Eliza Fraser

I'm just a sucker for this type of Australian comedy romp. ELISA FRASER follows somewhat in the path established by ALVIN PURPLE, THE GREAT MACARTHY and later PACIFIC BANANA, this time transporting the story to early colonial times.

A priggish and portentous sea captain played humorously by Noel Ferrier and his young wife - Susannah York - are shipwrecked on an island with their crew. They are later captured by Aborigines while their mutinous crew deteriorate into savages. One convict and Military officer on the nearby penal settlement both vie for the Captain's wife's attentions. The plot moves on comedically at a Swiftan pace and is quite enjoyable.

This movie is also an all-star cast of Australian actors and every player - admittingly given the script's content - churns out a great performance.

This big-budget period romp, which was based on a true story, has much to recommend it: an excellent cast, led by British actress Susannah York and Aussie heartthrob John Waters; a good script written by Australia's best playwright David Williamson, plenty of action including sex, seduction, murder, treachery, intercultural missing and lots of flogging of convicts; and great costumes for both the white folk and the Aboriginal tribe.

It's very well done, in the style of the 19th century British adventure novels like Tom Jones, Vanity Fair, Midshipman Hornblower or Flashman, but was considered a bit of a box-office failure as it did not do well overseas.

Both York and Waters are very good, as well as Noel Ferrier as the comicly pompous Captain Fraser, English actors John Castle and Trevor Howard as randy self-centred English officers, and Australian stalwarts Charles Tingwell, John Frawley, Bruce Spence, George Mallaby, Bill Hunter, and Gerard Kennedy as various colonial types. The scenes of Eliza Fraser and her husband among the Aborigines was particularly well-done.

Though the film suffers a little in the long post-Queensland epilogue, it is very good light entertainment overall.

Look, viewed today this is probably a masterpiece or a travesty depending on your affection for TV level 19th century antics in Australia (see NED KELLY) however, this one is a marriage between MOLL FLANDERS and TOM JONES Aussie britches style. Visually on a big screen ELIZA FRASER is great fun and with a big amused audience it plays well....but...at 130 minutes it needed and still does 40 minutes chopped out of it. Read that cast! Every actor not on TV in the 70s in Oz, and a few rounded up in the UK each merrily wined dined dressed and "thesped" at each other for well paid weeks on end of production time. Shot at a rural colonial gold rush theme park called Sovereign Hill, a PAINT YOUR WAGON looking tourist destination (like the Griswolds would accidentally go to) ELIZA FRASER is a 'bawdy romp' which depicts a few too many hairy rumps among the wenches, tankards and buggies. A lot of it is filmed at night, apparently adding to its atmosphere. It's fun, but so is rum for about an hour. Then....

Back in the early 1980s cable stations like Showtime and HBO would show English and Australian films that never played over here. None of them had a rating attached but frequently contained nudity and sex. This is one of them. I started watching it casually but got caught up in it. It takes place in 1836 Australia and involves Eliza Fraser (Susannah York). She gets involved with an attractive escaped convict (John Waters) and an Englishman who sleeps around with any woman he can find (John Castle). Unfortunately she's watched over by her old obnoxious husband (Trevor Howard). The plot goes veering wildly all over the place involving, sex, savages, shipwrecks...you name it

It plays like a female version of "Tom Jones". It's well-acted and there's some topless female nudity AND male nudity (back only). It's all pretty tame by today's standards (although the nudity might still give it an R rating here). It's far too long but I was never bored and found it entertaining. York especially is a delight in the title role. Good luck find it--it seems to have disappeared. I hadto watch it on a VHS from Amazon! Worth seeing--I give it a 7.