Power, Paranoia, and Illusion: Revisiting Harlequin (1980)

Discover the enigmatic world of Australian cinema with us as Super Marcy from the Super Network joins the conversation about the 1980 thriller "Harlequin." Imagine the intrigue of a political family meeting a mysterious healer—this is just the tip of the iceberg as we unravel the film's captivating narrative surrounding the Rast family and the elusive Gregory Wolf. Spearheaded by talents like Robert Powell and David Hemmings, and guided by director Simon Wincer and screenwriter Everett DeRoche, we explore how "Harlequin" stands as a unique gem within the Ozploitation genre. Reflect on how this film fits into the broader tapestry of Australian cinema, and why it’s a must-watch on platforms like Australia's Broly.

From political thrillers to historical mysteries, the episode takes a fascinating detour into the real-life enigma of former Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt. Vanished without a trace, his disappearance sparked wild theories, from CIA abduction to submarine escapes, and we ponder the irony of a swimming pool bearing his name. We even draw unexpected parallels between this national mystery and the triumphant moment in rugby league history when the Cronulla Sharks finally claimed victory, "turning off the porch lights" and ending decades of anticipation for their loyal fans.

Peel back the layers of "Harlequin" as we dissect its themes of illusion versus reality, and liken Gregory Wolf's character to historical figures like Rasputin. From practical effects to Brian May's haunting score, we appreciate the artistry that sets this film apart from typical Ozploitation offerings. With lively discussions on its ambiguous scenes and the performances that bring tension and depth to the screen, this episode is an invitation to rediscover a film that challenges perceptions and captivates the imagination. Join us for a journey through political intrigue, cinematic mysteries, and the fascinating landscape of Australian storytelling.

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Please note that this podcast often explores topics and uses language from past eras. This means that some of the discussions may include attitudes, expressions, and viewpoints that were common in those times but may not align with the standards and expectations of our society today. We'd like to ask for your understanding as we navigate these historical contexts, which are important to appreciate the era we're discussing fully.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Thank you.
The Night Rider that is hisname, the Knight Rider.

(00:49):
Remember him when you look atthe night sky G'day and welcome

(01:11):
back to A Dingo Ate my Movie,the podcast where we dive into
some of Australia's mostmemorable films, from timeless
classics, cult favourites andtoday's hits.
My name is Pete and I'm yourhost Today.
I'm very excited to have SuperMarcy from the Super Network
with me as we explore the 1980supernatural thriller or
political thriller, harlequin.
Hi Marcy, how are you?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Hello, thank you so much for having me back on the
show and yes, it is asupernatural slash political
film for a Super Marcy.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Harlequin, which is also known as dark forces in the
united states, follows theinfluential rast family, whose
terminally ill son is suddenlyhealed by a mysterious stranger
named gregory wolf.
Initially welcomed as a savior,wolf's growing influence turns
relief into suspicion.
Healing soon gives way topolitical intrigue,
psychological manipulation andseemingly supernatural acts,

(02:08):
forcing Senator Nick Rast toconfront both Wolf's power and
his own moral compromises.
Harlequin stars Robert Powell,david Hemmings, carmen Duncan
and Broderick Crawford, and wasdirected by Simon Wincer from a
screenplay by good old EverettDeRoche, cinematography was by
Gary Hansen and the music wascomposed by Brian May.

(02:31):
Let's say it together Not that,brian May.
I think this is one thing bothour podcasts have in common.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Because I think you guys say it.
I've been saying it pretty muchfrom the start Every time I
mention Brian May.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
But anyway, it's all good.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
You guys say it.
I've been saying it pretty muchfrom the start Every time I
mention Brian.
I could.
Anyway, it's all good.
The film was produced byAnthony Ginnane and had a budget
of approximately $800,000.
I think, if I remember, lookingat my notes, it was like made
like $300,000 here and a millionoverseas.
So I don't think it really madea massive profit anyway.
I don't think it really made amassive profit anyway.
The director, siren Winster.
He also directed Snapshot, farLap Free, willy, harley Davidson

(03:12):
and the Melbourne man andCrocodile Dundee in Los Angeles,
among other things.
I love that filmography.
It's quite interesting, andthere's other films on there.
I'm trying to think of theother ones I have, but I thought
I can't list them all becauseit would just take me too long.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
I distinctly remember seeing Free Willy and I think
the sequel at the movies becauseI was the right age, yeah, when
that came out, when we weretransitioning from VHS to DVD.
One of my early DVDs was HarleyDavidson and the Marlboro man,
so I used to watch that quite abit.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
I've never seen that one.
Is it a good movie?

Speaker 2 (03:45):
it's been a while since I've never seen that one.
Is it a good movie?
It's been a while since I'veseen it, but I feel like it's.
I don't like saying things area guilty pleasure, but if I were
to describe that as something,it would feel like that.
Yeah, it was back when MickeyRourke was very handsome, okay.
And he's not anymore.
I know his face got mangled indoing boxing and I don't think
the surgery quite did the job itneeded to right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, I remember far lap.
That was a big deal at the time, but that's like back in the
90s or 80s or something.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, I remember it might have been 80s, but I do
remember that, like having a lotof tv play in forever.
Since I've seen Far Lap, Iwouldn't mind revisiting just
it's probably somewhere on Stanor something.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Oh, one of those maybe, but anyway.
And of course, Snapshot whichwe did a while ago on this show,
and I think you've done that.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
On the other one.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yes, I quite liked.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Snapshot.
So did I actually Never hearthe Mr Whippy van the same way
again?
While did I actually never hearthe mr whippy van the same way
again?
While both anthony goodane andeverett derosa, mainstays in the
australian film industry withfilms like patrick snapshot,
road games, long again andrazorback, to name a few.
I mean these guys have beeninvolved in nearly every

(04:59):
auspitation films for a longtime.
Right, they have massively longfilmographies to their name.
I was going to mention anthony,you know, and he's what is a
phantasm, which is probably I'venever done that on.
Did you do that on your show?
yes, yeah okay, it's like asoftcore porn thing yeah, the
early 70s was a very weird timeoh yeah yeah, we've completely

(05:22):
covered the 70s.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
I think there could be like the odd movie we might
have missed and we'll be doing acatch-up episode.
So, oh yeah, there's a lot ofmovies that were from the mid to
late 80s.
The 80s are packed.

(05:44):
If I look on my Letterboxdstats, I think Everett DeRouche
is one of my most watchedscreenwriters.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, just by virtue of doing the show.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Just by doing the podcast.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
The film is currently available to stream on Broly in
Australia.
That's the only place I couldkind of find it streaming.
I think it used to stream onAmazon, I'm not sure.
I think it used to stream onamazon.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
I'm not sure, I think it might have been on tubi as
well in the past but it's on myimdb.
It lists plex and tubi but I'mgonna assume it might be the us
versions because, funnily enoughto be us, united states has a
lot of Australian content.
So if there are US listeners,look at Tubi.

(06:28):
If you want to watchAusploitation or Australian New
Wave, I believe things likeMacLeod's Daughters are on Tubi
US.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
Are you kidding?

Speaker 2 (06:37):
I am 100% serious.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Wow, all they need is Neighbours, and you'll be sweet
.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
Neighbours used to be on there.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
I'm not sure if it still is.
It was joking.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
No, it was on there, like even the Australian crime
show I've seen on there, likeCrimes that Shook Australia and
Crime Investigation Australia.
There's a lot of Aussie contentand there are some like more
obscure Ausflotation titles thathave been on or are on Tubi US.
So it's definitely a good forpeople not in Australia it's a

(07:07):
good place to look.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Tubi is a good place to watch all sort of genre films
right, Especially the horror.
So much stuff on there.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
So much the Australian one is packed.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yes, I was looking through a couple of weeks ago.
I was just browsing through itand I think there was well over
a couple of hundred movies in,just in the horror side of
things.
It's amazing.
And to buy this.
I've got the blu-ray fromumbrella, but I have a look on
their website and it's not onthere anymore anymore, so I
assume it's out of print.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
I think it might be out of print because this was
released a little bit ago yeah,I got the hospitalization one,
the you know they were doing theslip cover ones.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, that's the one I got and I didn't see it
anywhere.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
So yeah, interesting.
I'm not sure.
Did they get a release anywhereelse on blu-ray, or?
I think there was probably an?

Speaker 1 (07:56):
overseas release.
Maybe one of like vinegarsyndrome or something like that,
maybe in the past, but I'm not100 sure.
I sure on that one?

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, I'm not too sure.
I've tried having a look, butit just comes up with the
umbrella one.

Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yeah, there's not much.
It's one of those movies.
I think it might be one ofthose ones.
Unfortunately, if people hearthe podcast and they go looking
for the movie, it might be a bitof a job to find right.
So hopefully not.
And if you've got access toBroly, I think it's on Broly
anyway.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
And possibly Tubi or Plex United.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
States.
Yeah, plex is terrible with ads, though Tubi's not too rare.
Plex is awful oh.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Plex is the worst.
If you have an ad block, Isuppose it could work.
Yeah, you might, yeah, exactly,but at least Tubi and Broly are
not that sort of intrusive forthe ads.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
No, tubi's actually quite reasonable Broly.
I don't remember having manyads at all when.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
I re-watched it yesterday.
I only maybe had three adbreaks that was about it.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
That's pretty good.
Doesn't take you out of themovie too much.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
No.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
As far as ratings are concerned, imdb it's 6.1 out of
10, which is kind of middling.
Rotten tomatoes is 40 percentcritic and 50 audience, so once
again it's kind of middling.
Some of the reviews are prettygood.
You mentioned, before we cameon, the cisco and ebert review
that you watched.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Very interesting yeah yeah, it just sort of maybe,
because I had just watched themovie and it kind of came up on
my YouTube.
But Cisco and Ebert's stuffcomes up on my feed.
I'm like, oh okay, yeah, theydidn't really like this movie
Because it was only a very quickreview.
I don't know if they quite gotit.

(09:37):
Yeah, yeah, that was my sort ofthoughts going in.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
So, on that, what are your initial thoughts on the
film?

Speaker 2 (09:46):
sort of thoughts going in.
Yeah, so on that, what are yourinitial thoughts on the film?
I've watched over 50osploitation from the 80s and
harlequin ranks about 15, soit's pretty high compared to um.
You know some others, yeah, butI would say it's a like for me
personally, I guess, yeah, thoseratings are sort of middle, but

(10:10):
I think it's a bit better thanmiddle because I do find that it
is a very strange film but thesort of mixing between, I guess,
magician, magicianry, faith,healing, seems to go very hand
in hand with the political sideof it, because politics is very

(10:34):
much like that, but also withits main character of the
mysterious Gregory Wolfe.
Gregory Wolfe, played by RobertPowell, is very clearly based
on a Gregory Rasputin typecharacter oh, 100%.
And, funnily enough, with thefamily that he comes across, the

(10:58):
Rast family.
Rast, spelled backwards, isNick Nicholas.
Yeah, so it's a little on thenose with where the inspiration
comes from, but I do think it'san interesting look behind the
curtain, so to speak, of allthis political stuff that's

(11:20):
happening, yeah, mixed with thisvery strange and enigmatic like
character.
But the things just don't seemto be foreign to each other.
So it's like an interesting mixyeah, they do fit well.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
That actually fits well together right, because I'm
like, oh, is this movie apolitical thriller, or is it
supernatural?
What isn't?
I'm like, well, it's a bit ofbox A and a bit of box B, right?

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Yeah, it's a bit of everything.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, I also feel like for me this movie kind of
has grown on me over the years.
I think the first time Iwatched it a few years ago, I
probably I wouldn't say Idismissed it, I just thought it
was okay and never reallythought much of it.
But I never really thought muchof it.
But this week I've watched it.
I watched it first a couple ofweeks ago just to get back into
it again, and then I watched itearlier this week and then again

(12:08):
last night, and this movie kindof rewards multiple viewings in
a way.
I became a little bit moreaware of the political
machinations in the film onsubsequent watches and I also
think there's some good actorsin this movie and the acting's
actually pretty solid and it's agood cast.
Some of the effects which arereally obviously dated are good

(12:31):
fun too.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
They're actually, like you can see, they're dated,
but they're still done prettywell for the time.
Oh yeah, I would say I wasgoing to add something and then
I completely forgot what I wasgoing to add to that.
No, I remember.
Yeah, it's only the second timethat I've seen the film and I
think I liked it more on mysecond viewing Because I think

(12:53):
there were more things that Ipicked up on and we'll probably
get to it soon.
But some of this political stuffis definitely almost
referencing Harold Holt and thatwas something I sort of picked
up more on this watch and Idon't think I even like thought
about it really when I firstwatched it, because I just I
went into it without thinking orknowing like what it was about

(13:17):
yeah and yeah, I feel like thatsort of that Rasputin character
came across a lot more obviouson this viewing, which I think
just made it a bit morecompelling.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Yeah and engaging.
Yeah absolutely Well, let megive you a history lesson.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Let's talk about Harold Holt right.
Let's get this out of the way.
So at the beginning of themovie they don't say he's a
prime minister.
I think he's like a governor orsomething like that.
This movie kind of sitssomewhere between being filmed
in australia with mostlyaustralian actors with some
american ones thrown in, and themovie kind of trying to kind of

(13:59):
say well, it's not really inany country it's almost
country-less because it feelsvery australian, but they're
obviously trying to make it moreamerican yeah, it's quite weird
and it's very weird.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
But you know what?
I think it fits the weirdnessof the film to just be in this
unknown country and politicalsystem but you don't really know
who they are.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
So at the beginning this guy he's like a governor or
whatever he is.
He's not the prime minister.
He goes out snorkelling andgoes missing.
That's how the movie starts.
So the beginning of the moviereferences the disappearance of
Australian Prime Minister HaroldHolt.

Speaker 4 (14:57):
It is feared that the Prime Minister has drowned.
A great search is being madefor Mr Holt off Portsea,
victoria.
However, no officialannouncement has been made as to
the fate of the Prime Minister.
Mr Holt went for a swim shortlyafternoon with a friend, mr
Alan Stewart, a quarantineofficer from the Melbourne
suburb of Armidale.
They swam out into heavy surfon the ocean side of the
Mornington Peninsula.
Mr Stewart told police he sawthe Prime Minister dive but he

(15:19):
failed to resurface.
Mr Stewart said he made a shortsearch before sounding the
alarm.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
And Holt was elected Prime Minister in 1966 and
served as Prime Minister untilhe went missing while swimming
out.
Now you're Victorian.
You can tell me if I'm sayingthis right.
Is it Chevoit or Cheviot Beach?
It's spelled C-H-E-V-I-O-T.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
As an Adelaidean originally.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Oh, living in Victorian.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
Living in Victorian, I'm probably going to pronounce
it wrong.
To be honest, you would behopeless, right?

Speaker 1 (15:48):
You never came from other places to Victoria right,
we did.
Yeah, so that's okay.
Anyway, Chavoyer, I'll call itChavoyer Beach.
If you're Victorian, let meknow, give me a one-star rating
or something and tell me I gotit wrong.
Actually, don't Give me five,please.
Anyway, so he went swimming atChavoy Beach in Victoria in 1967

(16:09):
and went missing, and hisdisappearance sparked one of the
largest ever search operationsin Australia, though his body
was never found, and there wassome conspiracy theories around
this.
Some suggested that Harold Holtwas assassinated by the CIA.
Of course everyone does that.
He either faked his own deathand the other one, which I think

(16:29):
is amazing, was he wascollected by a submarine so that
he could defect to China.
That was one of the conspiracytheories at the time.
Rather ironically, in theMelbourne suburb of Glen Iris,
holtz commemorated at the HaroldHolt Memorial Swimming Centre,
which is rather ironic in fact,the fact that he died, but

(16:53):
apparently this was all being.
The swimming centre was underconstruction at the time and he
was also their local member forsome time, so they were always
going to name it that, but Istill think it was a bit awkward
.
They should have just maybenamed a shopping centre.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Yeah, maybe they should have named like a nice
park or something Like it, justbecause when something like that
happens like he mysteriouslywill probably likely drowned
while swimming at sea and peopleare going to remember that
probably the most Maybe not thebest idea to associate swimming

(17:32):
centre.
But it could also be like youneed to learn how to swim so you
don't repeat the mistake.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
You don't want to drown like Prime Minister Harold
Hull.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
Unless it's like this film where he was killed by
this like conspiracy, deep state.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
And magicians are involved.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
They obviously took something from the Harold Hull
thing, right, and becauseapparently the story was they
were, he was with some friendsthis is around November,
December or something.
Apparently he was with somefriends and they were down the
coast or something and they weregoing to see some ship that was
doing something at sea, I don'tknow, and when they were

(18:13):
driving back he said, oh, let'sstop off at this beach and go
for a swim.
And most of the people therewith him his mates or whoever
were with him were like, oh, thewater's a bit rough, we don't
really want to go in.
He was known as being a verystrong swimmer and all this sort
of stuff, and one friend of hiswent with him into the water,
but he didn't go that far out,whereas Harold Holt went out and

(18:35):
he went under the water andnever came back again and they
seem to think that he basicallycaught in some sort of undertow,
that sort of took him under thewater and he couldn't get out.
Those sort of things alwaysbecome, you know, typical
Australian fashion, thevernacular you know, to do a
Harold Holt is rhyming slang forlike doing the bowl, and for

(18:57):
anyone listening outsideAustralia it just means to
disappear suddenly and withoutany explanation, Usually when
it's your shout at the pub.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
Well, I mean normally .
Back, you'd say, oh, I'm justgoing out to get a pack of
cigarettes, but in this case I'mgoing out for a swim.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
back, he'd say, oh, I'm just going out to get a pack
of cigarettes, but in this caseI'm going out for a swim.
And then I'll only say thisbecause I know you're probably
not a rugby league fan or youknow anything about it, Marcy,
because you look a bit tired.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Not much, no, unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
All AFL right, but I'll say this because it
involves my team in Sydney.
But legendary rugby leaguecoach Jack Gibson once said
about the Cronulla Sharks, whowas my team and been my team
since I was born, that waitingfor Cronulla to win a
premiership is like leaving theporch light on for Harold Holt.
But it was amazing because in2016, after 50 years, the Sharks

(19:45):
finally won their firstpremiership.
When I was at that game.
That was when they beat theMelbourne Storm to win their
first premiership.
When I was at that game, thatwas when they beat the Melbourne
Storm to win their firstpremiership back in 2016.
And the captain of the team,paul Gallen, ended his victory
speech by exclaiming turn yourporch lights off.
We're coming home with a trophy.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
Waiting for Canalla to win a grand final is like
leaving the porch light on forHarold Holt.
The light is still on.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
So what happened was my best mate, since he's been
five years old 30 years we'vebeen mates for anyway.
We're literally driving intothe ANZ stadium on game day and
this text comes through on myphone and as soon as I hear the
ping in the thing, I'm like, ohmy god, who the hell's doing
this?
Like who's doing this?
And it was my best mate.
And he said don't forget, whenyou win the comp, tell them.
Now you can turn the porchlight off.

(20:35):
And I was so angry I've neverbeen so.
I was just filthy at him.
I deleted the text straightaway and I was just so angry.
He's all about reversepsychology too.
I'm thinking if he's like, putthe jeez on me or something, I
was just so angry.
And to all you people back inthe Shire, turn your porch
lights off, because we're cominghome with a trophy.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Great callback.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
I'll never forget it, because I was there on the day
at the Grand when he was makingthat speech and as soon as he
said that, everyone just wentnuts, it was amazing.
I remember the week leading upto the grand final and the games
before it.
We're very confident, we'regoing to do well that year.
And there were guys going.
You know, people dress up inweird things when they go to
games and some of them therewere this group of guys that I

(21:22):
saw walking around with likehats that had little porch
lights on the front and theywere actually powered and they
actually went.
Oh, isn't it bizarre.
Thank you, harold Holt.
Yeah, so, as you mentioned aswell, the film's also a
modern-day retelling of theRasputin story.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Yeah, and because we have, like, the very mysterious
character of Gregory Wool andRobert Powell.
I think the trivia said he wentthrough he had like six
different like costume changesthroughout the film.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah, he had quite a few.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
So he has very like memorable costumes, but it also
has I'm trying to find the rightword.
So the title of the film beingHarlequin is like it's a
character from Italy, or as theycall it in Italian, and as
described in the movie, it's acharacter that the audience sees

(22:20):
but none of the performers seeit, and I feel like, with having
that title, with the, what thatcharacter is really sums up
what the film is doing.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
It is like this brand thing where the audience is
seeing certain things, or thecharacters might see certain
things, but there is other stuffgoing around that we don't
actually see it's like there's ascene later in the film where
good old gus mercurio, who's gota part in this film, is sitting
in the little control room andthe senators, or whatever his

(22:52):
name is view he's levitating infront of him.
Power, you know, is levitatingin front of him, but from the
control room he can see thathe's still just standing on the
ground.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
Yeah, and it sort of makes you question, like what
you're seeing?
Because the film kind ofconvinces you that this
character of gregory wolf islegit.
But then you see that whichconfirms what they said about
him, how he's like a hypnotistand he can.
You know, he's very talented atbeing an illusionist and

(23:26):
everything but it never reallyactually lets you know, I feel
like.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
He can do basic magic .
I can tell from that Like hedoes that sort of stuff, Like he
starts out in the movie, we'reintroduced to him as a clown at
a kid's party and he's doingmagic tricks which apparently he
had to learn to do the film,and he learned to do those magic
tricks for the film.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
Did he learn to levitate a pimp?
Yeah, maybe I don to do thefilm and he liked to do those
magic tricks for the film.
Did he learn to levitate apiano?
Yeah, maybe, I don't know.
Yeah, that was.
That was one of the really goodones, because they could do
that without like needingspecial effects, so to speak.
It was.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
It's something they could do practically yeah, I, I
still love that scene for themusician just sitting on the
bench in front of it and justseeing his reaction when it
starts.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
I love when it stops and the book just plumps down.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
It's great of the Tsar's sons of haemophilia.
And he was also assassinated,apparently after he had gained,
you know, too much politicalinfluence, which you'd all know
if you listened to the Boney Msong.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
I love that song.
I tried so off-topic but I haveto bring it up.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Not really Nothing's off-topic here.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
If anyone's familiar with the game Just Dance, one of
the songs that they do have onthere is the Boney M song, and
it is honestly one of the mostdifficult fricking dances to do,
because you need frickingexcellent leg work and as much
as I'd love to be able to dothat, I cannot it's too much,
you need quite a workout, but Ido love that song.

(25:06):
It's fantastic there was a catthat really was gone.
Rah rah Rasputin, russia'sgreatest love machine.

(25:32):
It was a shame how he carriedon.
Yeah, besides that, yeah it doesbecause, like Rasputin was,
like you know, it appeared tohave cured the son in here.
The son Alex has leukemia andthen he suddenly healed from it,

(25:56):
and mostly we see that becausehe's eating food, he's talking
and his hair's growing back.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeah, which they shot everything in reverse.
So they started shooting whilehe had the hair.
All the scenes with the hairthey shot first and then cut his
hair at the end.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
I actually thought the actor, Mark Smain, who plays
Alex, I thought he was reallysolid.
Like I don't like to be roughon performances that were done
by children, but I really feellike he gave a very genuine
performance in this film.
I thought he was good.
You feel sort of like thecoldness that he has with his

(26:31):
father, the warmth he has withhis mother, and you can feel
like because of the coldnesswith his father, he's reaching
out for that father figure,which is why he seems to just be
so linked to.

Speaker 1 (26:45):
Gregory To Gregory yeah, yeah, he's definitely
looking for a father figure inhis life and he doesn't have one
, and I think it's made clearpretty early on that the whole
marriage was pretty much amarriage of convenience for him.
So he could, you know I thinkthey're saying that her father
was a diplomat or something likethat so it was all very sort of
almost arranged to sort of havethat you've even got a bit of

(27:08):
that in there, because you'vegot the wife character kind of
having the affair with thegregory character.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
So gregory's like really woven himself into this
family he certainly has.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
Yeah, he sort of got right in there through alex
actually and then the mother,and then I think it's near the
end where you actually see theruss character right at the end
of the movie.
He's kind of almost I wouldn'tsay he's fairly sorry for him.
He kind of almost sees thelight.
Do you know what I mean?
It's very much shown to him andand I think gregory kind of

(27:43):
shows him what's, what's up withthe whole political side of
things and he's actuallystarting to think oh, actually I
have been taken for a bit of aride and you know, this has all
been arranged and just for someguy up high.
And I think you really see that.
And at the end of the moviehe's almost well, he tries to
save him right he does, yeah,yeah, because they call him up

(28:06):
and say get him into the kitchen.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
Obviously so they can shoot him, yeah, and he goes to
sort of stop him from going inthere.
Yeah, it's interesting, like,how David Hemmings' character
goes through such this bigchange, because he is a very
cold sort of man through a lotof the film and then as more of
these events happen, he startsto sort of understand that he's

(28:30):
just a pawn in all this and it'salmost like that he does
believe Gregory and understands.
But then the film, I mean, Ifeel like, yeah, it sort of
mimics a lot of Rasputin, butthe ending is kind of bizarre
and I don't know how to takelike ending is kind of bizarre

(28:51):
yeah.
And I don't know how to takelike that final shot of this
film.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
So, spoiler alert, We'll spoil this movie.
I should say this I know youguys are very good with your
podcasts.
Saying it right up front, Ialways forget, right.
But if you listen to a moviepodcast, good chance that you're
going to have the movie spoiled, no matter who you're listening
to I think it's a safe bet.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
If the podcast was released in whatever year it was
released, and you're talkingabout movies released that year,
people will either give you thespoiler warning or whatever.
But if a movie was releasedlonger than that, chances are, I
think, there's going to bespoilers like 44 years ago.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, it is an interestingkind of thing at the end,
because, like you get that shotwhere you're talking about the
shot with Alex and his motherdown by the river, and then Alex
turns around and his face isfrozen, looking a bit like
Gregory, and then you see hisface on the floor in the kitchen

(29:52):
.
Yeah, it's weird, isn't it?
Has he just, I don't know,graduated and become the same,
or has somehow Gregory's soulmoved into the boy, or is it
just like, oh, let's just put ashock ending on?

Speaker 2 (30:09):
It could just be a shock ending, but I think it
makes more sense, I guess, withthe bond that Gregory and Alex
have through the film.
Yeah, and Alex have through thefilm is like once Gregory was
killed, his sort of spirit orsomething has moved into Alex
and now I think like, at leastfor me, if this continued, I

(30:33):
would think Alex would developthe same powers and I think
there are bits that allude thathe sort of does a little bit.
But again, it does play withyour head because you're never
quite sure of what you're seeingis real or not no, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
You don't really understand it at all and, like
you said, you just don't.
You just don't know, likethere's bits, you know the whole
bit with alex and playing thechinese checkers things and
moving those around.
I'm assuming that's him.
I'm assuming he's learned thatfrom Gregory right.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
Yeah, that's what I would think, but it doesn't
really give you the answers, andI like that.
I like that.
It's sort of like you caninterpret things, and I think
it's purposely like that becauseit's based on the Rasputin
story, which, again, how factualis the stories we hear and how

(31:25):
embellished are they?
And I think that actually makesperfect sense, and it's
something interesting to sort ofadapt into sort of a political
thriller, so to speak.

Speaker 4 (31:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
But sort of back then .
I guess modern, but does thepolitics really change all that
much?

Speaker 1 (31:47):
Not really.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
You can literally imagine a Grigori Rasputin or a
Gregory Wolfe doing someinfluencing on powerful
political families.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Well, you could even see it like you could almost
remake that movie today, and itwould still be relevant, right?
Especially when it comes to,you know, faith healers and
people saying they can do allthis sort of stuff.
It's probably even more in theconsciousness these days.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Yeah, it feels like faith healers sort of.
I don't know.
Maybe it was sort of like withthe start of everybody getting
the internet that people wereless into the faith healers and
it kind of went away for a while, but now it's picking up again
and yeah I don't.
This is it's reasons like this.
I just can't do tiktok, but itfeels like tiktok is starting

(32:37):
all these weird freaking trendsagain.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yeah, yeah, I think.
So that's social media for youthere, right?
So one of the scenes I reallylike from this movie is the
scene where Gregory takes Alexout to the cliff, out to the
ocean.
I was watching it last nightand I turned to Mae, my wife,
and I said didn't his motherjust say he can't go with him?

(33:01):
He, she says because he wantsto go.
He asked if he can go with him.
She says no, next minute he'sin a car with a driver and
they're taking them out.
I'm like, oh, she must havebeen a bit of a pushover or
something, because I don't thinkI can't remember if, like at
the end of the scene, she saidyeah no, she said, she actually
said no I feel like she said noyeah, she did, she did.

(33:23):
I mean the next thing we see inthere, but that's a great scene,
like when he takes.
That's probably the first scenewhere he really starts oh, I
shouldn't say getting intoalex's head, but he actually
does start.
You know, really don't want touse the word grooming that
sounds awful.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yeah, I'm thinking the word grooming isn't.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
It's not applicable.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
It's been ruined in this day and age.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Yeah, it has been.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
It feels like he's being the teacher to Alec.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Yeah, he's tutoring him.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Yeah, but in a non like creepy pedo way.
Yeah exactly, non, like creepypedo way.
Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah.
The only allusions to anythingnasty that gregory wolf does is,
I think, a psychic sort of Idon't want to say abuse, but a
psychic, non-consensualexperience with the housemaid,
which I think, again, issomething alluded to with

(34:17):
rasputin and his womanizing waysis what I'm trying to get with
that yeah, interesting thisscene with the housemaid when
she's in the bath or what versus?

Speaker 1 (34:27):
she's in the, just in the bathroom and she disrobes
and I said to my wife I saidthere you go.
That makes it an officially ahospitalization film and because
it's probably the only boobshot in the show, I think so he
kind of has this scene with alexand hangs him out over a rock
over the ocean and apparently hereally hung him over there yeah

(34:50):
, he had a rig they had a rig.
They had some sort of rig set upthat was kind of supporting his
arm and actually was attachedto the actor.
What did you say?
His name was Mark Spain.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah, mark Spain, because when you're looking at
it, you're looking at it going.
This isn't like a use of greenscreen or overlaying or anything
.
He's literally there holdingthe kid, yeah, and then you find
out like he had the safetyharness and everything, but then
they had stuff was underneath,like the cloak.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
I think they also knew how to film it to make it
look like that, but they didn'tuse like shitty camera angles to
hide it, though no, theyactually hung him over the side,
it's like very clear and it'slike, oh shit, but yeah, yeah, I
was watching the commentary andI think simon winters said that
when they set that whole thingup the actor's mother was really
concerned, so they put her inthe rig.

(35:45):
Hang on, Sorry.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
I was going to say I don't blame her because I would
not agree to do that.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
You can use some fricking body double thank you
Weren't times different then,because this probably was filmed
in probably 1979, right?
So times are completelydifferent and they're doing it's
like all the otherrehabilitation movies from the
70s 80s, right?

Speaker 2 (36:04):
They're doing crazy stuff that these days, you
wouldn't be doing right.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
So, yeah, it's quite a good scene.
But also the whole way that hekind of has that conversation
with Alex about death and thissort of stuff was really
interesting.
And it's really bad that youcan't really use the word
grooming without it sounding bad, but essentially that's what
he's doing, but in a differentway than what people would

(36:30):
normally think yeah, it's morelike he's.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
Yeah, it's more like a student or a student mentor
type of thing, which you knowyou had a lot in films.
But this is sort of not totrain or do a montage or
anything.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah, it's like his first lesson, so to speak.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
Yeah, because it's like quite confronting, because
he hangs him off the cliff.
But he's like what do you feel?

Speaker 3 (37:12):
What do you?
See Birds, the clouds, whatelse?
Kind of, yes, kind of like theedge.

Speaker 4 (37:30):
Bravo, the edge of the world, where the Earth is at
war with the sea.
Now listen.
What can you hear?

Speaker 3 (37:42):
The wind, the wind, our invisible friend.
See how it holds the gullsaloft.
Is that not magic, alex?
Now Alex, what do you feel?

(38:14):
Are you scared?
Use your heart, not your head.
What do you feel?
War?
There is edge.
Only the wind separates youfrom the rocks.
What do you feel?
Jump Again.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
But you're dead.
Death sits here perched like avulture, waiting for you to
forget him.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
Dead.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
Always remember the feel of death, alex, and he'll
never be able to take you bysurprise and it's full on.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
But I think a lot of like with the character of
Gregory.
I think that's just all down toRobert Powell having these very
hypnotic eyes through the wholefilm.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
His eyes are amazing, aren't they in this movie?

Speaker 2 (39:28):
Such a fantastic performance.
Through everything Like he'svery charismatic, so you
understand, like, why people aredrawn to this guy.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
Yeah, and some of the like you were saying and some
of the like you're saying, someof the outfits he has in this
movie are amazing so that onelike harlequin outfit, like the
last one he wears, I think it'smy favorite yeah, it's really
good.
I mean this scene where he's atthe cliff.
It looks he's dressed likealmost a priest, he looks like a
wizard or something.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah they all be like outfits he has yeah
, all quite different.
He'll often wear like somedifferent makeup as well.
And and one thing I noticed onthis watch and I did not notice
it on my first watch is thatthey distinctly, towards the end
, show his painted nails andthere's like symbols on each

(40:19):
nail and then you see at the endwhere it's alex and his mom.
Alex has the same painted nailswith the symbols yeah and you
see that before you see thereveal of his face yeah so
there's, a lot of little detailsin this film that you probably
won't pick up the first time,and I think it's possibly why we

(40:41):
both got more out of it uponre-watching it.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
I think movies like this actually really do benefit
from an extra view or so, andyeah, definitely you know worth
doing.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
Yeah, because when we covered it on the Ausvoit cast,
it was one that I have beenkeen to watch again, and so I'm
really glad I did, because Ithink I yeah, got more out of it
.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
I've got to say, because I've got the IMDB page
open, robert Picture undercast.
He actually kind of looksRasputin-like.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
He does a bit, doesn't he?

Speaker 2 (41:15):
And Gus Mercurio looks very George Martin in his
photo.
I've got to say.
I have seen quite a few things.
Gus Mercurio shows up in quitea few Osploitation films, but
this is the first time I'm likeI can really see the resemblance
between his son, paul, becausePaul Mercurio now looks so much

(41:40):
like his dad in the late 70s,early 80s yeah it's just very.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
It's just so evident like I could see it a little bit
, but now I'm like nah, he looksexactly like his dad at that
point in time the other thing Iwas going to mention about this
film that's disturbing in a waywell, not really disturbing, but
interesting is like there's allthis stuff going on but really,
really, we get one cat, twodogs, a bird and a dove.
All give their lives for thismovie.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
It's quite bizarre.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
It's weird.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
I don't think he even realized that again on the
first watch.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
Neither did I.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Watching it again, I think it really hit me more,
because when you've got thesymbol and it literally just
like guts this bird in half.
Yeah, there's a lot of thatgoing around in the film, but I
don't know if it necessarily hada point or if it's more like

(42:36):
that use of.
I don't know.
There's dark forces around orsomething.
I don't know, or maybe they'rejust really cruel to animals and
they get a slap in the face orsomething.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
It's the first time I noticed, watching it last night
, hearing a cat going off andmaking noise when those dogs,
those guard dogs, are out, andthen you see what looks like the
dogs eating the cat at the sideof the pool and then those dogs
get shot.
But the ebbies, theunderworld-looking guys, which

(43:05):
are all government guys, butthey're obviously ebbies yeah.
And then there's birds flyinginto windows.

Speaker 2 (43:12):
There's a lot of like birds are because I guess,
birds being more associated withmagicians, I guess was a big
thing as well.
There's even the dove on theoriginal poster where it's got
Robert Powell with his reallylovely makeup.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
And the flames around him.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
It's interesting.
At first I was like, oh, is thedove and the symbol thing, just
like a magic trick.
But then I'm like, well, thisguy got blood all over his face,
so it mustn't have been.
He literally decapitated him.
Yeah, that scene in general,that party scene, and when he's
kind of introduced to everybodyby Carmen Duncan.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
Who has the best hair in the movie.
It's amazing, it's so permed.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
It's great, sandra's, so permed.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
It's great.
Sandra is who she plays.
Sandra, that's right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
And he has his introduction.
He's kind of leaning on thedoor and it's like one of those
movies where an old Westernwhere someone walks in somewhere
and everyone stops talking andthey just look at them, or Annie
walking into the diner at thebeginning of Friday the 13th.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
And I think it might be just because he's wearing
that magnificent outfit.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
And so we get this scene where it's obviously a
fundraiser and he's beingintroduced and everyone's a bit
sceptical.
And then we've got thissocialite.
She's kind of like the main, Iguess the main attraction, or
whatever she is.
She's the most rich personthere who's giving all this
money and she's got an abscesson her tooth and he's able to
well, we think he's able to kindof cure that by moving it from

(44:51):
her mouth down her shoulder,down her arm, and then a cut
that looks like he's cut afinger off when the abscess is
in the finger.
But obviously he's cutting apiece of carrot and it's kind of
weird.
Do you think he's actuallymoved the abscess?
I mean, that's what we're ledto believe in the movie, right?

Speaker 2 (45:08):
Yeah, it's hard to tell because, again, it plays so
many tricks on you and that'swhy I find that whole scene at
like the party, reallyfascinating, because it goes
from one extreme to the other.

Speaker 4 (45:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
But you're never quite sure, like, are we
actually seeing this or iseveryone just under this
hypnotic influence of him?
It never really lets you know.

Speaker 1 (45:35):
It's a bit.
It's a bit strange.
And then all the heavies arethere and the government people
that are trying to, you know,maneuver everything, and I think
the whole end game is to getthe senator guy as, like, the
new governor or something likethat.
And he's the other guy.
There's some guy in hospitalthis is the part that I didn't

(45:56):
follow all that well Likethere's a guy in the hospital
who they're obviously going tokill as well because he's not
well, but Gregory goes on totell him that they're poisoning
him and slowly killing him thatway, and it's, you know.
There's all these machinationsaround the government,
conspiracies and what they'redoing and how they're moving

(46:18):
this person, and I think themain driver of that is what's
the actor's name?
Broderick crawford.
He, he's like the bad guy, likehe's the wheeling wheeling,
trying to think of it yeah, he'sthe sorry, I don't
have imdb open in front of me,but uh, I should have, I forgot
I did.
He's kind of like the guythat's making all this stuff

(46:40):
move the puppet master.
He's the puppet master.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think I've even put that inone of my notes.
And at that point, that's whenthey decide he's becoming too
much.
And I think it's the scene afterthe party, when he's cured the
woman of her abscess orsupposedly, and they kick him
out and they take him and theyput him into jail.

(47:01):
And then they have that meetingthe next day where they show,
show him all the, the photos ofhim sleeping with all these
different people and and andalso sorry, I'm getting off
track here there's that scenethat's a little bit out of place
, where we assume that he iskind of like with Carmen

(47:23):
Duncan's character.
There's these shots, thesephotos of them doing stuff and
going out and all this sort ofstuff, and it's like he's now
living in the house right andhaving a relationship with her
right in front of him, in frontof the governor guy.
And yeah, it's reallyinteresting how that all happens

(47:44):
.
They lock him up and he has theguard there and he gets himself
out of jail and that's when weget into like the end piece, but
it's super interesting how theytry and set everything up.
I thought Broderick Crawfordwas really good actually.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
Yeah, he was very convincing, like really good
actually.
Yeah, he was very convincinglike I could buy that he was
this puppet master kind of guy.
Yeah, um, definitely.
But yeah, it's like sets up alot of things, like how you
mentioned where they've got thephotos of gregory and stuff and
then I can't remember thecharacter it could have been Was
it the guy's secretary orsomething?

(48:20):
And when he speaks to her onthe phone and she's like, but
I've never, even met him.
And then you're like so the guysthat are trying to convince
David Hemming's character arejust shady as shit and will say
and do whatever it takes, andit's not really any different
than some guy just performingillusion.

(48:41):
Illusionary it takes, and yeah,it's not really any different
than some guy just performingillusion, illusionary, yeah, and
that's kind of.
I feel like that's the point oflike, yeah, it's the point of
the film, but it definitely it'sone of those ones where you're
never going to be sure, likewhat you're seeing what's true
and what's not.
Yeah, and I find that reallyinteresting because I don't
trust what I'm seeing, but Ialso don't trust politicians.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Yeah, everyone's an unreliable narrator, sort of
thing.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
So it's quite an interesting film because it is
like all these different genres,but it's very clear in sort of
where it takes its inspirationsfrom.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
And how it tells that story.
So yeah, like I think it's kindof fascinating and I do think
it's probably one of the moreunderappreciated exploitation
films, especially after, like,having that second viewing, and
I'll probably get more out of iton another viewing as well when
you have to sit on someoneelse's podcast yes, I'll keep
talking about this on podcasts.

(49:37):
I mean, I will say RobertPowell is in.
Well, I said Harlequin isnumber 15 on my in-progress
ranking of Ausploitation fromthe 80s, but another Robert
Powell film is there at numberfive.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
Is that the Survivor?

Speaker 2 (49:53):
That is the Survivor.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
Yeah, it's a great film.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
I absolutely loved that.
One and again, just anotherpowerful performance, and it's
such a different performance.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
He's a very good actor, wasn't he?

Speaker 2 (50:05):
Yeah, it just makes me glad that they did get him
out to do some films.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Just touching on the music by Not that, brian May.
Not that, brian May.
Yeah, I was listening to themusic pretty intently last night
and I know on the Blu-ray Ididn't have a chance to do it,
but they do have an isolatedscore you can actually listen to
the score isolated while you'rewatching the movie.
It's interesting, this one,because when I was thinking of
the soundtrack to this I wasthinking, well, the score works

(50:34):
really well, kind of supportsthe scenes well, and then I
noticed these little musicalmotifs, more of the romantic-y
kind of piano pieces, thatalmost sounded like they could
be lifted straight from patrickinto this movie.
If you watch it again, have alisten.
There's a little I don't knowhow long since you've watched
patrick, but there's theselittle bits of music in the film

(50:57):
and I'm like, oh, that soundsso close to one of the themes he
uses in patrick and it's like,oh, I wonder if that was like a
leftover from patrick, becausehe did patrick in 78 potentially
could have been, yeah yeah, Idefinitely took notice of the
score a bit more, and it isinteresting how it does
strangely kind of complement thescenes.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
It's pretty good.
I mean, I don't think it's oneof his best works.
It's definitely not up therewith Mad Max and a few other
things, but it's not a bad work,it's good.
I just found it interesting.
There was a few motives.
I was like, oh, is he reusing abit of music?
He wasn't reusing it as intaking music from Patrick and
putting it in there.

(51:39):
It was.
Maybe this was a musical ideahe had when he was writing that
and he said, oh well, I'll putthat away, it'll come in handy
somewhere else.
I don't know.
I don't know how his mindworked, but still a good score
an interesting score and verymuch a Brian May score.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
You can tell, so yeah , anything else you wanted to
cover before we sort of give ourfinal thoughts, I feel like
we've probably covered, probably, yeah, as much as we can on the
film.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
I just if people haven't seen it.
Yeah, we've spoiled itcompletely.
Absolutely, but I still thinkit's worth checking out.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
Or does he die?

Speaker 2 (52:20):
Yeah, I mean, we don't know really the kids find
his body.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
At the end it floats up and you don't know.
Or has his soul been moved toAlex.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
I think his soul moved to Alex.
That's what I take from thatending.
That's what I took from it aswell, but I do think it's a
worthy film and, yeah, I thinkit's one of those more
underappreciated exploitationfilms, because it does give you
something quite different, andyou've got some very good
performances, especially RobertPowell.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Yeah, I think so.
It's a enjoyable, well-madepiece of Australian film.
It's hard for me.
I almost don't really feel likethis movie is an Ausploitation
film.
I actually think it rises alittle bit above that.
Not that I'm puttingOzploitation films down, I'm
just saying it seems it doesn'thave a lot of the things you

(53:12):
would expect typically from anOzploitation film.
Yes, there is a boob shot, butthere's not a lot of graphic
violence or anything like thatin it.
There's not a lot of thatover-the-top sort of thing.
Yes, there is over-the-topbecause he's levitating or
whatever, but it just a lot ofthat over the top sort of thing.
Yes, there is over the topbecause he's levitating, all
that sort of stuff, but justseems to have a different tone.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
I think it's the tone more than that?

Speaker 1 (53:33):
Yeah, I think the tone.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
Yeah, I think it falls into it with a bit of the
sort of government conspiracy,yeah, wildness of it a bit and
yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
Yeah, I think that and I think it's got a good cast
.
The premise is interesting, thestory is interesting.
I think robert powell, davidhemmings are really good and the
scenes when they're togetherwork really well I really like
the way they play very well,especially towards the end.
Yeah, yeah, it just works sowell because it's built up so
much.
Yeah.
To like that moment, yeah, andalso I think Carmen Duncan,

(54:10):
broderick, crawford sort ofsupport that really well.
And you know, duncan, she waslike the trophy wife and she's
magnetically attracted toPowell's character and
Crawford's like this darkpuppeteer and he's pulling all
the strings to serve whatevermaster he's you know, answering
to and I think it's just reallya good movie and worth

(54:31):
re-watching.
I think it kind of, even thoughI did rate it.
I think you and I rated thesame because I was rating it on
letterbox and I noticed you hadit on your recently watched, as
I think you did.
You rate it the same as me.
I won't give it away.
I I gave it three and a halfsymbols sliced doves out of five
.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
Yeah, I gave it three and a half.
Robert Powell in his Harlequinoutfit, out of five.
Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
I almost gave it a four and I think, oh, I don't
know if it earns a four for me,but I think it's very solid,
that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
It is.
I think it's a really.
It's a really interesting andsomething quite different, you
know, at least not even just forexploitation, but just
Australian cinema in the lateseventies to early eighties.

Speaker 1 (55:17):
Yeah, yeah Well, it feels like a seventies movie
almost, because it was right onthe cusp and it still feels to
me like a 70s movie but it feelsvery australian, even if it has
this I don't know where it'smeant to be set sort of feeling
to it and I meant to say thehouse in the movie, which is

(55:37):
fantastic, belonged to alan bondoh, really, I did not know that
?
Yeah, it was his house in perth, because they filmed it in
Perth.
Yes, so the house, the exteriorsof his house.
The interiors were built werefrom a studio set, except for
one room.
There's like one room which hadthe water views.

(55:57):
It might have been the bedroomor something they shot inside
the house, but everything elseinside the house was shot
somewhere else Interesting.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
I did not know that Everything else inside the house
was shot somewhere else.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
Interesting.
I did not know that.
Yeah, so it was interestingthat it was shot there.
So, yeah, so that's HarlequinReally good, enjoyable, fun
movie and definitely worthwatching.
So that's great.
So, marcy, what's happeningwith you?
I'm sure there's heaps.
There's always a lot with you.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
I wish there was.
Oh, you're in a bit of a quiettime.
I don't know if it's that it'sChristmas, I think this year has
just been all over the place.
But yeah, as the year's windingdown, I mean all the podcasts,
even if I haven't done them formonths, all the backlog is all
there Supermarcycom is the bestplace to go, best place to go.

(56:50):
Or, alternatively, there is alink tree and I'll spell it
l-i-n-k-t-r.
Dot, e-e, flash, the supernetwork, and that lists all the
different podcasts and places tofind them.
And yeah, I guess, just keep aneye out, there should be a new
exploitation episode in january.
So, fingers crossed, we canschedule all that and make it
work.
But yeah, that's about itreally.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
Excellent, excellent, and your socials.
So you've already put the linktree and yeah on socials.

Speaker 2 (57:13):
I am super Marcie.
I'm super underscore Marcie onLetterboxd and you can see all
my Ausploitation lists on there.
Great.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
So did you move to Blue Sky?
Like everyone else?

Speaker 2 (57:24):
you do yes, I am available there, and it is under
super marcy as well well.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
Thank you so much for being with me today.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
It's been fantastic had an absolute blast discussing
this film and talking a bitabout australian political
history and russian history alittle bit and bony m and a bit
of Boney M as well.
Going to go like put that onnow.
I wish I had the vinyl.
I'd love to just spin thatright now.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
I don't have that.
I know I've got a Boney M vinylalbum somewhere, but it's like
the very first one, I think.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Oh See, I got that from my mum because my mum used
to listen to it a lot when I wasgrowing up.
And I'm like there is like aplace not too far from where I
live that buys and sells likevinyl, VHS, Blu-ray CDs, so I
should actually go there.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
You should.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
You should.
I've got to go back there.
It's been a while I went thereto sell like my excess, like
DVDs and stuff and haven't beenback.
But it's like they have so muchstuff, great Cool.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
All right, we're going to take a short break and
we'll be back with what's comingnext.

Speaker 4 (58:34):
And now preview time.
When it comes to entertainment,you can't beat a good film, so
let's take a look at what'scoming your way.

Speaker 3 (58:52):
It began as a class project.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
We have to do a graduation film right, what
better project than to finishthat film?

Speaker 3 (58:58):
To resurrect an old film from oblivion.

Speaker 1 (59:02):
That movie was a nightmare.

Speaker 3 (59:04):
So what you're saying is there's some sort of a curse
on this.
Now they've made an unexpecteddiscovery of a mysterious legend
creepier than friday the 13thmore blood and guts than texas

(59:25):
that should never.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
Who wants to make a?

Speaker 4 (59:26):
mainstream slasher move see the light of day.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Don't go playing with nightmares and action Cause I'm
the one with the black doll andI want what's wrong.

Speaker 4 (59:38):
No, no, no.
If I take my life, I'm not thesame thing now.
No, no, no.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
I never said this before, but I've always found
you very attractive.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
In our next episode I'm joined again by Matt Fulton
from the Champagne ComedyPodcast to chat about the
Australian slasher film Cut from2000, starring Molly Ringwald
and Kylie Minogue.
Of all people, this should be afun one.
I look forward to you joiningus.
Thanks so much for tuning in toA Dingo Ate my Movie.

(01:00:33):
Your time means the world to meand I hope you're loving the
show.
Want to stay connected with ADingo Ate my Movie?
You can find us on social media.
Look for us over on Blue Sky atDingo Movie Pod, on Facebook
and Instagram at Dingo Movie Pod, and our website is
dingomoviepodcom.
If you'd like to support theshow, you can help in a few ways

(01:00:54):
.
You can leave a rating over onApple Podcasts, share the show
with your friends, or you canbuy me a coffee over at
buymeacoffeecom slash dingomovie pod.
Thank you again for listening.
Stay safe and I'll catch you onthe next episode of A Dingo Ate
my Movie.