Chris Haywood Movies

Directed by Craig Lahiff, Black and White is a story about bigotry, social injustice, and a real-life murder trial that made Australian headlines in the late '50s. On a December afternoon in 1958, the body of a nine-year-old white girl is discovered in a cave off the coast of Southern Australia. Detective Paul Turner (Roy Billing) quickly arrests a half-aboriginal fair-worker named Max Stuart (David Ngoombujarra), who signs a confession. However, being that Max is illiterate, the legitimacy of the confession is contested by his legal aid representatives, David O'Sullivan (Robert Carlyle) and Helen Devaney (Kerry Fox). Despite the questionable confession, Max is found guilty by the all-white, all-male jury, and sentenced to be hanged. O'Sullivan lodges a series of appeals, but no conclusive evidence of Max's guilt or innocence has been found to this day. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Australian singer and songwriter Paul Kelly stars in (and wrote part of the musical score for) this unusual musical, which combines folk and country influences with the aboriginal sounds of the Outback to tell the story of a lost child and the divergent efforts to find her. A simple farmer (Paul Kelly) and his wife (Kaarin Fairfax) are the proud parents of a beautiful little girl (Memphis Kelly). One night, Father tells the girl a bedtime story in which dreamers answer the siren song of the moon; fascinated by the story, the restless girl wanders out of the house in the night to follow the moon, and in the morning her parents discover she is gone. After the father reports his daughter missing, the authorities put together a search party, including Albert (Kelton Pell), an Aborigine police offer with remarkable tracking abilities. The farmer, however, is a prejudiced man, and objects to having a black man on the search team, no matter what his abilities may be. Offended, Albert leaves the police force behind, and sets out to find the girl on his own; soon, the girl's mother joins him, convinced that Albert's knowledge is more valuable than her husband's ignorance. Produced for Australian television, One Night the Moon received its American premier at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Coma meets Heathers in this Australian black comedy about crime, revenge, and kidney thieves. Brad (Matt Day) and Gregor (Jason Barry) are eager med students struggling to make ends meet. Thanks to government cutbacks, they are forced to share a cockroach-infested one-bedroom apartment, which they rent from their odious landlord (Reg Evans), and they're even forced to share the same bed (an inflatable sex doll in a nurse's uniform divides the mattress and reasserts their nervous heterosexuality). Their living situation is made even worse by their obnoxious neighbors; one guy who lives upstairs (Robert Carlton) engages in loud parties and noisy lovemaking at all hours of the night while another guy's car alarm constantly goes off. Unable to sleep or eat, much less study, the two are on the brink of giving up their studies. To make matters even worse, they are up to their stethoscopes in debt to gangster/western-enthusiast George Roy Rogers (Chris Haywood). Though his penchant for cheesy western memorabilia and silly hats seems a bit daft, he is deadly serious about collecting, and his two muscle-bound thugs Dale and Trigger are hell-bent on enforcing the debt. Brad and Gregor's luck changes when they learn of a noted surgeon, Marcus Browning (Rod Mullinar), who is willing to pay top dollar for organs, just before a sharply-dressed yuppie takes a flying leap and splatter-lands at their feet. Thinking quickly, Brad yanks out a kidney, crams it in an ice cream carton, and carries it over to Browning. Counting their cash, they realize that they have happened upon a neat little way of getting out of the red. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

While visiting a commerce planet, Crichton (Ben Browder) falls under the power of vampiric sorceror Maldis (Chris Haywood). Transported to a metaphysical limbo, Crichton ends up locked in gladitorial combat with his mortal enemy, Capt. Crais (Lani Tupu) It is up to Zhaan (Virginia Hey) to save Crichton and vanquish Maldis--but the personal price for her bravery may be more than she is willing to pay. "That Old Black Magic" originally aired on June 11, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The wonderful performances of three developmentally challenged teenage actors placed House Gang several cuts above the usual Australian sitcom. The plot got under way when builder Mike Wilson (Chris Haywood) went bankrupt, forcing him to give up ownership of his house. With nowhere else to go, Mike and his contentious 15-year-old daughter Chloe (Jocelyn Rosen) decided to move in with their tenants: a trio of handicapped young adults named Belinda (Ruth Cromer), Trevor (Saxon Graham), and Robert (Chris Greenwood), and their special-ed teacher Jack (Jeanette Cronin), who had an iconoclastic streak a mile wide and who loved motorbike racing. At first appalled by their new roommates, the Wilsons soon discovered that they had a lot to learn from the industrious, well-adjusted Belinda, Trev, and Robert, who in many ways were the cleverest and most resourceful characters on the show. Created by Diana Emry, Gaby Mason, and Craig Pearce, the 12 episodes of House Gang were originally telecast in Australia from 1996 to 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This German film consists of six separate vignettes each created by a different international director, each challenged to create brief erotic scenarios. The first, named "Wet," was directed by Bob Rafelson and involves an encounter between a bathroom fixtures salesman and a customer who comes after hours to sample the hot tubs. The next, "The Dutch Master," directed by Susan Seidelman, follows a modern woman's obsession with 17th century Dutch painting and who eventually enters it to fulfill her dreams. The third, "The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch," is Ken Russell's entry and tells the story of a young novelist who becomes obsessed with a highly-sexed woman addicted to auto-erotic pursuits. A young man gets what he wants after a voodoo woman grants his wish involving a hot woman and a motorcycle in the fourth episode directed by Melvin Van Peebles. Number five, "Touch Me," by Paul Cox follows the amorous friendships of women. Finally the sixth episode, "The Cloud Door," from Mani Kaul, involves a beautiful princess locked in a palace by a religious fanatic, a lascivious parrot, and a handsome young man. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This Australian drama, based on the novel Priest Island by E.L. Grant, tells the tale of a man exiled to a lonely island after he is caught stealing sheep. The story is set in an unnamed time in an unknown time. Peter had been stealing the sheep to pay the dowry for his beloved, Jean. He is sentenced to spend his life on an uninhabited island with only a few simple tools. If he leaves the island, he will be killed. While he learns to survive, Jean is forced to marry another. She gets pregnant but loses the baby during childbirth. Mary is a servant at the local inn. She is curious about the rumors of a good looking man exiled on a nearby island. She goes to the island with some chickens and a goat. Though Peter still mourns the loss of Jean, he and Mary soon become lovers. Mary bears him a son. Later a priest comes to baptize the child and marry the couple. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Michael is the extremely impoverished nephew of George, a wealthy mining magnate. Not only is he poor now, but he grew up poor. Michael has reason to believe that his uncle cheated him of his inheritance from his father's share in the family mining operation. Michael is concerned about taking care of a mentally handicapped brother and a half-brother who is part aboriginal. George, when confronted, indicates that whatever the facts of the case are, he isn't letting go of a penny. Michael decides to kidnap George's granddaughter for ransom. The snatch takes place while the girl's aunt, a Polish nun, is visiting her mother (the nun's sister), who is not well. She gets caught up in the abduction as well, and a relationship develops between the angry young man and the otherworldly religious woman. She only knows that he seems like a ruffian, and she expects to be raped. He just wants her to be respectful of him. The situation brings on a degree of personal intimacy neither of them has anticipated. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This grim drama examines the situation of Aya (Eri Ishida), a Japanese war bride living in Australia in the late forties. Her husband has little use for her cooking or her company, aside from sex, but a family friend who also knew her during the war offers a more generous form of companionship. Perhaps he would have married her, too, but he's probably homosexual. Later, she has an affair with a Japanese/Australian and conceives a child. Her attempt to abort the fetus lead her to a particularly repellent abortion doctor. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Greek Irene Papas, Australian Eva Sitta and Sri Lankan Anoja Weerasinghe all meet while vacationing on a tiny Greek island. The threesome discovers that each is a fugitive from an oppressive, unhappy private life. The protective nature of the Island is personified by deafmute native Chris Haywood, who accidentally kills a man who has been annoying Sitta. Having been sheltered from their pasts by the Island, the three ladies conspire to return the favor by hiding Haywood from prosecution. Produced by an Australian firm, The Island was lensed on location on the Aegean isle of Astypalea. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide