Anthony Buckley Movies

A young man has a hard time getting crime to pay better than honest work in this comedy-drama from Australia. When Jack Flange (Alex O'Lachlan) gets word that his sister Nikki (Claudia Harrison) has been in a serious auto accident, he leaves his home in Sydney and travels to the small seaside community where she lives. Money is tight for Nikki, so Jack looks for a job to help out; however, the best he can do is working for Brownie (David Field), who runs an oyster farm with his father Mumbles (Jim Norton). Jack soon learns that oyster farming is tough, physically punishing work, and while Brownie would be a difficult boss on the best of days, the fact that his ex-wife Trish (Kerry Armstrong) has opened a competing business has made matters significantly worse. Wanting more money and less labor, Jack steals a cache of money from an armored car, and to help cover his tracks mails the cash to himself. However, when the money never arrives in the mailbox, Jack wonders if someone has made off with his ill-gotten gains -- and if the law might be after him. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Australian novelist Robert Carter adapted and directed his own novel for this low-budget Australian drama about a teen in therapy. Loner Harris Berne (Matt Day), age 17, develops a crush on divorced Helen (Rhondda Findleton) while baby-sitting her two children. But during play one day, the little girl hides in a refrigerator and dies. Harris is sent to a halfway house where he encounters incest victim Angela (Michela Noonan), mute by choice, and psychiatrist Sam Lejeune (John Waters), who helps Harris come to grips with his problems. Shown at the 1998 Karlovy Vary Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Since Sky Trackers was produced on behalf of the Disney Channel cable service, we shouldn't be surprised that the principal characters are three children. When an extraterrestrial satellite crash lands in the Australian outback, the kids search for survivors. The plot thickens when it is learned that the aliens may be carrying a deadly virus. Pamela Sue Martin and Paul Williams are top-billed as the two adult doctors who try to find the kids before the kids can be exposed to the space capsule. Sky Trackers was first telecast in the US on May 27, 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Australian-British co-production was based on the historical novel by Ronald McKie. In the last months of WWII, a group of 14 intrepid British and Aussie soldiers combined forces for a daring and dangerous mission. "Operation Jaywick" was designed to cripple the Japanese naval fleet in Singapore harbor. With only a few rickety wooden boats, a handful of weapons, and a surplus of guts at their disposal, the title characters set about to complete their mission and return home in one piece. A collaboration between TVS and Ten Network, the four 60-minute episodes of The Heroes aired in England in 1989. Three years later, many of the same cast and crew members were reassembled for a sequel, the redundantly titled Heroes II: The Return. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Donald Crombie directed this frothy yarn taking place in Sydney, Australia during the 1920s. Liddy Clark stars as Kitty, an innocent young bride who becomes the owner of the raucous Top Hat nightclub with the assistance of a crooked cop. The story revolves around waterfront crime queens Kitty and Big Lil Delaney, and their attendant pimps, lovers, and "bagmen" (corrupt cops who are middlemen between the police and the crooks). The two adversaries engage in spirited dock side brawls, hair-pulling fights, street shoot-outs, and frenetic car chases. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This satiric drama was based on a popular stage play by Australian author Patrick White. Status-seeking suburbanites Doris and Humphrey Bannister (Ruth Cracknell and John Frawley) are shocked and appalled when their adult daughter Felicity (Kerry Walker) is sexually assaulted by an intruder. Humphrey is horrified by the notion that she might not be a virgin any more, while Doris insists upon sharing the gory details of Felicity's troubles with all of her friends. Felicity, however, is a plain, sad, and chunky young woman who seems almost glad to have some new excitement in her life; inspired by her attack, Felicity dons a black leather outfit and goes on a prowling career of her own, breaking into houses and attacking men in public parks. The Night of the Prowler was released in Australia under the title Patrick White's The Night of the Prowler. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The "Caddie" in this Australian thriller is not of the golfing variety, but is instead the nicknamed bestowed upon the heroine. Helen Morse plays a barmaid in 1930s Sydney whose husband walks out on her. Left with two kids to raise by herself, Helen struggles to make ends meet without losing her self-respect. Her favorite customer is Takis Emmanuel, who likens Helen to an expensive Cadillac (or "Caddie"). Romance blossoms between the two lost souls. Also appearing in Caddie is ubiquitous Aussie character actor Jack Thompson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

Outback was based on Kenneth Cook's novel Wake in Fright. Gary Bond plays a naive young Australian teacher who is tragically unprepared for his new position in the outback. The community he has been sent to is populated almost exclusively by amoral, primitive toughs, more interested in slaughtering kangaroos and sexual carousing than in such niceties as education or propriety. The methodical shattering of Bond's dearly held values plunge the young teacher deeper into degeneracy. Outback was so graphic in its original Australian version that 15 minutes had to be cut before American distributor Group W would consider touching it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Mason is Bradley Morahan, an Australian artist far away from home and trying to prod his muse in the bowels of New York City. Disgusted with life in the big city, Bradley decides to return to his roots and heads back home to Australia. Once there, he decides to become a Gauguin primitive and sets up shop on a deserted island on the Great Barrier Reef. To his disappointment, however, he discovers the island is populated by a drunken old harridan (Neva Carr-Glyn) and her attractive granddaughter Cora (Helen Mirren). One look at Cora, and Bradley excitedly begins to mix his pigments, offering Cora a job as his model. Soon enough, Cora goes native and poses for Bradley in the raw. Love is, of course, in the air. But just as things seem to being going fine in every way, Bradley's old friend Nat (Jack MacGowran) appears on the island out of the blue and proceeds to rob Bradley blind. Barely recovered from the theft, Bradley must also deal with an irate grandma, who discovers that Cora has been posing nude for Bradley and has been keeping her earnings hidden from granny. Bradley's island paradise is shattered and he finds he has to deal with an old woman threatening to turn him in to the authorities for having a minor pose naked before him and his easel. The character of Morahan was based on real-life Bohemian artist Norman Lindsay, who later became the subject of John Duigan's Sirens (1994). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide