Funny Things Happen Down Under | |
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Directed by | Joe McCormick |
Produced by | Roger Mirams |
Written by | John Sherman |
Starring |
Olivia Newton-John Bruce Barry Ian Turpie Susanne Haworth |
Music by | Horris Dargie |
Cinematography | Roger Mirams |
Edited by | Lindsay Parker Raymond Daley |
Production
company |
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Release date
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Running time
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61 minutes |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Funny Things Happen Down Under is a 1965 Australian/New Zealand musical/family film directed by Joe McCormick. It stars Olivia Newton-John, Ian Turpie and Howard Morrison, and is best remembered today for being Newton-John's first film.
The film centres around a barn that is used by a group of children as a meeting place for singing practice. When the owner of the property comes into financial difficulty and considers selling the barn, one of the children comes up with an idea to raise money. The children dye sheep on his property and market the coloured wool as a naturally occurring phenomenon.
The coloured wool soon becomes sought by buyers all over the world. However, when the coloured wool runs thin, the owner is still in danger of losing his barn. Two station hands sympathetic to the plight of the children decide to help by winning the remaining money in a sheep shearing contest.
The film was a spin-off of the Terrible Ten TV series. It was shot entirely in Victoria, on location near Melbourne and in the studio of Pacific Films.
Olivia Newton-John and Ian Turpie were dating during filming.