Don's Party

[the_pauley]

One of the funniest films ever!

Has been available as a terrible 4:3 R1 release with appalling picture quality (literally sub VHS) and muffled sound for a while, but at last here it is...

http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/778861

...in all it's widescreen, foul-mouthed glory, digitally remastered in a 2 disc set. The plot is simplicity itself. Middle class Aussies (aspirational types) have a party. Lots of alcohol is consumed. Lifelong friendships and a few marriages lie in tatters by morning. Hilarious.

My life is complete! :clap:

[Nebby]

Is that the one that takes place on election night?

If so, one of the funniest films I've ever seen.

[the_pauley]

That's the very one. :smashin:

I've been hoping for a decent copy of this to come out in Australia for ages. As I stated above I have had a Region 1 copy that wasn't worth buying as I had better sound and picture quality from a DVD-R transfer I made from my original VHS release.

This movie originally came out in the mid '70s when almost every Australian release seemed to be an absolute cracker. I've looked occasionally on Aussie websites for many of them, but in vain, as the Australian DVD companies seemed to be ignoring their own golden age of cinema. However a visit last night to EzyDVD paid dividends as not only was the glorious Don's Party available at last, but there seems to have been a sudden deluge of releases of many of my favourites including The Odd Angry Shot, Long Weekend and Summerfield.

Also available is The Club another favourite of mine from Don's Party director Bruce Beresford. This is a comedy/drama set in an Aussie Rules footbal club and contains a line of dialogue forever burned into my memory, "Strewth! He's been up his mum and his legless sister!"
:rotfl:

On the subject of deviant behaviour, a perusal of EzyDVD's site also yielded another long sought after Aussie item for me in the shape of Number 96. This was the movie version of an Aussie soap (no don't run away yet!) that ran five nights a week in the early to mid '70s and yielded almost 1300 episodes. The premise was basically Neighbours only with deviant sexual behaviour. Set in an apartment building (the titular Number 96 - 69 in reverse, gedddit?) inhabited by knicker thieves, pre-op transexuals, adulterers, foot fetishists, a panty hose strangler, serial fornicators and numerous other colourful deviants, the show's debut was described as "the night Australian TV lost its virginity". The show presented Australia with a nightly diet of frontal nudity and every sexual perversion under the sun, liberally laced with comedy and served up in a typical soap opera format. It was in fact commissioned by a network executive who asked for "Coronation Street with tits". Don't you just love the genteel Aussie demeanour? :grin:

Channel 4 were considering showing this back in the early days of the channel, but it proved a little too contentious for them, with one particular stumbling block being a character that seemed to make a habit of "getting raped".

All I've ever seen of this was an unforgettable montage of clips that rounded off an ITV show called Dennis Norden's World of Television, a precursor of Tarrant on TV, and ever since I've been dying to see this show in some form or other.

It appears the Smut Fairies are smiling on me, as not only does the DVD package contain the movie, but also a second disc featuring the most outrageous highlights from the series' six year run. I will report in full when I receive it. :)

All in all an expensive night for me last night on EzyDVD.

Incidentally, while browsing I saw a box set that I think probably takes the record for the biggest DVD collection ever. The complete Prisoner Cell Block H with a whopping 179 discs! :eek:

[Nebby]

Oh my God! The Club! I'd forgotten all about that!

Right, credit card to the rescue!!

[Nebby]

Blimey - The Odd Angry Shot, too.

That's the one with the **** boxes, isn't it?

[the_pauley]

****

Gimme a clue. :confused:

[Nebby]

Lol.

Isn't one of the squad a member of the church? He makes one of the men a crank operated box that simulates a "five finger shuffle" or "hand shandy" much to everyone's surprise. He calls it a "****" box.

[Nebby]

They've got Malcolm too, but it's out of stock:(

Great film with a great soundtrack.

[the_pauley]

I'd forgotten that! Is it really that long since I've watched this?

They've also got the two Barry McKenzie movies listed too. Just need to check out technical specs on The Adventures of Barry McKenzie as they have it listed as 4:3 ratio while the second is 16:9.

Guaranteed to be the only movie in the world where you will see Clive James p**sing on Joan Bakewell. :grin:

[Nebby]

Well, that's Don's Party, The Club, Malcolm and The Odd Angry Shot all ordered.

Thanks for the heads-up:thumbsup:

[the_pauley]

:) I'd forgotton about Malcolm - another little gem. Just spotted Sunday Too Far Away with Jack Thompson, too.

Christ this is going to be expensive. I need to be strong and stop looking now.

[the_pauley]

Good grief! Check this out - it appears Graham Kennedy who features in most of the key Aussie movies of that era, including most of those we've discussed / ordered, had another job too...

http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/781526

[the_pauley]

Result!!! :clap:

Just found that this is replacing the previously listed version...

http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/790445

Nebby - perhaps you can help me with this one. Been racking my brains for the title of an Aussie movie I saw on TV - might have been made late '70s early '80s. It involved a journalist or a photographer who stumbled on a missing cannister of film that contained a secret the government was trying to cover up from years before when secret nuclear tests were carried out that contaminated the residents of a small town.

Anyone?

[the_pauley]

Cancel that request.

Hooray for the IMDB keyword searcher!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093120/plotsummary