AustLit

'Probably no race had a more extraordinary effect on a nation than Australia’s 2002 Melbourne Cup. At the heart of this story is a young jockey who loses his only brother in a tragic racing accident just days before the race, then suffers through a series of discouraging defeats before ultimately triumphing in one of the most thrilling sporting finales of all time.'

Source: Screen Australia.

A bleated third film in the series, which sees Mick Dundee tackling gang crime in Los Angeles.

Larry, a palm tree farmer in the Australian outback, learns that his ex-wife has died, and that his daughter Lara is coming to live with him. He wants things to work out, but Lara has a rocky time with Larry's new wife Gladwyn, and their eldest daughter Pearl, as well as Gowd, a school bully. But with the help and love of her father, her new younger sister Opal, and a dog named Thunderwith, Lara begins to find the resources she needs to make a home with this new family.

'n the fabled annals of the Old West, the terrifying legend of outlaw Lightning Jack Kane stands tall. Jack is absolutely, definitely and without argument the fastest gun in the West … or at least that's what Jack Kane likes to think. In fact, he's only a legend in his own mind. But Jack wants to change all that. Jack is a wanted man. Ben wants to be wanted. The rapid fire gunslinger and his silent student are about to discover that America can be a land of great opportunity, and lightning can strike twice - if the law doesn't catch up with them first.'

Source: Screen Australia.

'"Quigley Down Under" stars Tom Selleck [...] as an American sharpshooter who sails to Australia in search of work. A man named Marston (Alan Rickman) has advertised for a long-distance marksman, and Selleck is the best, able to hit targets so far away the camera can barely see them. Selleck is appalled, however, when he discovers that Marston wants to pay him to kill Aborigines. He throws the villain through the window, and starts a vendetta that only ends, of course, with an obligatory showdown in the corral.'

Source:

Roger Ebert review, originally published in the Chicago Sun-Times (via http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/quigley-down-under-1990). (Sighted: 24/9/2014)

Set during World War I, The Lighthorsemen recreates the incidents that led up to the battle for the Middle Eastern city of Beersheba in 1917. The British campaign was stalemated in Palestine when a mere eight hundred cavalrymen rode against thousands of Germans and Turks and captured the desert town, thereby changing the course of history. The story focuses on the heroic deeds of a four-man section of the Australian Lighthorse Regiment and climaxes with the last great wartime cavalry charge. Largely reviled at the time, Wincer's film demonstrates his mastery in shooting equine stories.

In this mini-series, which consciously takes its name from a 1955 western by Anthony Mann, Kate Adamson, a struggling single mother living in Los Angeles, meets, falls in love with, and marries Tom Hannon, a single father who runs an outback cattle station in Australia. Not realising that her new husband has been killed in a plane crash on his way home, Kate arrives at Larapinta to face not only two shocked stepdaughters (who were unaware of their father's remarriage) but also a severe drought and the machinations of her neighbours on the enormous cattle station that borders Larapinta. Resisting her children's desire to return to the United States, Kate resolves to remain and see Larapinta through the drought.

Moran notes in his Guide to Australian TV Series that

The series was aimed directly at a network sale and to that end producer Hal McElroy not only used his writer on the great potboiler Return to Eden, but also cast both Linda Evans and Jason Robards in central roles. The series was shot in Los Angeles and Alice Springs, and even though the budget blew out from an anticipated $4.5 million to $12 million, the series achieved an American network sale to CBS, the first Australian series to do so.

The mini-series also rated well when it was screened in Australia.

Based on the real events that surrounded the life and career of Australia's greatest-ever thoroughbred racehorse, Phar Lap begins with his mysterious and controversial death in the United States. The narrative then flashes back to the day that Phar Lap, despite his lack of pedigree, is purchased on impulse by trainer Harry Telford. Although Phar Lap loses his first races, Telford's faith in the animal is unshakable. Suddenly, the horse becomes a winner, thanks to the love and diligence of stableboy Tommy Woodcock. American promoter Dave Davis arranges for Phar Lap to be entered in several top races, where his long-shot status results in heavy losses for the professional gamblers. Just after winning an important race in Mexico, Phar Lap collapses and dies. While the story never states emphatically that the champion racehorse was 'murdered' by gambling interests, it is certainly implied.

A modernised version of the legend of Rasputin, Harlequin follows an up-and-coming politician, Nick Rast, whose son Alex is ill with leukemia. Into Rast's life comes a mysterious faith healer, Gregory Wolfe: Wolfe seemingly cures Alex, and Rast's wife Sandy falls in love with the mysterious stranger. But Rast's colleagues and enemies both mis-trust Wolfe's influence and crave his power.

The Rast family (whose surname is 'tsar' backwards) share first names with the Romanovs: Nick (Nicholas II), Sandy (Alexandra Feodorovna/ Alix of Hesse), and Alex (Alexei Nikolaevich). Similarly, Gregory Wolfe is named for Grigori Rasputin.

Bailey's Bird followed the adventures of a pilot and his teenage son, running a one-plane airline in Southeast Asia. According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, the series partook of some of the elements of John McCallum's earlier productions for Fauna Productions, 'except that the locale was the waterways, jungles and villages of South-East Asia rather than an Australian national park complete with kangaroos and other native fauna. Nevertheless the series again had a young boy, father and others much in the "kidult" formula of Skippy, with a series of familiar narrative situations.'

An international co-production, the program didn't match the success of Skippy: according to Moran, 'By the late 1970s, adventure narratives even of the kidult variety were no longer being made in 30-minute units, so that Bailey's Bird could only be screened in children's viewing time.'

'The rags to riches story of a young girl, Angela, who becomes a successful model and 'media star'. The film traces the effect her success has on her relationships with the people she knew before she was successful. A person or persons begin to intrude into her life causing her fear and terror. At the climax of the film the suspense tightens as Angela finds herself alone with her persecutor.'

Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 10/2/2014)

Chopper Squad follows the adventures of a helicopter surf rescue team based on Sydney's northern beaches, as they deal with various difficult rescues and occasionally come into close contact with desperate criminals.

The program suffered from long hiatuses between the pilot and series one, and between series one and series two. Furthermore, Don Storey notes, in his Classic Australian Television, that

Unfortunately, the quality of the scripts varied immensely. Some episodes had excellent dramatic narratives, and the viewers would be on the edge of their seats watching the rescue process. Other plots were contrived merely to justify the use of a helicopter, or to show off some other facet of the surf rescue operation, or were just corny. This variation in quality occurred not only from episode to episode, but quite often within an episode.

However, Storey concludes that

If the scripts left a lot to be desired, the same could not be said for the other aspects of the programme. The actors all gave good performances, and the technical quality is excellent by any standards. Extensive external location work was used, with internal sets being kept to a minimum. The camerawork is second to none, highlighting the magnificent scenery of the Sydney coastline to great effect.

Albert Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, notes that 'World distribution rights to the series were bought by Paramount Pictures, which sold the production to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Britain'.

In 1798, young Irish girl Mary Mulvane is convicted of stealing by the British court and sentenced to transportation to Australia. During the journey, she falls for fellow convict Jonathan Garrett, and the pair attempt to start a new life in the brutal penal colony.

Young Ramsay follows the adventures of a Sydney-based vet who becomes disillusioned with his work on the racecourse circuit, and moves to the small, fictional town of Jindarra, where he starts work with the veterinary practice of Jack Lambert (who is semi-retired on the grounds of ill health). It was conceived as family entertainment: neither violent nor explicit, but sufficiently exciting to keep the attention of both children and adults. Ramsay is supported by Julie Lambert (Jack's daughter, nurse, and receptionist) and Ray Turner (local park ranger).

The program begins in media res, with Ramsay already established in Jindarra, and unfolds his background and past experiences slowly, over a number of episodes. According to Don Storey, in Classic Australian Television, Ramsay is 'Not a super-cool type who never puts a foot wrong, but rather a well-rounded personality with successes and failings. He is a very competent vet; sometimes he makes a fool of himself or confuses names but he always makes good under pressure or in an emergency'.

Series one was followed by a two-year hiatus, and significant changes were made to the program for series two, including the re-casting of Ramsay's receptionist (Julie Lambert having been said to have left Jindarra after her father's death) and a stronger focus on happy endings.

According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series, 'Young Ramsay had a heavy stress on good ecological practices and was actively supported by the Victorian Ministry for Wildlife and Conservation'.

A policeman is haunted by recurrent visions of a young girl being murdered during a Black Mass.

Information on the film is difficult to come by, but further information will be added to this record if and when it becomes available.

When the sailing ship United World is almost sunk by a hurricane, the forty teenagers who are sailing in her scramble for the lifeboats, but five are overlooked in the general panic. Along with the ship, they are driven into the lagoon of a mysterious island, Tambu. Here, they find a lost civilisation: the descendants of settlers originally headed for New Holland, who still live an eighteenth-century lifestyle. But they are under the domination of the mysterious Q, a seemingly immortal being who allegedly prolongs his life with the aid of a blue weed obtained from a nearby island, Malo. The five children, with the assistance of the Quinns, a local family, seek to avoid the malevolence of Q, who fears they are a threat to his domination of the island.

The Lost Islands was another production from New Zealand-born Roger Mirams, who was also responsible for such Australian television programs as The Terrific Adventures of the Terrible Ten, The Magic Boomerang, The Adventures of the Seaspray, and Spyforce.

The success of Cash and Company was such to warrant a continuation of the series, but Serge Lazaroff (Sam Cash), considering that his character had developed as far as it plausibly could, quit the series, and Homestead Productions decided instead on a quasi spin-off, Tandarra (named for character Jessica Johnson's homestead).

The tension in Tandarra was generated by the character of Ryler, a bounty hunter who entered Cash and Company in the final episode. Ryler was played by Gerard Kennedy, capitalising on his success in Crawford Production's Hunter and Division 4. According to Don Storey in Classic Australian Television,

Tough, resourceful and professional, Ryler poses a far greater threat to Cash and Company than the incompetent Keogh, to the extent that they must question their future together. As Ryler traces Sam and Joe to Jessica's homestead, the trio decide to split up and the final scene shows Sam and Joe parting company and riding away in different directions.

Tandarra picks up from this point, with Ryler tracking Brady to Jessica's homestead, Tandarra. However, when Ryler manages to cross Lieutenant Keogh (who makes his last appearance here), he becomes convinced of Brady's innocence, and remains at Tandarra. Thus, this program mirrors Cash and Company in its positioning of a central trio against the corrupt forces of law and order, but with Sam Cash negated not only in ongoing storylines but also in the occasional flashbacks to Brady's earlier adventures.

Albert Moran says of the series in his Guide to Australian TV Series that 'this Australian western had thieves, soldiers, gamblers and a medley of other familiar types. Its episodes were equally familiar but reaosnable viewing all the same.' Like its predecessor, the series also sold well overseas.

A bushranging adventure series, conceived by Patrick Edgeworth (a British-born script-writer who had arrived in Australia in 1969 and begun working for Crawford Productions) and Russell Hagg (then script editor for Crawford's Matlock Police) to counteract the comparative absence of historical programs on Australian television. Though the ABC did begin airing Rush shortly before Cash and Company aired, Don Storey notes in Classic Australian Television that 'Unlike Rush, Cash & Company was conceived purely as an escapist adventure series. Although the stories are based on fact, they make no attempt to recreate any authentic events. However, much research was done to ensure the settings, costumes and props faithfully recreated the period'.

The series follows bushrangers Sam Cash and (American) Joe Brady, the sympathetic widow Jessica Johnson, and their nemesis, Lieutenant Keogh. According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, Cash and Brady (who have a 'cavalier attitude towards mining licences and other people's sheep') are 'rough diamonds from the wrong side of the track but more masculine and attractive to the horeseriding quasi aristocrat Jessica Johnson than is Keogh'.

However, Storey counters that the 'Contrary to the entry in Moran's Guide To Australian TV Series, Cash & Company is not about their "cavalier attitude to mining licences and other people's sheep".' Instead, he argues, 'Cash & Compan reflects the view that not all outlaws were necessarily bad, but were sometimes reasonable men who were persecuted and driven outside the law by the law itself -- as administered by ruthless officials'.

Storey also notes (in support of this claim) that critics, who were positive about the series, didn't compare it to Rush, but to prior positive depictions of outlaws, such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) or the long-running Richard Greene series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-1959).

Cash and Company was sold to the United Kingdom, Sweden, Holland, Yugoslavia, Ireland, Norway, and Nigeria, and screened at the Cannes Film Festival. It was successful enough to warrant a second 13-episode series, but Serge Lazaroff's decision to quit the series prompted instead the production of the quasi spin-off Tandarra.

The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection includes the following character notes:

'GRAHAM COTTON: Late 20's. Rich, arrogant, rude, is forced into violence. Must drive.

'SUE PALMER: Mid 20's, attractive. Well-bred, involved in white-slaving with Cotton. Was blackmailed into it. Must drive.

'ALAN CHOU: Taiwanese. Mid 30's. Runs white slave business. Ruthless. Must drive.

'JENNY PERKINS: 14. White-slaving victim. Thinks she is just being taught to dance.

'LESTER: Sue's fiancee. 20's. Solid citizen. Bit fiery. Must drive.

'MR. PERKINS: Jenny's father. 50'ish. Puritanical, doesn't understand his daughter.

'PATTI: Young hippie girl.

'STAN: Shopkeeper. About 40. One scene.

'CONSTABLE: Few lines, one scene. Must drive.'