Drôles de zèbres!

I have only just seen They're a Weird Mob and I have to say it was a great trip back to the 1960s in Australia. It's very cheesy of course, but then just about everything made in the 1960s was cheesy. It's a good story with some very good characters and actors, based on a book. These days the humour falls a bit flat, but even so there are moments, and the script is engaging, and certainly the homage to Aussie culture of the time is right on the money, sharp, and well written. This is an important contribution in terms of Australian film.

A largely accurate portrayal of typical Australian attitudes, lifestyles and aspirations of the era, this movie was a celebration of the country's easy going and proudly egalitarian spirit. And, even more significantly, as it predates the contrived, heavy handed and deliberately boorish "Ocker" nonsense that came into vogue a bit later, it remains an excellent example of genuine, laid back Aussie humor at its best.

However, looking at it again, all these years later, it now provides a stark reminder of just how much things have changed. Sadly, Australia is no longer quite the same sun drenched "workers paradise" where the average punter could afford a Sydney Harbourside home on little more than a basic wage and buy a crayfish (lobster) for a couple of dollars on a Saturday night. It really was one big endless summer.

My late Father filmed this very funny movie and as a boy we heard many stories about the fun times both cast and crew had together whilst filming.

If any one out there knows more stories about Keith Bryan Loone, please feel free to email me. Dad died in 1988 and would love to hear more stories about himand his work. Dad used to work for Ajax films in Balmain then from memory went freelance and filmed quite a few movies over the years working with Australia's top directors, actors, writers and crew. They're weird mob is one of the original funny movies Australia produced with an international cast complete with local actors who later in life also filled our screens in memorable movies. I would like to hear more what people think of this classic.

'THEY'RE A WEIRD MOB' tells the story of an Italian's migration to Australia during the 1960's and his effort to adapt to this unusual breed of Englishmen living on the opposite side of the world that he soon comes to love.

The film is one of few Australian films made in the 1960's, and therefore given its subject matter, one of the most important time capsules of that era. 'THEY'RE A WEIRD MOB' was also probably the first Australian film made with a realistic eye to international distribution, not only because much of the movie seems to delight in explaining and translating many examples of Aussie lingo, but because it takes delight in simply showing Australians being Australians – and "them being a weird bloody bunch!" Technically, it is well-made movie and the acting quite decent. I was actually surprised by the number of shots achieved with hand-held cameras and steady-cams. Perhaps for what it is, it is a little too long, but no matter.

The movie paints an extraordinarily funny picture of how the ordinary Australian viewed himself in the 1960's: optimistic and belonging to an overwhelmingly cheery, egalitarian community. The working-male is presented not as a bludger, but as a generally reliable worker who enjoys nothing more than indulging in leisure activities with either his family or his mates. Upon finding work on a construction site in suburbia, Nino works diligently under the sun oblivious to his colleague's slower pace. He is told by his "mates" in a sympathetic tone to take a break: "there's plenty of time mate, she'll keep...roll yourself a smoke, mate / come and have a cuppa".

The movie almost seems like a propaganda movie for prospective immigrants, as Australia paints itself a destination inexhaustive of employment opportunities and as the land of opportunity, which in all truth it was. For instance, not only does our Italian protagonist find a job on his first day in the country, but even his future father-in-law - a prosperous building company magnate - started out from humble beginnings as a bricklayer upon his family's migration to Australia the generation before. For a learned critique of how Australia enjoyed "such a good lot" in the 1950s and 1960s, read the book 'The Lucky Country' (1964) by Donald Horne. 'THEY'RE A WEIRD MOB' paints ordinary Australian's as being overwhelmingly receptive of `New Australians' to such a point that they delight in submersing immigrants in the full extent of their customs and traditions which they relish as the best in the world.

More than anything else, the movie is a testament to the policy of assimilation during the post-war boom. As Nino makes a sturdy effort to adapt himself to the customs of the new country, most of the people he comes across display nothing if not their utmost admiration and respect for him becoming an Australian. On a ferry in the Sydney harbor, however, Nino comes across a drunkard who, after witnessing another group of ‘New Australians' having a lengthy exchange in their mother tongue exclaims "Bloody dagoes, why don't you go back to your own country?!" Sitting down, he asks Nino for a light of his smoke, to which Nino reluctantly but politely obliges in almost natural English. When he subsequently affords more hostility to the family, Nino consoles them in Italian to which the drunkard demonstrates his utmost surprise. This latent premonition of multiculturism – that is, that a New Australian could maintain links with his native country and its culture, yet still behave in all manners like an 'Australian' - was, for then, too much to ask of a previously insular, overwhelmingly Anglo society. Surprisingly, the drunkard is the only person in the move to adopt an outwardly racist tone, the movie generating the feeling that Australia is accepting of all immigrants who take a dedicated effort to assimilate.

Predating Bazza McKenzie and Paul Hogan by some years, the movie could legitimately be described as a document of propaganda, though this definition should not detract from its historical or artistic merits. Most Australian's would enjoy watching this movie for the parodies of Australian speech and lifestyle. For instance, a national in-joke is realized with Graham Kennedy playing himself in a hilarious cameo that serves to reveal the traditional Sydney-Melbourne rivalry. Asking for directions, he is given the cold shoulder by a loyal Sydney-sider to which he responds: "You're a Sydneyite?...I thought so. You're a weird mob up here, you don't appreciate art" to which he is told that it "must be a bloody weird mob in Melbourne if they keep watching you on TV." In any event, Australians would no more cringe at this film than they would at their parents' or grandparents' generation who actually had the privilege or misfortune - depending on how critical you are of the times and its achievements - of living in the time we see on the screen.

I recently watched the DVD of this movie. Way back in the sixties it was a big hit at a time when very few Australian movies were being made. I am delighted to say that the movie holds up remarkably well. It is now a charming curiosity of another time. The plot is by now well known but I wondered if I would cringe over the way Australians were portrayed. I need not have worried as the characters are warm and earthy. It was wonderful to see some of those fine actors of the past, most of whom have passed away. Chips Rafferty is superb in one of his last movies. The only character that does not work is the love interest Clare Dunne who has a very cold screen presence. She sounds like she is taking elocution lessons on screen. The most pleasant surprise is Walter Chiari as Nino. He is delightful. Chiari had a troubled career, especially in his Broadway misadventure in the flop musical "The gay time" opposite Barabara Cook. The musical however sounds wonderful now, perhaps it was ahead of its time. In this film Chiari is enchanting and dam cute too. The real joy for most Aussies is seeing a brief appearance by the undisputed king of Aussie television Graham Kennedy. Graham allows the script and director to send him up. There will sadly never be another Graham but hopefully there will be many more Australian movies as charming as this. It really was a pleasant surprise. Do see it.