A clever story is the basis for this negligible Australian film that, with more skillful treatment, would have been of greater interest, but the convoluted plot and connections amongst the principal characters become a bit too complicated an assignment for those answerable. The action revolves about a supposititious painting of Picasso that is copied so faithfully that, without technical devices, even experts cannot tell which of the two is original; when the genuine item is to be exhibited at Melbourne's National Gallery, wherein much of the film is shot, avarice and temptation lead the curator, her acolyte, and various others into going astray. A young artisan, Alex (Jane Menz) is at enmity with the Gallery's curator, Bella Mcleod (Jane Clifton) because of the latter's refusal to allow Alex or other unseasoned artists to be exhibited, all the while spending millions of taxpayer dollars for the Picasso, whereupon Alex cajoles her boyfriend Joe (Peter O'Brien) to "kidnap" the painting by the Spaniard as a protest against excessive government spending. Joe does make off with the canvas, abetted by his friend Nick (Andrew Daddo) who is in trouble due to gambling debts, with the two accomplishing the theft by reason of Bella and her assistant Lionel (Jon Finlayson) having disconnected the Gallery's alarm system when they substituted the fake that the lads lift, in order to sell the original for private profit to a Japanese enthusiast. This is all quite labyrinthine enough, yet becomes even more so when Lionel issues forth as an amateur detective, while a pair of light in the loafers henchmen of the gambling boss to whom Nick is in arrears joins in to the frenetic goings-on; as a farce, the piece might have been quite pleasing, but burdened by a weak script along with uneven direction and acting, the result becomes a rather tedious and forgettable trifle.
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