Bruce Spence Movies

In this 1976 Australian retelling of The Wizard of Oz, two teens are dancing at a rural gathering when the girl Dorothy (Joy Dunstan) is knocked unconscious. In her delirium, she imagines she is hitchhiking to attend the final concert of a rock star known as "The Wizard" (Graham Matters). All the characters from the classic children's tale appear on her journey, transformed into modern-day Australian characters. The Scarecrow is a somewhat dim-witted surfer-lad (in Australian lingo, a "surfie"), a cowardly biker is, of course, the Cowardly Lion, and so on. This musical is not designed for younger children, and is instead suitable for mature teens and young adults. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Two teenagers think they have problems until they come to the rescue of a girl with a fishy story to tell in this teen-oriented comedy. Thirteen-year-old Claire (Emma Roberts) and same-aged Hailey (Joanne "JoJo" Levesque) are two close friends living in Tampa, FL, who are facing a separation in a few weeks -- Claire's mother is a marine biologist who has been given a prestigious new job in Australia, meaning the girls are not likely to see much of each other again. While the girls wonder if there's anything they can do to avoid the inevitable, a storm breaks out and the waves toss an unusual example of sea life into Hailey's swimming pool -- Aquamarine (Sara Paxton), a teenaged mermaid who has some problems of her own. Aquamarine's father is a leader of the undersea world who has arranged for his daughter to marry a boy whom she doesn't care for. It seems Dad doesn't put much stock in the land-locked notion of love, and unless Aquamarine can prove to him that it's real, she will have to go through with the wedding. Claire and Hailey find Aquamarine, and discover that she fortunately sprouts legs when on dry land during the daylight hours; after learning of her romantic dilemma, they decide to help her by teaching her how to turn the head of Raymond (Jake McDorman), a cute lifeguard at the nearby beach. However, pretty Aquamarine learns her lessons well enough to make Cecilia (Arielle Kebbel), a mean girl with a crush on Raymond, jealous, leading her into a battle over the young man's affections, which Aquamarine has to win if she wants to avoid a loveless marriage. Aquamarine was the first feature film from director Elizabeth Allen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Norman Panama's penultimate directorial effort, Barnaby and Me was originally filmed for Australian television. The title character is a talented Koala Bear, who is to Australian fans what Benji is to Americans. Pausing in his escape from a vengeful mobster, American con artist Caesar falls in love with Juliet Mills, whose daughter Sally Boyden keeps Barnaby as her pet. The kooky koala teans up with Caesar for a series of picaresque adventures. It's hardly The Sting, but it's easy to take. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based loosely on a true story, Bullseye takes place in the Australia of the mid-19th century. Disgruntled ranch hand Paul Goddard finds a ray of happiness in his relationship with maidservant Kathryn Walker. But when the maid comes into an inheritance, she takes on highfalutin' airs and breaks off their romance. Almost as an act of consolation, the ranch hand turns to cattle-rustling. Arriving safely in an outback settlement with his stolen cows and bulls, the ranch hand discovers that the maid has arrived in town ahead of him, and that she's been reduced to working in the local bordello. Gallantly, the cowboy decides to rescue the surprisingly still-virginal maid from that fabled worse-than-death fate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alex Proyas (The Crow) directed this noir-styled futuristic thriller, scripted by Proyas, Lem Dobbs (Kafka), and David S. Goyer (The Puppet Masters). Separated from his wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly), amnesiac John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell) awakens alone in a strange hotel to learn he is wanted for a series of brutal killings -- but he can't remember if he did or didn't commit these murders. Indeed, most of his memories have completely vanished, and he becomes the focus of interest for both mad genius Dr. Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland) and sympathetic detective Frank Bumstead (William Hurt). Attempting to unravel the twisted riddle of his identity, Murdoch encounters a group of ominous beings known as the Strangers, shadow-like figures who have a collective memory and possess the ability to stop time and alter physical reality through a process called The Tuning. Focusing their minds, they are able to change the size and shape of the material world. Murdoch manages to stay a step ahead of his adversaries as he slowly jigsaws together the puzzle of his past-bittersweet memories of his childhood, his love for Emma, and the key to the murders -- while following a labyrinth leading to the Strangers' Underworld, a set inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Rufus Sewell commented on the Underworld: "When Alex first sent me the sketches for that set, I was more excited than I had been when I read the script. The Underworld was truly remarkable -- a little bit scary, very thrilling, and full of hundreds of bald people." At the Fox Film Studios in Sydney, Australia, where 50 sets were built, three months were spent constructing the set for the Underworld, the largest indoor set ever built in Australia. The production design by George Liddle (Rapa Nui) and Patrick Tatopoulos (Godzilla, Space: Above and Beyond) is a composite of different styles and eras, combining the look of 1940s Manhattan with German Expressionism. The music is by Trevor Jones (G.I. Jane). The film's dedication reads: "In Memory of Dennis Potter with gratitude and admiration." ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

The Australian Eliza Fraser tries for the wig-and-bodice bawdiness of Tom Jones. The title character, played by Susannah York, is an 18th century lass who is shipwrecked together with Trevor Howard on a remote Australian island. Her lively exploits among the refugees help to make Eliza famous--or rather, notorious--throughout the British empire. Once rescued, Eliza earns her keep at county fairs by regaling audiences with her own tales of her adventures. Tim Burstall both wrote and directed Eliza Fraser from an original screenplay by David Williamson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Moya is guided to the planet Khurtanan for some desperately needed repairs, but none of the planet's mechanics will cooperate unless corrupt local doctor Tumii (Bruce Spence) gives Moya's crew a clean bill of health. Instead, Tumii poisons the crew with the deadly Qatal Mollusk, holding out the antidote unless he is given an enormous bribe. The "good" doctor also strongarms Crichton and Rygel (Jonathan Hardy) into stealing a huge cache of Qatals which are being stored as weapons by a group of resistance fighters. Somehow all this intrigue leads to an incredible sequence wherein the two most aggressively male members of Moya's crew dress up in female drag. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

David Parker directed this campy send-up of Italian muscle-man movies that owes more than it should to Woody Allen's 1966 Japanese spy spoof What's Up, Tiger Lily? In a framing story, two film company executives (Bruce Spence, David Argue) resign from the company to start their own revival theater. They decide to re-open the theater with the same Italian sword-and-sandal epic that closed the theater down years ago. But in revenge for the two employees having quit on him, their ex-boss sends the theater a copy of Hercules -- but in Italian and without subtitles. In order to go ahead with the film screening, the two film entrepreneurs have to improvise a running English soundtrack for the film as it unspools in the projection booth. In their fractured version of Hercules, Hercules is now a nightclub performer who is snubbed by the nightclub owner's daughter Labia, because she is in love with Testiculi. And as the film unspools, the boys in the booth have to keep up the dubbing, no matter if it makes sense on the screen or not. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Dennis Hopper plays the title character in this true story of a 19th-century Australian gold-digger who is pressed into a life of crime. A six-year stint in jail doesn't provide reform, but does introduce him to an Aboriginal partner-in-crime (David Gulpilil). The duo then proceed to terrorize the province of New South Wales with no lack of violence. The TV version was retitled Mad Dog. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

In this standard auto-racing-mixed-with-murder tale from Down Under, a gang steals and then strips cars to sell the parts for profit but meets their match when they literally run into Steve, a young racecar driver, and some tow-truck operators. From that point onward, mangled metal appears on the scene regularly, as Steve pursues his career as well as the people who caused his own father's disappearance. Steve has some help from his father's partner Tom (Max Cullen), and his two pit-stop mechanics (Bruce Spence and David Argue), but his love interest Ruth (Gia Carides) is only a token woman in a nearly all-male world. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide