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directed by Bruce Beresford
Australia 1972

 

Before he took up DRIVING MISS DAISY, even before he was one of the MONEY MOVERS, Bruce Beresford was another jobbing Australian director who moved up from short subjects and television with a piece of Ozploitation in THE ADVENTURES OF BARRY McKENZIE, a feature-length adaptation of the comic strip by artist Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna Everage) that skewered both the vulgar Aussie stereotypes and the veiled racism and hypocrisy of the "old country." When his father passes away, Aussie yobbo Barry McKenzie (Barry Crocker, MURIEL'S WEDDING) inherits two-thousand dollars on the stipulation that he travels to England to further "the cultural and intellectual traditions of the McKenzie dynasty." The worries of his mother (Margo Lloyd , THE CHAIN REACTION) are assuaged when his auntie Edna Everage (writer Barry Humphries, SHOCK TREATMENT) decides to go with him to reconnect with the Gorts (BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW's Avice Landone and VENUS IN FURS' Dennis Price) and to look for a friend's daugther Gaylene (Mary Ann Severne) who visited England and went native. While Auntie Edna is looking forward to discovering culture and history, Barry expects to find pommy bastards and he does at every turn. The ones that don't nickel-and-dime him - from an extortionate customs officer (Wilfred Grove) and cab driver (Bernard Spear, YENTL) to a slum hotelier (Q's Spike Milligan) - want to exploit him: from the director (Jonathan Hardy, MAD MAX) of a cigarette commercial and the scheming members of a folk band (singer Julie Covington, ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS' Christopher Malcolm, and Humphries in a second role) to a gangster-like record producer (John Joyce) and Lesley's TV producer ex (Peter Cook, YELLOWBEARD). The Sheilas want a piece of him too - among them commercial actress Caroline Thighs (Maria O'Brien, WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH) and the Gort's simple-minded daughter Sarah (UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS' Jenny Tomasin) whose parents see dollar signs in the Australian heir - but, for all of his bragging to fellow compatriot Curly (Paul Bertram, STRICTLY BALLROOM), Barry is still a virgin and his libido is destined to remain frustrated in a series of misadventures that culminates in a blaze that can only be put out by a den of one-eyed trouser snakes and plenty of Foster's! Featuring a score by The Beatles' first drummer Pete Best who would later score CROCODILE DUNDEE's trip to the Big Apple.

Eric Cotenas

Posters

Theatrical Release: 12 October 1972 (Australia)

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DVD Review: Umbrella Entertainment - Region 0 - PAL

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for the Review!

DVD Box Cover

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Distribution

Umbrella Entertainment

Region 0 - PAL

Runtime 1:48:32 (4% PAL speedup)
Video

1.69:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 6.53 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate

Audio English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
Subtitles none
Features Release Information:
Studio: Umbrella Entertainment

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.69:1

Edition Details:
� Introduction by Dame Edna (4:45)
� Theatrical Trailer (2:17)
� Bonus Trailers
� DVD-ROM - Screenplay PDF

DVD Release Date: October 3rd, 2018
Amaray

Chapters 14

 

 

Comments

Umbrella Entertainment's Ozploitation Classics line DVD is identical to the previous 2008 DVD, itself disc one in a double-disc Chunderama Edition set with the sequel BARRY McKENZIE HOLDS HIS OWN (itself released as a solo edition back in 2008 and presumably coming up as an Ozploitation Classics-branded edition next year). Although the transfer initially seems faded and grainy, detail is actually quite strong in close-ups and colors become bolder in the interior scenes and the London sequences look sharper as well. The Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track is also fairly clean, the best to appreciate Pete Best's score. Subtitles might have been helpful, or at least a glossary track. Extras include an introduction by Dame Edna for a Showtime Australia broadcast, the film's trailer, trailers for other Umbrella titles, and a PDF screenplay.

  - Eric Cotenas

 


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DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

 

Distribution

Umbrella Entertainment

Region 0 - PAL

 




 

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