Ray Marshall Movies

This WW II musical is set in Australia and chronicles the exploits of a nightclub singer and the young Marine who loves her. She works in a Quonset hut turned into a saloon and helps stage shows for battle-weary troops returning from the South Seas. After one performance she holds a small party in her apartment and there meets the Marine sergeant who has just sailed in from Guadalcanal. Although she is married and awaiting the return of her husband, who is also at war, he decides to pursue her. Later she learns that her husband has been killed. Soon after, the Marine confesses that he can no longer handle the violence and has gone AWOL. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this complex teen movie, Vinnie (Vince Colosimo) is a young man whose life is an uphill battle: he is an outcast at school because he cannot get along with either teachers or students, he is a local courier for Mafia-boss Ciccio at night and, when not so occupied, spends his time practicing boxing at the gym. He shares his mother's cramped home in government housing with two other siblings, and his mother's lover -- whom he does not like. He is haunted by images of his father (when just a boy he witnessed his father's murder), and his father's boxing career and Mafia involvement set a pattern for Vinnie's current lifestyle. When Vinnie's music teacher Bonnie (Sandy Gore) enters his life, she encourages him to get involved as a drummer with the school band, while his girlfriend Gloria (Sigrid Thornton) and others influence him to stay away from the Mafia. In fact, there are so many characters that circle around Vinnie's life doing their own thing that the focus tends to thin out -- yet the actors and director Michael Pattinson do the best they can with this slightly overcrowded script. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this uneven children's story, Molly is a talented little dog who can sing for the people who love her -- but is mute when her vocals are required by the more cold-hearted of the human breed. Her new, young caretaker Maxie (Claudia Karvan) has her hands full because the villainous "Old Dan" Garry McDonald is after Molly's melodious talent for his own financial gain -- but then, maybe the circus troupe that has taken Molly and Maxie under their wing will be able to protect them both. Unfortunately, "Old Dan" is such a sinister, psychotic type that the intended sense of adventure in the film is often no more than a sense of the macabre. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This romantic melodrama is based on a novel by Danielle Steele and chronicles a wife's reaction to her husband's run of bad luck. Their troubles begin when she returns home from a business trip and discovers that her husband has been arrested and jailed for raping a woman. Though he tends to philander, he is not a rapist. The only way the wife can cope with the pain is to become an alcoholic drug addict. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Yes, Stir is a prison picture, but don't be put off by the seeming flippancy of its slangy title. Ben Jewson based his screenplay on his own experiences while incarcerated. Jewson spares us nothing: the gleeful brutality of the guards, the sexual outrages in the cells, the grim future in store for those "lucky" enough to be set free. The film culminates in a riot, clearly inspired by TV news footage of Attica. Stir proved an impressive debut for Australian director Stephen Wallace. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In order to raise the money for his "breakthrough" film Breaker Morant, Australian director Bruce Beresford dashed off the guaranteed audience pleaser Money Movers. Terence Donovan masterminds a bank-vault heist that will potentially net his gang 20 million Australian dollars. The scheme predictably goes sour, but this conclusion is reached via a most unexpected fashion. Ed Devereaux, best known to American audiences for his leading-man gig on the TV series Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo, is second billed as "Dick Martin" (no, not the American TV-comic Dick Martin). Money Movers was based on a novel by Devon Minchin. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

ABBA, the spirited Swedish pop-singing group who skyrocketed to fame with their 1974 single "Waterloo," star in this loosely constructed vehicle. The story involves the efforts of a diligent DJ to secure an interview with the group while they're on tour in Australia. Eighteen of ABBA's hits are heard on the soundtrack and seen in grainy 16 mm concert footage, shot in March 1977. ABBA: The Movie was thus filmed some five years prior to the group's breakup. The film's director was Sweden's Lasse Hallström, who later gained infamy for his arthouse success My Life as a Dog (1985). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi