Ray Meagher Movies
- 1989
"Luigi" (David Rappaport) is a Cockney immigrant to Australia, whose job as maitre d' in a high-toned Italian restaurant requires that he take on an ethnic monniker and phony accent. Over time, he has become the confidante of a trio of his customer, yuppie women, all of them friends with each other, who have just lost substantial amounts of money during a sudden drop in the stock market in 1987. Each of them is propelled by this into a series of humorous adventures, including a "rebirthing" session, and an attempted murder (using tainted jam), which they recount to Luigi and to each other over the course of the film. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wendy Hughes, Sandy Gore, (more)
- 1988
Running neck and neck with Neighbors as Australia's most popular TV soap opera, Home and Away debuted January 17, 1988. Set in the resort town of Summer Bay, New South Wales, the series originally concentrated on the lives of the Fletcher family, who had set up a tourist trailer park in the community. Like most other continuing dramas, however, the longer Home and Away remained on the air, the more it focused on younger, more attractive characters than the comparatively middle-aged Fletchers. Created by Alan Bateman, Home and Away was telecast weeknights at 7:00 p.m., attaining the 3,000-episode mark in March 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Vanessa Downing, Debra Lawrence, (more)
- 1987
Set during the Great Depression, this Australian TV movie concerns the adventures of the Fletcher family. Dennis Miller and Judy Morris portray the Fletcher parents, who with their offspring head to the Outback to prospect for gold. The oldest Fletcher boy (Ken Talbot) is bullied by the son (Travis Latter) of another group of prospectors, but soon the boys become friends. When the boys come upon a nugget of gold in a nearby stream, everyone rushes to stake a claim--except for dad Fletcher, who has been incapacitated by an accident and may lose out on the upcoming bonanza. Colour in the Creek was first presented in the US on PBS' Wonderworks series in May of 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1986
Teenager Ellie (Tushka Bergen) is the only child of the widowed physician Neil McAdam (John Hargreaves) in this finely crafted drama, and the two spend their summers at the family cottage on the Australian coast. Ellie is bored and lonely until Margot Ryan (Heather Mitchell) comes to visit her parents who live next door. Ellie develops a close friendship with the 25-year-old woman and soon looks up to Margot, but she feels left out when her father and Margot fall in love. She becomes more upset when a proposed land development is slated to be built on the coastline and threatens the wildlife she has grown to love. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Hargreaves, Heather Mitchell, (more)
- 1986
A mail-order bride learns about life in this Australian made-for-TV movie. A Filipino woman comes to a small Australian town, ready to marry her new groom-to-be. As she becomes increasingly aware of the cultural racism and sexism of the isolated town, she realizes that this new world is not so different from the one she left behind. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
- 1986
Australian aborigine David Kennedy marries white woman Susan Leith and settles down in Sydney. Susan's father, a wealthy businessman, ends up in prison over a botched deal. Without his father-in-law's influence to help him, Kennedy has trouble looking after his family and dealing with big-city life. He returns to his own people, leaving his wife to raise their son by himself. Seven years later Kennedy returns to Sydney, hoping for a reunion with his 12-year-old son. But first he must run the gauntlet of legal obstacles set up by the justifiably embittered Leith. Short Changed was scripted by Robert J. Merritt, himself an aborigine. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Kennedy, Susan Leith, (more)
Blue Lightning stars Sam Elliot as an American private eye operating in the Australian outback. Robert Culp is co-starred as a super-criminal in search of a valuable opal. Culp is forced to fight the ethically suspect Elliot for possession of the gem, while Rebecca Gilling vacillates as the heroine. Written by William P. Kelley, who won an Oscar for Witness but no awards for this, Blue Lightning has the distinct aroma of a busted TV pilot. It was first telecast May 7, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1986
- R
This well-made Australian blend of Jaws and Alligator is a tense, action-packed thriller involving a monstrous crocodile, a tough ranger (John Jarratt), and a team of aborigines who worship the monster as the god "Numunwari." This leads to lots of gory clashes with the reptile, interwoven with some interesting tribal lore surrounding the legendary croc and a subplot involving a psychic connection between the beast and one of the aborigines. The climactic battle puts a sympathetic spin on the plight of Numunwari, believed to be the last of his kind -- but his unpleasant habit of snapping people in half makes it a bit difficult to muster up enough empathy for the monster. Based on a novel by Grahame Webb. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Jarratt, Nikki Coghill, (more)
- 1985
The inspirational autobiogry of A.B. Facey was the source for the four-part Austalian miniseries A Fortunate Life. Spanning the years from 1897 to 1916, the story began when eight-year-old Bert Facey, abandoned by his widowed mother, was forced to work on a farm run by sadistic horse thieves. After several years of backbreaking manual labor, Bert was given a break when he went to live on the farm owned by the Philips family. Conscripted into the Army at the outbreak of WWII, the hero managed to survive the carnage at Gallipoli, and after additional hardships and setbacks, enjoyed a happily-ever-after as the husband of the beautiful Evelyn, a union that would endure for six decades. Facey's book was published in 1981, one year before his death at age 77. The TV version of A Fortunate Life was telecast by Australia's Nine Network in 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1983
In this interesting and well-developed teen adventure movie by Gary Conway, based on a novel by Colin Thiele, Ernie (Paul Smith) and a few of his friends in an opal-mining town in Australia take on the challenge of finding about $300,000 (Australian) in stolen opals. Sophie (Linda Hartley) joins up with the group and chases mercilessly after Ernie, who seems a willing target underneath it all, and Willie (Andrew Gaston) often has his hands full throwing back racist barbs with different degrees of intensity, depending on whether his "detractors" are friends or enemies. Surrounded by his friends and the adventure of discovering the stolen opals, Ernie's real drama lies in trying to work out a failing relationship with a father who has not known a day of responsibility in his life. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul L. Smith, Linda Hartley, (more)
- 1981
Hoodwink is based on the true story of an Australian con artist who briefly won the hearts of the media (if not the authorities). John Hargreaves stars as a criminal serving time in a New South Wales prison. He's not partial to the physical labor required of the convicts, so he hits upon a labor-saving plan. Hargreaves pretends to be totally blind, thus lightening his work load....and carries off the hoax for years. Hoodwink is likely to get some cable-TV play in the near future thanks to the presence in the cast of the young Judy Davis. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Hargreaves, Judy Davis, (more)
- 1981
In this routine but still interesting "B"-movie, Harry (Paul Winfield) is an escaped convict from the U.S. who has found shelter for awhile in Australia, at least until he meets Paul (Beau Cox), an orphan who has just witnessed an assassination. Because of what he saw, Paul becomes the next target of Payette (Rod Taylor) the man behind the assassination (also Paul's uncle). Payette is also ex-con Harry's boss -- throwing Harry and young Paul together as they both try to elude the killer in the scenic landscape and mountains on the outskirts of Sydney. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul Winfield, Rod Taylor, (more)
Breaker Morant is one of the most acclaimed Australian films, telling a powerful tale of wartime betrayal and injustice. Henry "Breaker" Morant (Edward Woodward) is an Englishman living in Australia at the end of the 19th century. When war breaks out in 1899 between Britain and the Boers (descendants of Dutch colonists), Morant and a number of Australians volunteer for duty and are absorbed into the non-regular units of the British army. Acting under orders from his commanders, Morant oversees the execution of several Boer prisoners; it turns out that one of them was German, and in order to keep the peace with Germany, Britain agrees to courtmartial Morant and two other soldiers, sentencing two to death and one to life imprisonment. Based on a play by Kenneth Ross, Bruce Beresford's film is powerfully filmed and acted and has become a classic anti-war movie since its 1980 release; the script (co-written by Beresford) was nominated for an Academy Award. The final execution scene is nearly overpowering in its sense of tragedy and futility. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi
- Starring:
- Edward Woodward, Bryan Brown, (more)
Both actress Judy Davis and director Gillian Armstrong made a big splash on the international scene with this charming Australian film that examines late 19th century Australian society from the perspective of a headstrong woman who refuses to follow convention. The film charts the developing self-awareness of Sybylla Melvyn (Judy Davis) as she grows from an insecure tomboy to a self-assured woman. Sybylla wants to be a writer and stuns her family and friends by her insistence on following her dream. Despite the objections of her family acquaintances, she rejects the marriage proposal from the rich Harry Beecham (Sam Neill) to continue going her own way, in spite of the odds stacked against her in a repressive Victorian environment. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Judy Davis, Sam Neill, (more)
- 1979
In The Odd Angry Shot director Tom Jeffrey provides a cathartic Australian answer to Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter. Australia's participation in the Vietnam War was as much of an alienating and soul-searching experience for Australians as for Americans, and Jeffrey's frank portrayal of a group of Australian volunteers casts the war in a different light from the perspective of a Cimino or Oliver Stone. The story concerns a corp of Australian elite soldiers -- the Special Air Service troops (the equivalent of the United States' Special Forces group) -- and the elite group's more pragmatic and hopeful attitudes -- whiling away the time in mindless diversions and cracking jokes. Then one of their own is killed and their feelings about the war suddenly change. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Graham Kennedy, John Hargreaves, (more)
- 1978
- R
- Add The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith to Queue Add The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith to top of Queue
Based on a novel by Thomas Keneally, which was in turn inspired by actual events, this drama is a shocking indictment of the racism inflicted on the indigenous people of Australia. Jimmie (Tommy Lewis) is a half-white, half-aborigine young man raised by a Methodist minister. Feeling outcast among the aborigines, Jimmie moves to the city and gets a job working for a white family. When a white serving girl at the estate becomes pregnant, everyone is convinced that Jimmie is the father; to spare the girl's honor, Jimmie marries her and is allowed to live with her on the estate. But after the child is born, everyone realizes that the father was a white man, not Jimmie; he is still willing to accept the child and stand beside his wife, but his employers now feel that he married a white girl under false pretenses, and they bar him from the estate. Forbidden to see his wife and fired without receiving his pay, Jimmie finally explodes in a fury of violent revenge. Director Fred Schepisi's original cut of this film runs 122 minutes, though it was more widely distributed in a shortened version running 108 minutes. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tommy Lewis, Freddy Reynolds, (more)
- 1978
Because He's My Friend was directed for Australian television by American TV veteran Ralph Nelson. Karen Black and Keir Dullea play the parents of a mentally retarded teenager (superbly played by Warwick Poulson). The boy's condition effects the marriage both adversely and positively. The film takes on a happier aura when a normal teenager becomes the handicapped boy's close friend. Because He's My Friend is an effective companion piece to the like-vintage Australian TV movie Tim, as well as the 1977 ABC Afterschool Special presentation Hewitt's Just Different. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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