a way to win Maureen back and they get married. Told mostly through the eyes of Vivian, this turns out to be a terrible device. Vivian is such a pointless character (who was not in the play, just written in for the movie) and his appearance drags the film down. It's not Max Gillies fault, who's fine, but it's just seems so unnecessary. Meanwhile, the jokes are rather flat and the lead couple are hardly worth caring about. The wedding looks like fun, but the humour is completely forced and has dated badly. Also, it looks like footage was inserted into the film, hopefully just to salvage bad film, but the inserts are terrible quality. Looks like this IS a long forgotten film. Bah!

Clare Binney film clip

Film clip with Laurel Frank, Sue Ingleton, and Claire Dobbin