The Set

From sydney australia. An early, interesting story of paul, sales clerk, who wants to learn design. He gets a lucky break, and meets designers who help him along with his career. And meets tony, who is already a success. Mixed emotions about this one. While the story by roger ward treats the gays and their relationships (mostly) with respect, most of the gays are really bisexual, who also sleep with women. Although some of the women are not sexually satisfied. Maybe that was to get it past the aussie censors. A fun performance by a drag queen. Played by the brother of the professor on gilligan's island, no less. And even a (terrible) wanna be opera singer, a la florence jenkins style. When we google her, we'll see that the real jenkins died in 1944. The sexy, suave but troubled tony wears the same unbuttoned shirt for most of the film, when he wears a shirt at all. Loud, fun, campy jazz, with lots of sax by the "flanagans." the guys have a tumultuous relationship, trying to combine work and a love life. I guess the alcohol may have interfered. Some nudity here and there, but nothing major. Early roles for the leads, mullinar and myers, and the director frank brittain. Writer ward is probably best known as captain fifi in mad max! "the set" is currently playing on the tubi streaming channel... fun stuff! Check out the wikipedia pages for roger ward and for "the set"... apparently, the film was made forty years before the book was allowed to be published!

My memories of this little known Aussie film are dim at best but I am clear on a story told me by the remarkable (and now late) publicist, poet, and friend of mine, Adrian Rawlins.

He took American reviewer Rex Reed along to 'The Set' around the time of it's release in Sydney, possibly even it's premiere. According to Adrian, Rex was wont to walk out on anything he thought was less than worthwhile. At the end of the performance Adrian said, "That was awful, I can't believe you sat through the whole thing!" to which Rex replied, "I know, I know, it was so bad, I couldn't move, I was riveted to my seat!"

Today I'm not sure where Rex Reed is, Adrian is immortalized in bronze on a pillar in Fitzroy in suburban Melbourne (his hometown). As for 'The Set', perhaps a retrospective of Australian cinema may bring this little attempt at breaking new ground to light again sometime in the future.

I saw The Set on Easter Tuesday 1969 as a 14 year old with a couple of school friends. We went to the Star Theaterette in Melbourne Australia. It was the hottest film on at the time. After a 4-6 week season at The Trak cinema, The Set moved to The Star (a theaterette playing "adult" movies.... necessary after the introduction of TV took away the theatre's livelihood in running continuous sessions of newsreels & cartoons).....and that is where we watched, with wide eyes, the fast set of Sydney society vomit across the screen! My love for camp exploitation films was made!! The promise of nudity was what attracted us, especially that of of afternoon TV guru ,Hazel Phillips...but a combination of inept acting, bad writing, sleazy plot lines, protracted nude scenes, gay and straight love scenarios and most importantly promises of big city "adventures" waiting for us when we grew up that seared an irreplaceable place in our minds.

I can't be the only one...PLEASE~release this seminal Aussie introduction into camp/bad/inept/sexploitation/gay/soap opera cinema!!

'The Set' was made two years before Australian television led the world in its depiction of sex in the classic soap 'Number 96'. Clunky and clumsy though much of the film is, there is a freshness and immediacy about some of its scenes that is very taking. Hazel Phillips is the standout in a generally unexciting cast: she alone has the style and elegance to convince us that this is a genuinely 'groovy' set of people challenging the still stifling mores of Australia as it enters the 1970s. Although the film is regarded today, if at all, as an oddity, Hazel Phillips and a few of the other actors present a fascinatingly savvy commentary on a transitional period between prudery and permissiveness.

It may have worked in its time, but watching it in 2024 it's absolutely "cringeworthy" No matter HOW you view it, you'd think the director had just discovered homosexuality - and run with it, with all the class and finesse of an episode of an episode of No. 96.

No. 96 and The Box were the first introduction to the "full frontal" on the small B&W screen in Australia.

I must confess I couldn't sit through "The Set" in its entirety.

You may be able to endure, if you could cast your mind back to being a thirteen-year-old boy, for the duration.

The 1970's were a renaissance for Australian film and film makers.

But THIS little curio is, today, strictly a museum piece - and a reminder of just how far Australian cinema has evolved - but, otherwise, something best forgotten.