STRANGE HOLIDAY

Australia, 1970, 75 minutes, Colour.
Jaeme Hamilton, Mark Healey, Jaime Massang, Carmen Duncan, Ben Gabriel, Nigel Lovell, Van Alexander, Mark Lee.
Directed by Mende Brown

Strange Holiday is one of two children's movies made by American director Mende Brown in 1970. The other was Little Jungle Boy. The films are set in Never-Never? Lands - here in some tropical Pacific island (with evident N.S.W. scenery standing in for the tropics). The plot is rudimentary, the acting very basic. It could satisfy young and undemanding audiences - perhaps.

The film is an adaptation of Jules Verne's Two Years On Holiday (Deux Ans en Vacance). It is a variation on the Coral Island/Lord of the Flies theme. However, here the boys are excellently behaved, noble, self-sacrificing, adventurous etc., etc. Needless to say, this seems rather unreal. Towards the end of the film, marooned Carmen Duncan appears and joins the boys in their struggle against modern day pirates. Ben Gabriel emerges as the heroic adult figure. Amongst the boys can be glimpsed a very young Mark Lee.

The film had holiday and television showings - and pales in comparison with later Australian children's films and, indeed, television programmes.

1. The impact of the film as children's entertainment? Quality? For what audience? Age?

2. The Australian industry in the '60s? Television influence? Americans -especially the director? Colour photography, technical qualities, special effects? The strengths and weaknesses of the acting?

3. The ever-popularity of Jules Verne and the adaptation of his material? How credible for the '60s and the Pacific?

4. The emphasis on the Pacific, the tropics, the details of flora and fauna -and their contrived presentation? How credible the plot, shipwrecks and a murderous crew in the Pacific?

5. The basic situation: the boys and their background, the letting loose of the boat (and the culprit worrying and later confessing, being tried and forgiven), the storm, the survival? The boys in themselves, organisation, having everything they needed, all very agreeable, the scouts, the building, the meals etc.? The minimum of problems? Response to the shipwrecked woman? The murderous crew? The fight? The lack of individual personalities in most of the boys?

6. Boys' own adventure, idealised and unreal, clean and good-mannered? Even the language used by the boys?

7. Carmen Duncan and her glamour - survival, her story, the washing, combing her hair, helping in the fight etc.?

8. Evans and his being harmed by the men, his being caught by the boys, helping?

9. The criminals, the chase, cardboard villainy, their deaths?

10. A variation on traditional themes and stereotypes?