The Night, the Prowler

This very strange and dreamlike film set in a well heeled suburb of Sydney was completely misunderstood and ignored in its first release. Almost a preview of Muriel's disenchanted and socially disenfranchised character in MURIEL'S WEDDING so successfully seen in the 90s film as played by Toni Collette, PROWLER has Kerry Walker almost as some sort of distant Muriel relative upsetting her family status quo with fantasies and playacting an adventurous role that leads her into other worldly behaviour. Written by Patrick White and Directed by Rocky Horror's Jim Sharman and Produced by Tony Buckley of BLISS, this film is a peculiar duck that will divide every audience unless they have a way of getting to like the lead character in the first reel. There has been plenty of films about alienated suburban girls seeking nocturnal and dangerous secret lives (HARD CANDY just released is the new cruel century's most recent example) but PROWLER is a quiet secret and a mood piece patient and film literate viewers will enjoy. Whoever has already seen SWEETIE (as someone else on this site recommends) is quite right leading you to PROWLER's mindset and style. One of Jim Sharman's first films was SHIRLEY THOMPSON VS THE ALIENS, a title mixing suburbia and weirdness immediately.... an so to PROWLER

The dialog in this film is incredibly speakable -- in response to Mephisto -- and I think what you are unhappy with is it's camp melodramatic style -- which on a critical level is achieved with sophistication and panache.

Kerry Walker is a stand out as the mannish blossom -- ripening with rebellion and uncertainty -- the perfect counter to her mother played by Ruth Cracknell. Ruth's performance is genius -- the timing for black humour I have only seen seconded by Kathleen TUrner in Serial Mom.

This film is beautifully shot. The camera moves with deft purpose -- never feeling television or obvious -- but a secure mix of voyeurism and arch photographic signposting (appropriate to the camp postmodern genre) Australia (along with Spain, USA and Brazil, NEW ZEALAND-- thanks to ALmodovar, Waters and Jackson) is home of the CAMP aesthetic -- and culturally we've been balking at this over the last few years. But what's really going for us -- is something that uniquely expresses our nation's ironic plight of being a little America.

WALK THE TALK, LOVE SERENADE, SWEETIE are also worthy notables.

When a live-at-home spinster (Walker) turns the tables on her would-be attacker by moonlighting as a leather-clad midnight menace to all men with whom she crosses paths, it causes friction with her deeply conservative parents (Cracknell & Frawley) who feel they've not only failed in her upbringing, but also blighted their social standing. Offbeat black comedy depicts a fractured convergence of conservative inner-city urbanity with rising 'radical' non-conformity in late 60s Sydney, as Walker's character resists the domestic obligations of traditional nubility which her parents and their social class have come to expect on her behalf.

The characters are well-articulated, their dialogue droll whilst the scenery in which they co-exist is a lavish postcard of its contemporary upper-middle class suburban Australian setting. Aside from the cunning (and highly perverse) plot, what really struck me was the tremendous fluidity in the movement and timing of the actors, brought to life by creative cinematography (e.g. PoV, 360 degree and other clever depth of field perspectives) enhancing also the meticulous set design and quaint props.

Whilst the plot lacked a strong narrative structure and does meander at times, the attention is held as our 'femme fatale' encounters an array of nighttime folk from whom she begins to reconcile her emotional conflict and the eccentric persona she's chosen to adopt.

Unconventional to say the least, if you're partial to black comedy and can appreciate the quirkiness of 70s Ozploitation you should be entertained.

It was hard to track this one down being released so long ago. I don't mind early Aussie films as you generally get a bit of a laugh with the bad acting. I wanted to watch if as I assumed Bon Scotts reference to it in the song "Night Prowler"

I don't know if the other reviews watched the same movie as I did. This film was utter garbage with terrible over acting, a story that meandered from one subject to the next and characters that couldn't draw you in. If this was released overseas and people took this as what Australia was like in the 70's, it doesn't even come close. It's really just a bad art house film.

The one takeaway from this is seeing some of the aussie screen legends appearing - Like Ruth Cracknell (Mother and Son), Maggie Kirkpatrick (The Freak in Prisoner), Tim Burns (Johnny The Boy in Mad Max).

Don't waste you time though. Leave this one far in past as it should be and hope it never see's the light of day again.

To quote my film tutor, this would have gone on the top of his list of the ten worst Australian films ever made if only he could have think of nine others bad enough to accompany it. It's a ploddingly literal-minded of a symbolism-heavy literary piece by Patrick White, with actors of widely varying levels of talent struggling gamely to deliver unspeakable lines. The result should have been left in the trash can next to the embryo in the last scene.