Angela Punch McGregor Movies
A veteran actress of stage and screen who has done everything from playing Anthony Hopkins' wife to teaching the tricks of the trade to a young Cate Blanchett, Angela Punch McGregor has endured the difficult middle-age years (in which many actresses are frequently discarded in favor of their notably younger or older counterparts) to become one of Australia's most respected thespians. From her first role as a runcible spoon in The Owl and the Pussycat, the aspiring actress inherently know that the spotlight was for her. Enamored with drama teacher Ross MacGregor as she refined her skills on the stage, young Punch eventually embarked on an enduing post-student/teacher romance after attending NIDA and later spotting her former coach in the audiences of one of her shows. Bringing her stage skills to the small screen in the early '70s, Punch MacGregor appeared in such television series as Class of '74 and Alvin Purple before making her film debut in 1978's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith. Remaining true to her stage roots, Punch MacGregor appeared as Juliet to Mel Gibson's Romeo shortly after the release of Mad Max, a role that earned her the ire of many star-stricken schoolgirls. (She claimed that the young girls frequently applauded as she drove the dagger into her chest during the play's emotional climax.) Through the '80s, Punch MacGregor appeared in such outback exports as The Best of Friends (1981) and The Delinquents (1989) (in which she played Kylie Minogue's mother) and though her onscreen career would wane somewhat in the '90s, she remained a notable stage fixture until stricken with an unexplained illness in a 1995 production of Nick Enright's Blackrock. Although she at first suspected leukemia, she later traced the ailment to an overexposure to antibiotics, a discovery that lead her to take a four-year course on natural medicine and open a part-time clinic in her home. Punch MacGregor later claimed that her momentary departure from the stage was also driven, in part, by insecurity and career burnout, but the turn of the millennium once again found her back on-stage in a production of Great Expectations and stepped back in front of the lens for director Alkinos Tsilimidos' Missing Tom (2004). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1980
- R
The Island, a turgid action drama directed by Michael Ritchie, revolves around the adventures of Maynard (Michael Caine), a newspaper reporter who tries to solve the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. Maynard, and his son crash-land on a remote island ruled by a gang of pirates who kill anyone who intrudes there. From beginning to end, The Island is slow, uninvolving and very bloody. The terrible script by Peter Benchley, who also wrote Jaws, is jagged and the dialogue is cliched. The film was an economic disaster and is only of interest because of a good score by Ennio Morricone. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Caine, David Warner, (more)
- 1980
A mid-air jet disaster leaves the one survivor to avenge the deaths of the others. This supernatural thriller follows him on his search for the bomber that caused the disaster. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Powell, Jenny Agutter, (more)
- 1981
Melanie (Angela Punch McGregor) is a television talk-show hostess who is missing the excitement of a new romance in her life -- and has been in that state for a few months now. When she and her good buddy Tom (Graeme Blundell) get together for a dinner at her place to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their friendship, they have enough wine to accidentally end up together in her bed, and nature takes over from there. When they wake up in the morning, Melanie wants to forget everything and go back to their easy-going friendship, while Tom disagrees -- he rather likes the new situation. It does not take long for Melanie to discover that her solitary slip-up has gotten her pregnant. She wants the baby but is definitely averse to marriage, while Tom wants to make the baby legitimate. In the end, the two compromise by moving in together -- though the truce does not last for long. As their relationship bounces back and forth, Melanie -- in her sixth month -- agrees to get married. But then the couple have a dust-up on the night before the wedding and they split -- will that be for good? Will their final choice be marriage or friendship or a steady animosity -- or all three? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angela Punch McGregor, Graeme Blundell, (more)
Even today, the Australian outback (the never-never of the title) is a daunting place to be left alone. In 1901, it was even more rugged and wild. In this artful drama, Jeannie Gunn (Angela Punch McGregor), a very genteel and citified Victorian-era newlywed, joins her husband in the Northern Territory to help manage a station ("station" is Aussie for "a large ranch"). There she gradually sheds her prim ways and, thanks to her friendship with the local Aborigines, becomes a representative of an entirely new class, sometimes called "Australian outback women." In addition to chronicling the transformation of a Victorian woman, this film offers insight into the situation of Aborigine society at the time, and it received high praise from Australian reviewers. It is based on the diaries of Jeannie Gunn herself. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angela Punch McGregor, Arthur Dignam, (more)
- 1984
This emotional true story is about Annie O'Farrell (Tina Arhondis -- who suffered brain damage at birth and as a result was later institutionalized with other children like herself, physically unable to mature past the age of 8 or 9, even though in chronological years they are much older. When therapist Jessica Hathaway (Angela Punch McGregor meets Annie for the first time, her interactions with the girl tell her that she has been misdiagnosed. Convinced that Annie's mind is functioning perfectly well, Jessica runs up against solid opposition from Annie's parents and has to bide her time until the girl reaches the age of 18. At that point, Jessica obtains an injunction to get Annie released from the home -- and begins her own session of therapy. Due to the non-fictional content of the film, the disagreements between Jessica and Annie's parents are sidelined, and, as in many other films of this type, the unusual court battles and subsequent change in the disabled patient are dramatic but not in keeping with the day-to-day reality of patients and clinical staff working to make small steps towards progress -- with never a chance for any miraculous recovery in the vast majority of cases. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Drew Forsythe, Tina Arhondis, (more)
- 1984
This unexciting story is about a woman who leaves her husband for an interlude of illicit romance and crime. The film begins with two parallel sequences: the fashion model Christine (Angela Punch McGregor) is at home, bored with her married life to Peter (Louis Jourdan) a wealthy businessman, and while those scenes play out, a silver-suited biker is on the prowl. Soon the biker steals a Rolls and follows Christine home, where in quick order they trash her house, take off together, and later rob a post office dressed as clowns. As the film cuts between Peter, Christine, the biker, and Peter's secretary, it is difficult to tell who really has the upper hand, who is actually in control, and who is being manipulated. Unfortunately, this guessing game becomes less interesting as the events in the film become less plausible, and the lack of surprises or shocking scenes -- especially to modern audiences with well-constructed shock absorbers -- makes for a dull 90 minutes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diana Craig
- 1985
Made for Australian television, Whose Baby? is based on a true story. Angela Punch-McGregor stars as a young mother who suffers from grave misgivings after leaving the hospital with her newborn baby. She suspects that the child isn't hers, and that the hospital has inadvertently switched her infant with someone else's. Part one of this two-part drama establishes her trepidations; part two delineates the official cover-up and subsequent litigation. The American premiere of Whose Baby? occurred over the A&E cable network in 1990, five years after the drama was first aired in Australia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
The time is the mid-1950s; the place is a small, conservative town in Australia. Brownie (Charlie Schlatter) and Lola (Kylie Minoque), both well under the age of consent, fall in love. Their parents are dead set against this relationship, and do everything in their power to break it up. Because no one will leave them alone, Brownie and Lola rebel against their elders and embark upon a life of petty crime. Delinquents is based on a novel by Criena Rohan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kylie Minogue, Charlie Schlatter, (more)
Also released as Spotswood, The Efficiency Expert stars Anthony Hopkins as Wallace, a cold-blooded management consultant, infamous for radically "downsizing" every firm he comes in contact with. Wallace's latest assignment is to streamline a small, family-owned shoe factory in Australia. As he gets to know the eccentric (and endearingly inefficient) factory workers, Wallace undergoes a slow-but-sure "humanizing" process. Eventually realizing that he can simultaneously cut costs and preserve the dignity of the workers, he finds a way to modernize the operation without a single firing. In traditional fashion, the main story shares screen time with a romantic subplot involving the factory-owner's son and a female employee. Characterized by many critics as "Capraesque," The Efficiency Expert also bears trace of all those Ealing comedies of the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Ben Mendelsohn, (more)
- 1998
Based on a true story, this drama is set in a ramshackle Australian seaside boarding house inhabited by a disparate group of social misfits and centers on the attempts of its newest residents, a troubled New Zealander and her 5-year-old daughter, to begin a new life. Before moving into Terra Nova, Ruth (Jeanette Cronin) and her daughter Tuesday (Eloise Etherington) lived with her parents. Ruth has psychological problems, but their exact nature and scope remain undefined in the film. The idiosyncratic Margie (Angela Punch McGregor) runs the rooming house. Ruth's fellow tenants include neo-Nazi skinhead Warren (Teo Gerbert); Dud (Trent Atkinson, who becomes friends with Tuesday; Rob, an astrologer; and Dud's strange older brother Simon (Paul Kelman), who is Margie's sometime lover. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanette Cronin, Paul Kelman, (more)
- 2004
A man on the edge of collapse falls into a well of despair in this psychological drama from Australia. Tom White (Colin Friels) is an architect who is emotionally reaching the end of his rope. Edgy, confused, and losing touch with reality, White finds himself obsessively working on a project from which he was removed weeks before, and his hands shake so badly he can barely hold a pencil. Tom's superiors suggest he should spend a few days away from the office to regain his bearing, but instead of returning home to his wife (Rachael Blake) and children, he goes on a bender. After getting beaten in a fist fight, he wanders into a gay club and strikes up a conversation with a hustler named Matt (Dan Spielman). Matt lets Tom stay at his flat for a few days before Tom moves on and drifts into an affair with Christine (Loene Carmen), who runs a carnival-sideshow shooting gallery. Tom sinks deeper and deeper into hopelessness and depression, and eventually finds himself living on the streets and running with Jet (Jarryd Jinks), a troubled teenager who blots out his misery by sniffing glue. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
