To get another Powell movie, I had to purchase this film, which is not in the Maltin guide. I've long been a James Mason film, and have admired Helen Mirrin's many appearances in more recent years on PBS and in such excellent films as "When the Whales Came." I was stunned to see before me a certified turkey.
The whole point of the movie, it appears, was to show 23-year-old Mirrin in the buff. It takes an hour to get to that point, and when it arrives it's quite embarrassing. Ms. Mirrin was one of that rare species of starlets who looked better in clothes than without them. And so she prances about and swims and....but what is a film like this doing in 1969? A decade earlier it might have seemed oh-so-exciting, but not smack in the middle of a deluge of post-censorship porn and near porn flicks.
The Australian scenery is nice and well photographed. Mason knows how to act. And that's it! The script is particularly awful. And wait until you see the villain grandma. Perhaps this will become a cult classic. It's certainly bad enough.
The whole point of the movie, it appears, was to show 23-year-old Mirrin in the buff. It takes an hour to get to that point, and when it arrives it's quite embarrassing. Ms. Mirrin was one of that rare species of starlets who looked better in clothes than without them. And so she prances about and swims and....but what is a film like this doing in 1969? A decade earlier it might have seemed oh-so-exciting, but not smack in the middle of a deluge of post-censorship porn and near porn flicks.
The Australian scenery is nice and well photographed. Mason knows how to act. And that's it! The script is particularly awful. And wait until you see the villain grandma. Perhaps this will become a cult classic. It's certainly bad enough.