John Clayton Movies

Jazz pianist Diana Krall performs a stellar set of old standards and pop favorites in this home video, recorded live during Krall's 2001 European tour. Krall plays 17 songs, including "The Look of Love," "Cry Me a River," "A Case of You," "'S Wonderful," "All or Nothing," and "Devil May Care." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The daily, 30-minute Australian soap opera Echo Point was set in the fictional town of the same title. Created by John Edwards, Sandra Levy, and Christopher Lee (not the horror film actor), the series divided its time equally between the "young" and "old" characters, whose individual trials and tribulations somehow always managed to converge. The cast included onetime child star Sean Scully (Almost Angels, The Prince and the Pauper) and the ubiquitous Rowena Wallace. A Southern Star production, the 130-episode Echo Point was seen on Australia's Ten Network from June 5, 1995 to December of that same year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A small desert town in western Australia is the scene of several love affairs in this romantic drama. Forty-year-old Stella (Wendy Hughes) works at her father's hotel and bar. She receives annual New Year's marriage proposals from rodeo rider Andy Ford (John Hargreaves), who talks himself into asking her one more time. Stella's father Billy (Norman Kaye) is a former cricket star whose career ended early when he was involved in a sex scandal. She spends the night with vacationing Arthur (Michael Siberry) when his car breaks down. Andy elects not to pop the question to Stella in lieu of her one-night stand with the stranger. When Billy elects to marry June Thompson (Julie Nihill), the local gossipmongers have a field day recalling the woman's promiscuous past. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Debuting in May 1989, the Australian TV soap opera E Street was designed as a "hip," youth-oriented variation of the long-running continuing drama A Country Practice, featuring one of the stars of the earlier series, Penny Cook. Set in the inner-city community of Westside, the daily 50-minute series cast Cook as dedicated general practitioner Dr. Ellie Fielding. Other regulars included beat cop George Sullivan (Les Dayman); George's rebellious teenaged daughter Alice (Marianne Howard); feisty legal-aid lawyer Sarah McKillop (Katrina Sedgwick), who was abruptly killed off six months into the series; Sarah's rather sexier replacement, Jennifer St. James (Virginia Hey); social worker Martha O'Dare (Cecily Polson); pub keeper Ernie Patchett (Vic Rooney) and his hotheaded son Chris (Paul Kelman), who was forced via an unwanted pregnancy to wed snooty socialite Megan Bromley (Lisabeth Kennaly); and the series' most popular character, "cool" Reverend Bob Brown (Tony Martin), who like most of the adults on the program was saddled with a contentious offspring, namely his son Harley (Malcolm Kennard). Whenever the ratings flagged -- as they did when Ellie Fielding was written off the series -- the producers hauled in another Country Practice alumnus, notably Kate Raison as rich-bitch dowager Sheridan Sturges and Joan Sydney as Ernie Patchett's sister Mary. The series also indulged in the time-honored practice of sweeping the boards clean by having several characters killed off at once in a single tragedy (an explosion, an auto accident, etc.) so that a whole new flock of younger, prettier regulars could be introduced. By the time the series entered the home stretch, most of the stories focused on a crippled rock singer named Wheels (Marcus Graham) and his entourage. Created by Forrest Redlich, E Street chalked up 404 episodes before its cancellation in 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Certain films were clearly made before their time, others, such as this one, delve into a genre obviously well past its heyday. In this story, Ross is a young Australian man who has decided to drop out of his everyday life in order to come to grips with himself in the surfing scene. As he is leaving in his car for the coast, he has a confrontation with a gang of crazed bikers which leaves one of the nutso lads' bikes on the scrap-heap. This does not sit well with them, and they vow revenge. While the bikers prepare to track him down and make him pay for his violation of their integrity, Ross is on the beaches finding himself. Had the surfing footage been more exciting, or the bikers been more believably menacing, viewers might have forgiven the filmmakers for taking another pass at the "surfers vs. bikers" theme. Instead, reviewers noted that unintended laughter punctuated the screenings they attended. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Damon Kennedy (Tamblyn Lord) is a rich kid who falls in with a trio of teen thugs in this violent exploitation film. When the trio brutally attacks Damon's girlfriend and her family, he seek vengeance against the thugs. The boys rob and kill a wealthy businessman and his family, putting Damon on the wrong side of the law. Damon later justifies his violence as good training that will help him in the ruthless world of business. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

"Everlasting Secret Family" is the name of a sub-rosa homosexual brotherhood in this riveting Australian film. Two of the ESF members are a middle-aged politician (Arthur Dignam) and a boarding-school student (Mark Lee). The younger man begins chafing at the "plaything" status imposed upon him by the older members of ESF. His resentment culminates in a battle of wills between himself and the senator's politically expedient "straight" wife (Heather Mitchell). Dispensing with subtlety, Everlasting Secret Family suggests that, like the so-called mainstream political scene, the gay lifestyle can become a dangerously manipulative power trip in the wrong hands. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

Ron (Jon Blake), a young man in his late teens or early 20s, but emotionally younger, has no visible, employable assets, including the ability to articulate, yet he rails at his status in life -- blaming everyone for the fact that his dreams are not coming true. Actually, his main dream is driving down the highway in a Porsche with a sophisticated woman in the passenger seat -- and in this dream, an ominous-looking black limousine just ahead of him starts swerving back and forth and finally dives off the edge of a cliff. In order to fulfill his fantasy, he steals a Porsche and takes off down the road. While on his joy ride, he stops at a roadside eatery and meets the errant Sally, who is on her way to retrieve her baby from a pair of foster parents. The two set off together, and nothing at all goes their way -- Sally fails in her mission, Ron runs down a policeman then has to get rid of Sally and devise some way to escape the law -- now after him in force. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Ginger Meggs (Paul Daniel) is a young "Dennis the Menace" who first appeared in Australian comic strips in 1921. In this film meant for the pre-teen set, Ginger is constantly getting himself in trouble in spite of his good intentions -- at the same time, he prevaricates, he disobeys his teachers and parents, he skips school, or while in school, fights it out with the bullies -- all activities that are bound to capture the attention of children who can vicariously enjoy the forbidden behavior. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

After a particularly bitter argument with her divorced mother, teenager Libby Bellow (Mare Winningham) runs away from home. Eventually, she links up with a traveling carnival and takes on a variety of responsibilities, in so doing coming to the realization that her life at home might not have been so bad after all. In addition to serving as an early showcase for actress Mare Winningham, this made-for-TV film also features a number of original songs by Janis Ian. Freedom was originally telecast by ABC on May 18, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Australia was a powerhouse in world swimming competitions long before the U.S.'s Mark Spitz was a gleam in his father's eye. Foremost among these sports heroes was high-spirited Dawn Fraser, who won four gold medals at three Olympics (1956, '60 and '64). This clear-sighted biographical drama explores Fraser's life before, during and just after her competitive years. Fraser was forever getting herself into trouble, and she consistently rebelled against authority. Among the many dramatic events which marked her career, she was banned from Australian swimming for 10 years after stealing a flag during the Tokyo ('64) Olympics. The movie underscores her strong family ties and her attachment to Balmain, the working-class suburb of Sydney she grew up in, which makes her later career as a Member of Parliament for the area easier to understand. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide