Harlequin (film)
| Harlequin | |
|---|---|
Theatrical film poster under alternate title
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| Directed by | Simon Wincer |
| Produced by | Antony I. Ginnane |
| Written by | Everett De Roche |
| Starring |
Robert Powell David Hemmings Carmen Duncan Broderick Crawford Gus Mercurio |
| Music by | Brian May |
| Cinematography | Gary Hansen |
| Edited by | Adrian Carr |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Greater Union Organisation |
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Release date
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20 March 1980 |
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Running time
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95 min. |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | A$800,000 |
| Box office | A$364,000 (Australia) A$1.2 million (international) |
Harlequin, also known as Dark Forces in United States, is a 1980 Australian thriller film directed by Simon Wincer and starring Robert Powell, Carmen Duncan, David Hemmings and Broderick Crawford. The film is a modern-day version of Rasputin's story: the major characters have the same first names as Rasputin and the Romanov royal family; and their family name, 'Rast', is simply the word 'Tsar' backwards.
An up-and-coming senator, Nick Rast, has a young son who is terminally ill with leukaemia. A mysterious faith healer, Gregory Wolfe, appears and seems to cure the boy. Rast's wife Sandy falls in love with Wolfe, but the powerful interests behind Rast's career, represented by geriatric monster, Doc Wheelan are less happy with events.
Simon Wincer and Everett De Roche had previously collaborated on Snapshot but were not happy with the film since it was made so hurriedly. They decided to make another film, came up with six ideas and eventually chose The Minister's Musician, a modern-day version of the Rasputin story. They did a treatment and Antony I. Ginnane became involved as producer.
Everett de Roche originally did a 400-page first draft in which the central character, Gregory Wolfe, was a priest. When the producers sent the script to the US, they were worried that this would make the film hard to market in Catholic countries so it was changed. The script was given to some American writers to work on but Wincer was not happy with the changes. As de Roche was not available, Wincer went over the script with Russell Hagg although he later said he would have preferred it if de Roche had done the job.
The script was written with David Bowie in mind for the lead role and conversations were had with Bowie but the filmmakers got "cold feet" at the last minute and cast Robert Powell . The original choice for the role of the senator was Orson Welles but he wanted $80,000 a week for two weeks so Broderick Crawford was cast instead.
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