American Happy Day

I couldn't believe how bad this movie was. It was like a rude surprise of a movie. It moves along the lines of Palm Beach or Pure S..t which is one of the worst Oz flicks I've seen. This movie done in the same trashy vein, where dialogue is like conversation, and scenes and clips are stung together, actors suddenly in different spots of scene. It is as though, it has all been done as a film student project, which in hindsight, scarily couldn't be far from the truth. The film again deals with the surf scene, again like in Puberty Blues, the male characters aren't that likable, especially Bisley's, rooting anything in sight, who suffers a tragic demise near the end, for knocking up a girl. SC gets so trashy at times, it almost borders on unwatchable, where from an appreciative style, manifests itself, at being so bad. Jarratt, the film's star is the only likable lad out of the foursome, cause he's not a pig like his mates. Even Mel is hard to warm to in this, only half likable if best. Jarratt's character is more adult and respective of women, while he's a conservative type too. The performances are only standard in this, and the high point, if you can call it that, rests in the last ten minutes, when the film takes a tragic and dramatic turn, conveying a consequential message about being young, insensitive and reckless. Check out Mel's dialogue take on surfing. This really bad, trashy pic, won't go down as one to remember, only for it's really trashy style, which is in abundance.

It's been 23 years since I have commented on this film. I was the director and it was my first film. As far as I was concerned it was never finished. Despite the ludicrously low budget it could have been so much better than it turned out. All the leading actors fell into a serious argument with the producer and refused to continue working on the project. I never expected to see it on the screen. The producer and editor padded out the film with meaningless bits of irrelevant stock footage to make the required length of 87mins to qualify for a feature film. As you can imagine I was disappointed and embarrassed. Some parts of the movie actually work very well. There was a lot of spontaneous adlib especially between Mel and Steve. The first time we saw Mel in closeup in a viewing theater someone said "He's going to be a star". I thought so too. One day I'll tell the whole story. It's more complex and funny than the film itself.

By sheer chance I found a movie titled "Sex, Blood and Rock&Roll" in a low price range of DVD's. It happened to be "Summer City" for sale under a new name. Curious I bought it. What a surprise ! Never saw a worse film than this one. The picture was exhausting to watch as over-exposed parts alternate with ... less over-exposed parts. The sound was incredibly bad, sometimes painfully sharp, mostly dull. The story : let's say, there was a story, and a good screenwriter or director probably would have been able to make something of it. Not this one. The only thing that seemed okay was Mel Gibson. What a mercy for each movie adept, he outlived this one. Conclusion, there is hope for any good actor, even after a bad start, just carry on.

The star of the film was John Jarratt, who freaked a lot of people out a few years ago as Mick Taylor, the psychopathic killer in "Wolf Creek", as well as playing the Sergeant in "Australia".

"Summer City" was one of the films made in the 1970s as Australia tried to get back to rebuilding a film industry that collapsed before World War II as the cinema chains found it cheaper to import films than to pay for local films to be made. Up until the late 1960s Australian Governments had no real interest in films, more important things had to be done. We did not get television until 1956 and if Melbourne had not held the Olympics in that year it probably would have been later.

Hi Chris Fraser, I was prompted to respond to your IMDb comments on Summer City by a festival executive who has selected the film to play in the Sanctuary Cove film festival. Firstly, the entire Summer City production (writing, producing and playing one of the characters) has some fond memories for me. Hey Chris, yes, it was tough, being on location without a budget, without a full professional crew, and sleeping on the floor of an RSL hall, but the input and energy from all those that were with us in Catherine Hill Bay was fantastic. They gave it their all, actors and crew members alike. Sure we would all like to have the knowledge and experience that one gleans over the years, but as an early attempt at producing a movie without much money, and without all the pros and cons was quite an achievement, and as one reader says, it's a little gem. And to me, that's a compliment. I'd like to suggest you maybe wrong on a couple of statements. Firstly, the film wasn't strung together by the producer and the editor. We worked our backsides off for ten months trying to cut a film together without the coverage we would have liked. I didn't blame you for that, you did the best you could under the circumstances. Nor did the actors refuse to continue working on the project. You may remember, you instigated a meeting during the editing process, and brought John Jarrat along, but it didn't go anywhere when I spelt out the costs to date. Soon after, I picked Mel Gibson up from NIDA personally, and shot an opening scene of he (Scollop)and I(Robbie)walking down the street discussing Sandys(John Jarrat's)forthcoming engagement and the upcoming weekend away. (It wasn't used as we had a sound problem)There wasn't any stock footage other than the opening credit sequence. Klaus Jaritz shot the second unit material, long after you had gone. Yes. There were some great add lib moments, all credit to you and the actors, and there were scenes that were really memorable. (Thanks for that.) Check out the new release DVD I'm sure some of the things you suggested that went on when the cameras weren't rolling are in the 'Behind The Scenes' 30 minute documentary, that accompanies the film. Surfs up. P.A