John Murphy Movies

The Portrait, based upon the off-Broadway play by Tina Howe, is a made-for-cable film in which Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall play Gardner and Fanny Church, aging parents of artist Mags (Cecelia Peck). As the film opens, Mags unexpectedly drops in on her parents, hoping that she can complete a portrait she has been working on for her one-woman show. As Gardner and Fanny are the subjects of the portrait, their cooperation is essential, but they pointedly refuse to help their daughter out. Even more surprisingly, it turns out that Mags has arrived as they are in the midst of moving out -- not only out of the family home in which Mags grew up, but out of the entire collegiate community where Gardner has for years been a respected figure. Her parents largely push aside Mags' attempts to find out why they are taking this drastic action, but it soon becomes clear that it involves Gardner, who seems to be entering the first stages of senility. Along the way, Mags discovers a great deal about her parents -- and herself. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

Heat, both climatic and erotic, imbue this Australian thriller from first-time directors Colin South and John Tatoulis. The film takes place in mid-summer in the sweltering city of Melbourne and concerns a love affair between Wendy (Santha Press), a jazz singer, and Mack (Hugo Race), a knife-wielding punk who wants to be a rock star but is planning to rob a bank. Wendy's younger sister, 15-year-old JoJo (Rebekah Elmaloglou), has moved in with Wendy, and she is rapidly becoming sexually aware, because she is secretly observing her sister and Mack as they make love. Meanwhile, two cops -- Dinny (Dominic Sweeney), an inexperienced rookie, and Milas (John Flaus), a weary veteran cop -- are following Mack because he has an audiotape in his possession that shows evidence of government corruption. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

In this docudrama, the menace posed by Australian efforts to ward off terrorist attacks is shown to be at least as great as that posed by the attacks themselves. The story is told by a female German sociologist exploring the expanding power of the state, and her didactic commentary is interspersed with scenes of a hostage situation. Throughout, heavy-handed police responses to the situations they encounter, whether terrorist or not, make everyone look bad. In fact, the police soon deport the German academic as an undesirable. The filmmakers contentions seems to be that Australia is very virtually a police state already. However, the very fact of the film's being made and widely released within the country would seem to contradict that assertion, despite many well-documented abuses by the authorities. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A dramatic story about a houseful of youth with no apparent purpose in life, this film features pounding rock music and attitude problems galore. The main setting is a rundown dwelling in an impoverished district near Melbourne, Australia, where conversations ebb, flow, and overlap much like the lives of the people who live there. Strangers also wander in and out of the premises as life continues, for some, more through an indestructible momentum than any internal driving force. Some of the young people go to school, others do nothing but party, and some take drugs. The police tolerate the residents of the house, even when they burn their television set. Sam (Michael Hutchence) and Anna (Saskia Post) are one of the couples that form among the residents, a mismatched pair whose actions lead to tragedy for Anna and an indictment against hard drugs. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Based on Raymond Radiguet's book of the same (French) title, this erotic film revolves around a September-May adulterous love affair. Unlike the book, the setting is the Australian outback in 1943, and the French heroine Marthe (Katia Caballero) has been legally "quarantined" by the Aussie government for the duration of the war. That is to say, her Italian husband has been put in jail, and she is not allowed to leave the country. After meeting schoolboy Paul Hansen (Keith Smith), sexual sparks ignite a smoldering desire, and the two eventually are engaged in an all-out affair. Rumor and innuendo and Paul's parents notwithstanding, the affair runs its course -- but the tragedy that ends the book has been written out here. As this film was released, director Marco Bellocchio was completing his own 1987 version of the same story, Il Diavolo in Corpo. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Having written the music and screenplay for this film, Paul McCartney also plays himself in the leading role. When the sole copy of McCartney's latest album is misplaced, he must discover its whereabouts in less than 24 hours or else risk losing his recording company to the lowlife Mr. Rath (John Bennett). McCartney performs three new songs, along with a number of classic Beatles' tunes. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Hollywood's Stacy Keach stars in Australia's Road Games. Keach is a truck driver who takes the law in his own hands to capture a serial killer. When the police fail to nab the murderer of hitchhikers, Keach takes to the road, conducting his own search. En route, he picks up hitcher Jamie Lee Curtis--and it is her presence that brings the killer out of hiding and into the bloody finale. Director Richard Franklin's fondness for Hitchcock, which would come to full fruition in Psycho II (1982), is very much in evidence throughout Road Games. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A London newspaper correspondent travels to the colorful town of Dimboola, Australia to write a story, and has many delightful experiences with the locals in this charming, exceptionally well-filmed comedy. For him, the fun begins when he sees that a major wedding is about to occur. For a lark, he dresses up as a woman and crashes the bride's shower. Next he goes to the bawdy stag party and learns all sorts of interesting secrets about the bride and groom. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In Australian director Richard Franklin's Patrick, the subject of psychokinesis is used, not for the creation of De Palma-like bloodbath special effects as in Carrie and The Fury, but as an expression of a deeply disturbed persona. Patrick is first seen in the intensive care section of a hospital in a state of extreme catatonia -- after murdering his mother and her lover. Dr. Roget (Robert Helpmann) is the doctor in charge of the clinic who first tends to Patrick, but when new nurse Kathy Jacquard (Susan Penhaligon) arrives, she is assigned Patrick's case. As she cares for the comatose man, Patrick falls in love with her, telekinetically writing love notes to her on her typewriter. Kathy begins to suspect something is amiss when the doctors and nurses at the hospital who want to speed along the comatose man to his death start to die in mysterious ways. As Patrick's condition continues to deteriorate and he realizes that he is on the verge of death, he then wants Kathy to kill herself to join him when he dies. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi