Wayne Goodwin Movies
- 1995
- R
This romantic, adventurous Australian thriller is set in the continent's Red Center. There Tom McGregor and his sister Susan work their lonely desert gas station. He and Susan are first seen racing along a desert road towards the horizon. Soon afterward, he is seen walking alone towards the seemingly abandoned filling station. During the course of the film, many interesting characters happen by, including the girl friend of a diamond thief on the lam. His car breaks down and he sends her to the station for assistance. Once there, she finds herself falling in love with Tom. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul Mercurio, Colin Friels, (more)
- 1995
- NR
Mistaken identity provides the basis for this Australian screwball transvestite comedy. The trouble begins in the rural town of Worondilla in the sugar cane district of northern Australia. The town is preparing for its annual Sugar Week celebrations. This year an all-girl band is being brought in. Three of the five members are lesbians. When the band leader Courtney learns that her guitarist, Jo, has had sex with a local lothario, who also bedded lead singer, Angie, Jo is out of a job, and the band is without a guitar. They begin advertising. At the same time, an angry wife, Irene, leaves her obnoxious husband and town barber, Barry, after he pawns her piano. Barry is crazy about Elvis and loves singing his songs at the local tavern with his sons. The sons are terribly upset that their mother has left them and do not know that she is secretly staying at the same hotel as the band. When her son Mick, an effeminate looking fellow, sees the band's ad, he dresses up as a female and applies for the job. He will spend the money he earned to get his mother's piano back. More trouble ensues when Angie,who thinks of herself as straight, falls in love with the new guitarist, "Michelle." ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Toni Pearen, David F. Price, (more)
- 1989
The two-part Australian miniseries Fields of Fire III was the third and final annual installment in the Australian TV saga inspired by Robert Marchand's novel Cane. Returning to the fold were Todd Boyce as British expatriate Bluey and Melissa Docker as Aussie lass Dusty, whose romance and marriage had dominated the proceedings in Fields of Fire (set in the late '30s-early '40s) and Fields of Fire II (set in the immediate post-WWII era). Now it was 1951, and the emphasis was on Italian refugee Gina (Peta Toppano), newly widowed after the death of her black-marketeer husband. Returning to her roots, Gina set up a cane field with her brother Paolo, experiencing the usual trials and tribulation of small-business entrepreneurs in the uncertain years following the War. Fields of Fire III was broadcast by Australia's Nine Network on July 16 and 17, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1988
This sequel to the 1987 Australian miniseries Fields of Fire was set in 1946. Having weathered WWII, British expatriate Bluey (Todd Boyce) had wed Dusty (Melissa Docker), one of his co-workers in the Australian cane fields. Once this occurred, the focus of the action shifted to a pair of new characters: Gina (Peta Toppano), an Italian refugee, and Franco (Joseph Spano), Gina's black-marketeer husband. Telecast by Australia's Nine Network in two installments on May 22 and 23, 1988, Fields of Fire II was, like its predecessor, inspired by Robert Donaldson's novel Cane. A third and final derivation, Fields of Fire III, aired in 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Fields of Fire was the first of three Australian miniseries inspired by Robert Donaldson's novel Cane. Todd Boyce starred as Bluey, an Englishmen who headed "down under" in the late '30s to work in the Australian cane fields. The story picked up momentum -- and a score of new supporting characters -- at the outbreak of WWII. The two episodes of Fields of Fire were shown by Australia's Nine Network on June 14 and 15, 1987. It was soon followed by a brace of annual sequels, cleverly titled Fields of Fire II and Fields of Fire III. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
In exchange for being allowed to make his directorial debut in Grand Theft Auto, Ron Howard agreed to take no salary as a director, merely as star and co-screenwriter (with his dad Rance). The plot finds Sam Freeman (Howard) eloping with his heiress girlfriend Paula Powers (Nancy Morgan). Her mob-connected dad Bigby Powers (Barry Cahill) vehemently opposes the marriage, and isn't about to change his mind now that Sam has stolen his Rolls-Royce and sped off to Las Vegas with his daughter in tow. Marion Ross, Howard's Happy Days mom, turns in an offbeat supporting characterization. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ron Howard, Nancy Morgan, (more)
