The Adventures of Barry McKenzie
| The Adventures of Barry McKenzie | |
|---|---|
UK 30th Anniversary DVD
|
|
| Directed by | Bruce Beresford |
| Produced by | Phillip Adams |
| Written by | Bruce Beresford, Barry Humphries |
| Based on | the comic strip by Barry Humphries drawn by Nicholas Garland |
| Starring |
Barry Crocker, Barry Humphries, Spike Milligan, Peter Cook |
| Music by | Peter Best |
| Cinematography | Donald McAlpine |
| Edited by | John Scott, William Anderson |
|
Production
company |
Longford Productions
|
| Distributed by | Philip Adams Columbia Pictures Video Ltd. |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
114 minutes |
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Budget | A$250,000 |
The Adventures of Barry McKenzie is a 1972 Australian film starring Barry Crocker, telling the story of an Australian 'yobbo' on his travels to the United Kingdom. Barry McKenzie was originally a character created by Barry Humphries for a cartoon strip in Private Eye. The movie was the first Australian film to surpass one million dollars in Australian box office receipts. A sequel, Barry McKenzie Holds His Own, was produced in 1974.
Barry Humphries appears in several roles, including: a hippie, Barry McKenzie's psychiatrist Doctor De Lamphrey, and as Aunt Edna Everage (later Dame Edna Everage). Humphries would later achieve fame with the character of Dame Edna in the UK and USA.
The film was produced by Phillip Adams, who became a prominent op-ed journalist and broadcaster, and directed by Bruce Beresford.
Barry 'Bazza' McKenzie (Barry Crocker) travels to England with his aunt Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) to advance his cultural education. Bazza is a young Aussie fond of beer, Bondi and beautiful 'sheilas'. He settles in Earls Court, where his old friend Curly (Paul Bertram) has a flat. He gets drunk, is ripped off, insulted by pretentious Englishmen and exploited by record producers, religious charlatans and a BBC television producer (Peter Cook). He reluctantly leaves England under the orders of his aunt, after exposing himself on television. His final words on the plane home are, "I was just starting to like the Poms!".
Bruce Beresford was living in London and knew Barry Humphries socially when he heard about government funding being given to Australian films.
I said to Barry Humphries that we should do a script from the comic strip because they had money available to make films but it hadn't occurred to them that they had no one to make them. I said, 'I don't think they've thought about that but if we whip back to Australia with a script, with you starring in it and we're all set to go, we have a good chance of getting the money. There wouldn't be all that many going for it'. And that's more or less what happened.
...
Wikipedia