This 1977 period drama about a teenager finishing school in North Queensland in 1917, suffers in comparison with other period films of the time such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Getting of Wisdom, My Brilliant Career etc. By comparison, it is somewhat dull and plodding. The main character is annoyingly uncharismatic and dull, the dialogue obvious and the dramatic elements downplayed. Though there is a kidnapping, a shootout with a mad preacher, a couple of deaths and an affair with an older woman, somehow nothing is very believable or involving.
The main character is the grinning Christopher Pate, the America-born son of Australian actor Michael Pate (who wrote and produced this film), but he isn't good enough to lift this film, and this was his only leading role. American actress Geraldine Fitzgerald, who plays his grandmother is better, but her character as the strong matriarch of the town is a little too good to be true, and her American accent occasionally intrudes. However she did earn an AFI Best Actress Award nomination for her strong performance.
The only other notable actors are the famous dancer, Sir Robert Helpman, as an intellectual drunk, and Gerard Kennedy, taking a break from tough-cop roles to play an American-style fire-and-brimstone preacher who goes mad and kidnaps his niece. The photography is underwhelming and the colours look washed out.
There's something about this film that feels like an American television melodrama rather than an Australian feature film. It also looks a bit dated, like Little House on the Prairie transplanted to North Queensland; a good 'family' film. On the positive side, the countryside does look interesting at times, despite the photography.
