Opinion
David Stratton’s top 10 lost movie gems, and the Aussie classics you haven’t seen
Peter FitzSimons
Columnist and authorDavid Stratton, 85 years old and going strongish – is one of Australia’s two most iconic movie reviewers, along with Margaret Pomeranz. I spoke to him on Thursday.
Fitz: Mr Stratton, thank you for playing. As you know, the rules are you have to come up with 10 superb films that are lost and lesser-known masterpieces – with the only rider being that you can’t pick films that your great on-air partner, Margaret Pomeranz, picked a fortnight ago. Your time starts … shortly. Before we get to that though, how did you get into films in the first place?
David Stratton, now 85, pictured in Wentworth Falls: “I had a friend in Sydney, and he was saying, ‘You should come as a ten pound Pom, and I can sponsor you’. And so I did.”Credit: Rhett Wyman
DS: Growing up in England during the war, my parents were both otherwise occupied and my grandmother took me to all sorts of films three or four times a week. I loved the way the cinemas smelt, the moment when the lights dimmed, the curtains opened and the film began. I was just captivated by it all. And that thrill has stayed with me ever since ...
Fitz: Was there a particular film back then you were just transfixed by, that stays with you?
DS: There were the Bob Hope comedies, and Mickey Rooney in a series of films about Andy Hardy. And we saw some very unsuitable films. Jane Russell in The Outlaw was, I think, very unsuitable. Interestingly enough, many years later, I was actually invited to a brunch with Jane Russell in San Francisco.
Fitz: Was she every bit as unsuitable as you had hoped?
DS: [Laughs.] She was lovely. And I told her I had fallen in love with her watching The Outlaw at the age of six.
Fitz: If you care, I see your Jane Russell, and raise you Jane Fonda. She was most unsuitable for me to see in a famous poster on my brother’s wall when I too was six, and I was thrilled to meet her when she was 75 and get to tell her how wonderfully unsuitable I had found her. A fabulous woman and even more impressive in person. But ... moving on. I read that you came to Australia as a ten pound Pom?
Stratton with long-time colleague and fellow reviewer Margaret Pomeranz when hosting The Movie Show.Credit: Jacky Ghossein
DS: Yes, but I had no intention of staying. My family had a long-established grocery company started in the UK in the early 1800s and my father wanted me to take the business over, as he had taken it over from his father and so on. It was one of those nepotistic things, and I thought I’d never be able to do anything else. I mean, I loved films, but I thought I’d have to be a grocer, but when it came to the crunch I said, “Hang on, I’m going to take two years off before I really come into the company.” I had a friend in Sydney, and he was saying, “You should come as a ten pound Pom, and I can sponsor you.” And so I did, but during the two-year mandatory stay in Australia, I became involved with the Sydney Film Festival, one thing led to another, and I took over as the festival director.
Fitz: And you got into a little trouble with ASIO, as it turned out?
DS: Yes, because of censorship. I was used to seeing films in the UK that were basically not censored, at least if they were shown at a film society or a festival, but in Australia, they definitely were. But I thought, “Well, I’m not going to stay so what does it matter?” And because I was travelling to lots of Eastern Bloc cities to gather films – including Moscow, Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, Sofia, Bucharest and so on – it turns out ASIO started a file on me.
Fitz: Clearly, you were a danger to shipping. ASIO must have said, “This is a guy to watch, this might be Australia’s answer to Kim Philby, an Englishman in a sleeper cell, in touch with the Soviets and he’s about to turn on us all!”
DS: Well, of course, I didn’t have any of the secrets that Philby did, and all I could tell the Soviets was about Australian films or the lack thereof at the time, but, yes, that must have been their view. Honestly, though, I think it was the same in England at the time, and MI5, like ASIO, was suspicious of people in the arts.
Fitz: And you weren’t even in your most dangerous and influential position of all yet, hosting The Movie Show with Margaret Pomeranz and able to steer the entire Australian population to some of your filthy commie flicks under the guise of them being good to watch!
Sophie Lowe in Rachel Ward’s Beautiful Kate. “A great film”, according to Stratton.
DS: [Laughs.]
Fitz: So, let’s get to your list of top 10 lost masterpieces …
DS: OK, let me just go to my computer – first, I have got to get there, though. These days I use a walking frame. My eyesight’s gone. My mobility’s gone, my hearing’s gone. Actually, I’m in a bit of a wreck.
Fitz: But you sound great?
DS: Yeah, hopefully that will continue, but who knows? Last Friday night I was able to go into Sydney to receive a lovely award as Cinema Pioneer of the Year, and I was able to get up to the podium and make a speech, which I didn’t think I’d be able to do a couple of weeks beforehand. But there we are … Anyway, the first one on my list is an Australian film, Blessed (Australia, 2009). Directed by Ana Kokkinos, this poignantly beautiful film is divided into two parts – Children and Mothers. It’s about mothers who are alienated from their children for one reason or another. It has Frances O’Connor, Miranda Otto and Deborra-Lee Furness playing three of the mothers, and they are wonderful. The whole thing is very touching, beautifully active, beautifully written, and beautifully directed.
Fitz: Locked in at No.1! Next?
DS: No.2 is Taking Off (US, 1971). Also about parents and their kids, this bittersweet comedy was the first film made in America by Milos Forman. Flower power, marijuana and free love have resulted in many teenagers “taking off”, leaving their bewildered parents completely at a loss to know what their kids are up to, and are completely alienated from their kids. The film centres around an audition and there are songs from Carly Simon, Kathy Bates and Ike and Tina Turner.
Judy Garland and Tom Drake in Meet Me in St Louis, in which Garland sings Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.
Fitz: Hang on, the great Kathy Bates, the fabulous Oscar-winning actress sings, on the same platform as Carly Simon, and Ike and Tina Turner?
DS: Yes. A song about horses.
Fitz: Wow. I never knew she could sing. What’s next?
DS: No.3 is Advise and Consent (US, 1962). Recently, the Herald ran a piece on the best films about US politics, but amazingly they omitted this one. Otto Preminger’s drama centres on the attempt of an ailing, Joe Biden-like president …
Fitz: Standing up against evil!
DS: … if you will, wanting to nominate as secretary of state a left-wing academic played by Henry Fonda, and the determination of a right-wing southern Democratic senator – Charles Laughton, magnificent in his last screen role – to block the nomination because he thinks that the Henry Fonda character would sell us out to the communists. It’s a dirty game, a wonderful political thriller and an edge-of-your-seat movie.
Fitz: ASIO and I will watch that with deep interest to see if your slip is showing.
DS: [laughs] Next is Night of the Hunter (US, 1955), also with Charles Laughton, who was not only a great actor. With this, the one film he directed, he proved to also be a master behind the camera. Robert Mitchum plays a serial killer in the Depression who poses as a preacher. Shelley Winters is a rich widow who falls for his charms, and silent star Lillian Gish plays a kindly woman who fosters and protects children. Hard to believe that the film was once banned in Australia on the grounds of blasphemy.
Fitz: And quite right, too!
DS: [laughs] Beautiful Kate (Australia, 2009) is next, an Australian film directed by Rachel Ward – the first film she ever directed – and all about the lasting effect on a rural family of tragic events that happened years ago. Ben Mendelsohn gives an effortlessly fine performance as a son who returns home to his father’s outback property after hearing that he (Bryan Brown, never better) is gravely ill. The visit brings back memories of a past summer, and the alluring presence of the prodigal’s sister, Kate (Sophie Lowe). A great cast including Rachel Griffiths and Maeve Dermody.
Fitz: If I can just stop you there, David. You’re a man of great authority, and you say it’s a great film, and we know they’re all great actors, so we can take you at your word. But how is it that a film like that, with such a brilliant cast, is not better known and widely celebrated?
DS: Well [spoiler alert], it’s actually about incest between brother and sister and ...
Fitz: Oh! I speak on behalf of the readership when I say, ewwwwwwww.
DS: That was mentioned in a review by your colleague, Garry Maddox. The audience just dropped away, which I can understand, but it’s still a great film.
Fitz: I love Garry Maddox, and I’m with him. I still say, ewwwwwwww.
DS: And so to No.6, The President’s Analyst, (US, 1967). Political comedies are fairly rare, and this very clever one performed so poorly at the box office back in the day that it’s little surprise that it didn’t start a genre. James Coburn plays a Washington psychiatrist who dabbles in hypnosis. One of his patients is the president himself. What if, under hypnosis, the commander-in-chief reveals state secrets? Both the CIA and the Russian KGB are interested in the president’s analyst.
A Lion Returns writer-director Serhat Caradee (left) with actors Danny Elacci and Maha Wilson in 2020.Credit: Rhett Wyman
Fitz: Again, ASIO and I will watch.
DS: A Lion Returns (Australia, 2019). Turkish-born writer-director Serhat Caradee’s riveting film deals with a different kind of family reunion. In a suburb of an Australian capital city, a family whose members have migrated from the Middle East congregates. The reason for the gathering is that the elderly matriarch is very ill, but everyone is startled when one of the old lady’s sons, who has been away in an unknown location, unexpectedly returns too. Has he been radicalised by IS? One of the rare Australian films that’s really political. It’s gripping, beautifully made, and with a cast that nobody’s ever heard of because they’re all Arab-Australian.
Fitz: Great. Does your list have a great Christmas film? It’s that time of year, David.
DS: Meet Me In St Louis (US, 1944) isn’t really a Christmas film because this story of a St Louis family spans an entire 12 months. But I adore the scene in which a ravishing Judy Garland sings the immortal Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to her younger sister (Margaret O’Brien). When I was taken to see the film in 1945 at the age of six, I wept during this scene. I still weep every time I revisit this glorious Vincente Minnelli movie, and that’s probably once a year.
Fitz: OK, go on ...
DS: The Meyerowitz Stories (US, 2017) had a brief cinema release before streaming on Netflix. It’s the delicious story of a dysfunctional family reuniting when the patriarch, an artist played by Dustin Hoffman in one of his best performances, is about to receive an honour. Emma Thompson plays the artist’s wife and Ben Stiller is one of his two starkly different sons who lives in LA and is a success. The other is struggling, lives in New York and is played by Adam Sandler.
Fitz: I am guessing Adam Sandler dreams of making excellent movies, only to make execrable schlock?
DS: He’s good. They’re all very good. Witty, smart and original, this is a family movie like no other. Anyway, next up is Supernova (UK, 2020), an immensely moving drama in which Sam, played by Colin Firth, and Tusker, played by Stanley Tucci, portray a gay couple who’ve lived together happily for a very long time. But Tusker is in the advanced stages of dementia, and Sam, a concert pianist, decides to take his partner on a final road trip to say goodbye to family and friends. This is a 10-handkerchief weepy, but a wonderfully acted story of a couple facing a challenging future. Superbly directed by Harry Macqueen.
Fitz: Which brings us back to you and Margaret Pomeranz, starting out, all those years ago and often challenging each other. Over all those years of doing the show, is there a stand-out moment when you vehemently disagreed?
DS: Too many to remember, but the first one was The Castle (Australia, 1997) because it was the first film made by a team that worked in television, and it looked to me like a telemovie, whereas I’m very much into the visual side of cinema. And I also found the humour a little bit patronising. But I obviously completely misunderstood it, as I have watched it a few times since, and I now think it’s very funny.
Fitz: To which I would say, and I know I am joined by ASIO in these remarks, “Welcome to Australia, Agent Stratton! It took you a long time to come in from out of the cold, but it’s great to have you. Put your bags down, your work here is done.” And good luck with your new book, Australia at the Movies, The Ultimate Guide to Modern Australian Cinema.
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