They're a Weird Mob (1966)

Nino Culotta is an Italian immigrant who arrived in Australia with the promise of a job as a journalist on his cousins magazine, only to find that when he gets there the magazine's folded, ... See full summary »

Director:

Michael Powell

Writers:

John O'Grady (novel), Emeric Pressburger

Stars:

Walter Chiari, Claire Dunne, Chips Rafferty

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Walter Chiari	...	Nino Culotta
Claire Dunne	...	Kay Kelly
Chips Rafferty	...	Harry Kelly
Alida Chelli	...	Giuliana
Ed Devereaux	...	Joe Kennedy
Slim DeGrey	...	Pat
John Meillon	...	Dennis
Charles Little	...	Jimmy
Anne Haddy	...	Barmaid
Jack Allen	...	Fat Man in Bar
Red Moore	...	Texture Man
Ray Hartley	...	Newsboy
Tony Bonner	...	Lifesaver
Alan Lander	...	Charlie
Keith Peterson	...	Drunk Man on Ferry

Storyline

Nino Culotta is an Italian immigrant who arrived in Australia with the promise of a job as a journalist on his cousins magazine, only to find that when he gets there the magazine's folded, the cousins done a runner & the money his cousin sent for the fare was borrowed from the daughter of the boss of a local construction firm. So Nino tries to get a job & finishes up ... laying bricks. Nino works hard & friends with lots of locals, Nino & Kay argue a lot, Nino & Kay fall in love ... Kay takes Nino to meet 'Daddy' but daddy hates journalists, immigrants and bricklayers (he's now BOSS of a construction firm). Nino starts to win him over with his charm & determination to marry Kay.

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Plot Keywords:

immigrant | journalist | bricklayer | australia | love | 

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Taglines:

The Hilarious best-seller now becomes... The funniest film ever made about Australians!

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Romance

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Details

Country:

Australia UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 October 1966 (Australia)

Also Known As:

Drôles de zèbres!

Filming Locations:

128 Greenacre Road, Greenacre, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Box Office

Budget:

AUD 600,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Williamson/Powell

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Did You Know?

Trivia

The opening week attendances at the State Theatre, Sydney broke a 37-year record for the theatre. The scenes of Nino being rescued from the surf were filmed from a duck (amphibious vehicle) borrowed from the Australian Army.

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Connections

Featured in 40,000 Years of Dreaming (1997)

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Soundtracks

"In This Man's Country"
Words and Music by Reen Devereaux

User Reviews

More than just a historical curiosity, and better than you think

Whoever you are, you probably have no desire to see this film. I understand. I had no desire to see it either. It was a blockbuster in its day, but only in Australia, and Australians are among the last people on the face of the planet who'd want to see it now. We don't want to be reminded what our country was like in the mid-1960s. Not that "reminded" is the right word, for most of us either weren't born or weren't here in 1966 (I certainly wasn't), and so it's easy for us to suppose that this film is nothing more than (a) a sustained exercise in wog-bashing, and (b) a celebration of everything we've all been earnestly trying to escape ever since the introduction of decimal currency and decent coffee. I'm sure most Australians, like me, will be thinking: If I watch this movie, how much will it make me cringe?

The short answer: okay, it probably WILL make you cringe now and then; but it's more moving, more witty, and more enlightened, than you might think. No wog-bashing. And it's NOT, as I feared, the 1960s equivalent of "Crocodile Dundee". Neither a kangaroo nor a swagman in sight. Powell even resists the temptation to show the Sydney Opera House as he pans over the harbour, probably because it hadn't yet been built.

I wouldn't have seen it if it hadn't been directed by Michael Powell. And here I have grounds for disappointment, since there's none of Powell's usual visual inventiveness or splendour. But fair enough: visual splendour would have been beside the point in this kind of comedy, and it may have been fatal. It's not that there's anything WRONG with the cinematography. To compensate for the fact that it's not another "Black Narcissus" we get a nice, light, and in the end surprisingly touching, comedy. The obvious cultural misunderstandings (Nino thinks, for a while, that there's a region of Sydney called "King's Bloody Cross" - that kind of thing) are neither laboured nor over-stated. Nor are they really the point of the film. Sure, Nino solemnly does what everyone tells him to do as if he were an anthropologist entering a mosque, but the story takes us further than this.

By the way, you'll note that almost every spoken sentence contains either a "bloody" or a "bugger". Powell later said that this was the key to getting past the censors. If he'd been conservative and had his characters swear only once or twice, the censors would have insisted on minor cuts; but since everyone swears constantly, it's impossible to cut one scene without cutting the rest, so the film emerged unscathed - with a G rating!