Mary-Anne Fahey Movies
In this offbeat, romantic comedy, a young woman tries to conceal her paralyzed leg in order to get her man. Sophie is a young and creative writer. Her stories are quite sexual. One night, as she reads one of her erotic tales aloud she is overheard by Eddie, a jeweler known for his womanizing. Eddie is engaged to a forthright, demanding woman. Sophie falls in love with Eddie. He too, seems similarly attracted to her. But Sophie has a secret that may present an obstacle; she has a paralyzed leg and she fears that will turn Eddie off. Eddie had never seen her stand so he doesn't know this. Love-struck Sophie begins to spy on Ed. She gets a chance to win him after she accidently breaks her crippled leg. Telling him she injured it while skiing, the two begin a relationship. That Eddie is involved with stolen jewelry and a Russian policeman presents other obstacles to their happiness. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gia Carides, Anthony LaPaglia, (more)
- 1989
- R
Ann Turner wrote and directed this genuinely creepy amalgam of Father Knows Best and Death Wish. Celia Carmichael (Rebecca Smart) is a lonely nine-year-old girl growing up in the Melbourne suburbs in the late 1950s, who is the victim of several traumas with horrific results. She first finds her grandmother's dead body. Then she has nightmares from a book read to her at school. For a spell, her troubles are abated when a new family moves in next door with three children for Celia to play with. But her parents forbid her to play with the children because the parents are members of the Communist Party. It all comes to a head when, because of a national plague of rabbits, the Victoria State government orders a turning over of all domestic rabbits. When her uncle confiscates her beloved pet rabbit and discovers that it has died in the Melbourne Zoo, Celia explodes in violent revenge. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rebecca Smart, Nicholas Eadie, (more)
- 1987
An evil businessman named Z (Bill Peterson) turns his army of robots against the Manhattan populace, and kidnaps their well-intentioned inventor, a scientist (Mark Umile). The scientist's sister (Mary Fahey) seeks help from martial-arts expert Matt Riker (Rick Gianasi). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rick Gianasi, Mary-Anne Fahey, (more)
- 1985
Dunera Boys is all the more incredible when one realizes that it is founded in truth. At the beginning of the second World War, the English government sanctioned the arrest of any German nationals suspected of being spies. Among these was a group of Jewish refugees, as well as several completely assimilated British subjects. Fishmonger Bob Hoskins, who despite his Germanic background is as British as they come, is rounded up along with the other "undesirables," herded aboard the HMT Dunera, and shipped off to a POW camp in Australia. This lumpy but involving film details Hoskins' futile efforts to make the best of his bizarre plight. The Dunera Boys was originally produced for Australian television; for its American release, it was given an R rating for violence and language. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
All the Rivers Run is a four-part miniseries set in the Australia of the early 1900s. Sigrid Thornton stars as Philadelphia Gordon, an English artist who undertakes a tragic move to Australia with her family. During their voyage to the new continent, a shipwreck occurs, killing all but Philadelphia and one of the ship's crewmen. She is then shuttled off to live with her aunt and uncle on their farm, and uses her inheritance to fund a paddleship business with the crewman from the vessel who saved her life. Philadelphia's life is forever altered when she meets handsome frontier paddleboat skipper Brenton Edwards (the Australian actor John Waters -- not to be confused with the iconoclastic American director of the same name). Our heroine marries Edwards, but the union begets trouble when their paddlesteamer catches fire, destroying the craft altogether and forcing Brenton to take another job. Later, an accident that renders Brenton lame forces Philadelphia to work hard and support the couple; she then decides to rebuild the vessel while doubling up her efforts as a painter. Scripted by George Miller (the director of Man from Snowy River), All the Rivers Run was released in the U.S. over the HBO Cable service; it first aired January 15 through 18, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sigrid Thornton, John Waters, (more)
- 1984
Technical flaws abound in this "punk" movie about an imaginary, 21st-century ghetto in Melbourne, Australia created by white-color, middle-class suburbanites to contain all the wild and wooly nonconformists in their society. At the center of ghetto life is a pub that features Sarah (Maryanne Fahey) and Bear (Michael Bishop), by night slamming the suburbanites and by day carrying out covert operations on the outside as the daring Cisco and Pancho. In that guise, the Bear dons various personas, such as that of a government minister, and announces radical changes to the citizenry: children should henceforth be painted green, family cars should be buried, and as winter chills the air, citizens are to sleep with ducks. This send-up of the middle-class is uneven and patchy, with acting that is alternately good and bad and lip-synching that is a misnomer -- but at the same time, this haphazard fluctuation in quality seems to fit right in with the theme of the movie itself -- slick just would not capture the point of it all. Future Schlock is here. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary-Anne Fahey, Michael Bishop, (more)
