THOSE DEAR DEPARTED

Australia, 1987, 88 minutes, Colour.
Garry Mc Donald, Pamela Stephenson, John Clarke, Su Cruickshank, Arthur Dignam, Jonathan Biggins, Graeme Blundell.
Directed by Ted Robinson.

Those Dear Departed is a comedy written by Steve J. Spears,(The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin) who is also a film actor (Mad Max III, Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train). It relies on the comic talents of Pamela Stephenson and Garry Mc Donald who obviously enjoy themselves.

The film is a black comedy about a wife who attempts, at first unsuccessfully, to murder her star husband. The film is about ghosts, about hauntings - and has the touch, of course, of Blithe Spirit.

However, the humour depends on the personalities of the stars, some wit, and a send-up musical: Freud - The Musical. The sequences for the musical were filmed in Sydney's Capitol Theatre.

Direction is by Ted Robinson, director of a number of satiric programmes on television.

1. Effective comedy and farce?

2. The cast, the stars and their style? The effect of the combination?

3. The use of Sydney locations, the city, the Capitol Theatre, suburbia, homes, the cemetery, the cliffs and the ocean?

4. The musical score? Mood? The humour of Freud - The Musical and its staging? The satire (in the Ken Russell vein)?

5. The structure of the film: Marilyn telling her story, her appearing within the story, Max’s story, the flashbacks to the past, the group going to Heaven? The finale with the dogs?

6. The popularity of comedy about ghosts? Death and burial, apparitions, the afterlife?

7. Marilyn as amoral, her taping of her story, Pamela Stephenson and her zany nonchalance, the attempts on Max (the phallus, the ground glass, the sniper, the electric shock)? The cover-ups? Her affair with Richard? Adapting her plans to the situations? Her reaction to being thwarted? The poisoned whisky and Norda dying? The car and the telephone call to Max as he died? The relationship between husband and wife, the sex, calling each other 'Bunny' etc.? The satiric touches? The police, the interrogations, her grief, her telling the story about sex and the prurient curiosity of the officer, her seeing the ghosts, her killing the stars of the show, her sequences with Max, falling in love with him after he died? The visit to Max’s mother? Shooting the policeman? The irony of Marilyn's death with the teddy bear and the needle? Max deciding to stay with her? Their reincarnation as dogs and the death of the officer?

8. Garry Mc Donald and his style as Max, the self-absorbed star, the pictures in his rooms, his tantrums, firing people, his performance? The humour of his interpretation of Freud? Escaping death? His becoming paranoid and jealous? The various attempts and his reactions? The possibility of going to Hollywood? The walk in the Domain and his reaction? The sniper? His breakdown? His decision to return? The whisky drink and his timing, Norda's death? The irony of his death in the car with the telephone call? His going to Heaven, the, auditions, the producer, seeing Norda there? The return of the ghosts, haunting Marilyn, falling in love, her confession, at his own funeral? Meeting his father and the flashback to his childhood, his mother's death? The irony of his killing his father and marrying his mother with Freud's Oedipal complex? Pamela Stephenson as his mother? With Norda and her becoming the producer, Marilyn's death, his option to stay, the two dogs?

9. Norda, the gushing agent, her manner and style, her size, suspicious, her death, haunting Marilyn, her taking over of the auditions?

10. Max's father, his unfinished business, going to Earth, drinking, the seeking the teddy bear, in the flashbacks about his death, his deciding to stay?

11. The stars, Max’s jealousy, the dumb girl, the ambitious actor, the wake and telling Marilyn of their suspicions, their deaths, the auditions? Richard as the chauffeur, writing poetry, sexual liaison with Marilyn, his killing himself? His haunting Marilyn, the confession? His meeting the Rocky Horror girl and going with her?

13. The Superintendent and his assistant, questions, their humour, suspicion, watching at the funeral, the aggressive sergeant, the sex story of Marilyn and Richard, Richard hitting the car, his death, return? The dogs and the death of the Superintendent? John Clarke and his comic style as the Superintendent?

14. The producer, his role, people dying, the auditions, his intolerance, the satire?

15. The producer and his prissiness, contact with God, being sacked? Patrick Cook as his assistant?

16. How well did the offbeat idea work? Morality and humour? Black satire? The humorous ending?