Charles McCallum Movies
- 1982
Elderly residents of an Australian retirement home fight for their lives after a crazed slasher comes to call in this horror movie. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Kerin, John Jarratt, (more)
Fred Schepsi wrote and directed this tense melodrama which takes place at a Roman Catholic boarding school. The film deals with the charged emotional tensions of a group of pubescent boys, who find their sexual urges stifled by the school's oppressive atmosphere. Depicting the chaste lifestyle of the religious functionaries, the burgeoning sexual desires of the young men are bottled up until they are ready to explode. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Dignam, Nick Tate, (more)
- 1973
British "Goon Show" stalwart Harry Secombe is afforded top billing in the Australian comedy Sunstruck. Secombe plays a teacher who heads Down Under after an unsuccessful romance. Yearning for the good old days when he was a choral director in his British home town, Secombe organizes his Aussie students into a children's choir. Along the way, Secombe finds lasting happiness with down-to-earth local woman Maggie Fitzgibbon. Nothing special here, but it's pleasant to see the bombastic Harry Secombe in a gentler characterization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Brother George (Walter Chiari) is the Italian monk who is the only one who knows the secret recipe of a popular liqueur. When he feels the local wine merchant won't give him a fair price, he moves to Australia. He meets Alfredo Brazzi (Jack Albertson) and the two agree to a partnership to make the liqueur. Alfredo is unaware George is a monk and that he sends 50% of the money back to his Italian monastery. Alfredo and his son-in-law Tim (Dave Allen) constantly try to steal the secret recipe. They recruit June (Rowena Wallace) for their underhanded cause, but she falls in love with George, also unaware of his religious calling. Finally, the Italian wine merchant travels to Sydney, willing to make a deal with Brother George. The merchant ends up paying double the price he had previously rejected in this amusing comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Chiari, Jack Albertson, (more)
Robert Newton repeats his Treasure Island role as Long John Silver in this Australian adventure film--and if anything, Newton is even more out of control this time around than he'd been in the earlier picture. Paying only lip service to the Robert Louis Stevenson original, the film is made up of several marginally related episodes. In the first, Silver rescues a governor's daughter, managing to save the day and crooked line his own pockets in the process. In the second, Long John quells a mutiny and prevents his young friend Jim Hawkins (Kit Taylor) from having to walk the plank. And in the third, Long John and Jim arrive at Treasure Island, where they're forced to duke it out with the minions of Silver's old enemy Mendoza (Lloyd Burrell). Connie Gilchrist costars as Purity, Long John's on-and-off pubkeeper sweetheart. Long John Silver was later sliced up into three separate half-hours and released to TV as part of the 26-episode Long John Silver TV series, which of course also starred Robert "Arr, matey!" Newton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Newton, Kit Taylor, (more)
- 1940
The Little Australians was based on a best-selling children's novel by Ethel Turner. The minimal storyline concerns a group of mischievous Aussie kids, the source of eternal bewilderment for their straight-laced father, Captain Woolcott (Charles McCallum). In the original novel, Woolcott was a stern but not altogether unlikeable chap. The film makes things easier for the audience by retooling Woolcott as an unrelenting villain , assuring that the juvenile characters would come off sympathetically while disturbing the integrity of the source material. Originally released in Australia as a Christmas attraction in 1939, The Little Australians was distributed in the US the following Spring. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles McCallum
