LADY STAY DEAD

Australia, 1981, 92 minutes, Colour.
Chad Hayward, Louise Howitt, Lex Foxcroft, Roger Ward.
Directed by Terry Bourke.

Lady Stay Dead is a trite, exploitive murder-thriller written, produced and directed by Terry Bourke. Bourke, after working in the Hong Kong industry in the '60s, directed the short thriller Night of Fear in 1973. Other films include Inn of the Damned, Little Boy Lost, Brothers. Bourke considered himself an important contributor to the Australian film industry and was a journalist with The Australian. However, his peers did not consider him as a valuable contributor but rather as an exploiter.

Lady Stay Dead was quickly made in 1981 in the time of tax concessions by federal government. It is an imitation of the menace thriller so popular at the time. However, Bourke takes a basic situation, offers a lot of padding (people wandering around a house), signals well in advance all the signs for terror. There is exploitive violence and sexuality. Chard Hayward portrays the psychotic murder efficiently enough - though one wonders how he ticks psychologically. The location photography of Sydney's suburban beaches is attractive - but does not make up for the straightforward, rather unsophisticated plot. For most audiences the film would be more ludicrous than exciting or scar-making.