The Stop Button

I could have gone forever without knowing the Archers (Pressburger wrote the film under a pseudonym) were capable of such a piece of shit. They’re a Weird Mob is not about gangsters--specifically small time gangsters, which is what I thought--it’s about Australians, as seen by a recent Italian immigrant.

It’s really, really bad.

Oddly, the acting is fine, it’s the writing. I sat through the film blaming the writing without knowing it was Pressburger. I have no idea what happened to him. The insightful, human dialogue that defines the other Archers’ films is missing here. It’s not even a real film, it’s a travel commercial for Australia--where the men drink and the women lose... Oddly, according to what I’m reading, the film’s financial success lead to the creation of an Australian film industry (Australia makes some really good films these days, once they got rid of Weir anyway).

This film is also the last Archers’ film. Pressburger came on to sort on the screenplay issues after Powell signed to do it. John Ford made some bad films, lots of them actually (anything to do with the calvary really), but I always had the Archers on a pedestal. I had thought that Peeping Tom was Powell’s last before the 1970s, that he and Pressburger had already broken up.

I’m glad to point out that this film has no US release--ever, apparently. No VHS, no LaserDisc, no nothing. The UK doesn’t have it either. So it’s only folks in Australia that need fear seeing this film and having all their high opinions of Powell and Pressburger tarnished. It’s a really sad end to the greatest filmmaking duo. Sad....

CREDITS

Produced and directed by Michael Powell; screenplay by Emeric Pressburger, from the novel by John O'Grady; director of photography, Arthur Grant; edited by Gerald Turney-Smith; music by Alan Boustead and Lawrence Leonard; released by Z.

Starring Walter Chiari (Nino Culotta), Clare Dunne (Kay Kelly), Chips Rafferty (Harry Kelly), Alida Chelli (Giuliana), Ed Devereaux (Joe Kennedy), Slim DeGrey (Pat), John Meillon (Dennis) and Charles Little (Jimmy).

Related posts:

• Black Narcissus (1947, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
• The Tales of Hoffmann (1951, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
• The Red Shoes (1948, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
• Australia (2008, Baz Luhrmann)
• Libeled Lady (1936, Jack Conway)