Careful He Might Hear You

Surely one of the best modern films about childhood, this swept the Australian Academy Awards and remains a thrilling film experience. When a young boy is left orphaned, his two aunts wage a bitter custody war over him. We see the adults' actions from the boy's point of view, with all the wonder, confusion, and naive wisdom such an outlook would provide. The events have a wry edge even in tragedy and remain gripping even in happiness. Stay tuned through the final credits for one of the best epilogues in film history.

Wendy Hughes plays the dark side of Auntie Mame, and she is both entrancing and repulsive, ludicrous and heartbreaking. The late John Hargreaves delivers a shattering cameo, and young Nicholas Gledhill deserves to be named in the company of Jean-Pierre Leaud, Anton Glanzelius, and Haley Joel Osment. The child's-eye direction is never less than astonishing, while the cinematography and music are gorgeous enough to take your breath away. If you thought the squabble over Elian Gonzalez was great drama, wait till you see this!

One of the greatest and least sentimental films about childhood and one of the best, yet most undervalued, of Australian pictures, Carl Schultz's "Careful, He Might Hear You", taken from Sumner Locke Elliott's best-selling book, is about a young boy, known simply as PS, (terrifically played by 8 year old Nicholas Gledhill), caught in the middle of an acrimonious custody battle between his two aunts after his mother's death and his abandonment by his father. It's a very simple, straightforward film with excellent performances from Wendy Hughes and Robyn Nevin as the two women in question, John Hargreaves as the returning father and Peter Whitford as his uncle.

Schultz films it so that we see everything through PS's eyes and it's often very moving though Ray Cook's over-emphatic score sometimes drags it down while the period setting is beautifully captured in John Stoddart's designs and John Seales' superb widescreen cinematography. A sizeable international hit in its day it was named one of the top ten films of the year by the National Board of Review.

This one is from Australia, and centers on an eight year old boy called P.S. (Nicholas Gledhill...this was his first role.) There's a tug of war for custody of P.S., between Aunt Lily and Vanessa. Right at the beginning, Lily tries to explain to the boy why he must go off with Vanessa, but he's only eight, after all. Quite a variation from the Auntie Mame story; here, its all serious education and proper behavior, pretty much the opposite of Mame. So much PINK! have you ever seen so much pink in one room? Large, imposing rooms. And not allowed to get out and play with others. Vanessa kept him all to herself. Not much fun for a youngster who had so much fun in Sydney. Here, he can't seem to do anything right. Vanessa thinks she is doing the right thing for him, but doesn't really know that a youngster wants to just play. Then, stuff happens... which might help turn things around for him.

Story by Sumner Elliott. The novel was written when he was about 46... film done when he was about 66; wonder if its his own story. Elliott was born down Undah, and died in NYC. Directed by Carl Schultz, who did mostly television projects. Finally it's out on DVD. Good story.

One of Australia's great films of the 80s...big, lavish and crafted for an international audience.......along with GALLIPOLI, THE LIGHTHORSEMEN and MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER, "Careful"..is different in that it is set in Sydney harbourside suburbs of the 1920s......most period films made at this time are set earlier and are rural.....also like the sublime masterpiece THE IRISHMAN. The cast for "Careful" is theater professionals who fit the passionate personalities the extremely emotional and personal roles demand. Their transformation to film is also thanks to the great director Carl Schultz who also made the superb Australian films GOODBYE PARADISE and TRAVELLING NORTH. Much under employed here and almost forgotten ...... Nicholas Gledhill is still in Sydney theater and occasionally appears in fringe productions.

Robyn Nevin is the supreme being of the Sydney Theatre Company and the great Wendy Hughes is the goddess of the Australian screen.....see NEWSFRONT for that confirmation. The late great John Hughes such a genuine Australian man in his perfect realisation of the irresponsible but lovable main male character "Logan". This film is Australian screen perfection, however the end credits come too early.

The film is a superb adaptation of the book. As is true of most adaptations, it doesn't quite live up to the book. Read the book first--and then see the movie. The acting is first-rate. The little boy, Nicholas Gledhill, is amazing. And Wendy Hughes is stunning--what a shame she has never caught on with American audiences in her relatively unproductive American film and television career. The film is another example of the high quality work that comes out of Australia with such frequency.