Pop Film Welcomed

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31187, 11 October 1966, Page 8

Pop Film Welcomed

A New Zealand film, released first in Melbourne, has been welcomed as evidence “that this area is producing inventive film-makers” by Charles Higham in the “Bulletin.” “John O’Shea, director of ‘Runaway,’ has raised from private businessmen the money (not much under £40,000) to make a fine teenage musical, ‘Don’t Let It Get You,’ with Normie Rowe and Howard Morrison the superb Maori singing star,” Higham wrote.

“Although too evidently influenced by Richard Lester’s ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and marred by amateurish acting, this is a polished professional job, photographed with great skill on New Zealand and Sydney locations by Tony Williams.

“One sequence especially—of Morrison’s ride along a lonely seashore on horseback, shot from a helicopter to the song ‘l’m Home Now’ —is thrillingly staged ” Higham also referred to some Australian films and concluded: “All we need now are festivals to push the shorts and some distributors to push the features, and everyone to forget their snob-

bery about the Anzac product.”

The Melbourne “Age” described the film as “bright enough to make the filmfeatureless Australians blush for shame.” “Under the spell of Dick Lester and his Beatle films, John O'Shea copies the Lester knack closely, with all manner of quick editing, jumpcuts, goonish fast motion and zany staging, to give the dozens of pop numbers the appearance of spontaniety,” Colin Bennett wrote in the “Age.” “These rhythms from the echo chamber are vivaciously put across by Maori and white artists (including a natural film personality in Howard Morrison) playing themselves, and linked with the slenderest thread of plot about Australians visiting the Rotorua summer festival—thus allowing for plenty of geysers and boiling mud. “As an Aussie drummer who has pawned his drums, Gary Wallace fools constantly with drumsticks and overdoes the clowning. Two Australian glamour girls, Carmen Duncan and Tanya Binning, look decorative. Normie Rowe contributes two numbers. “Some of the phrenetic cut-

ting does not work, but Mr O'Shea, who must have had quite a time at the editing bench, keeps his film constantly viewable and alive. It could teach the average Hollywood pop picture a thing or two about originality and snap." Mr O’Shea told “The Press” that the Australian reception had been “most encouraging” and that the film would be released in New Zealand later this month.