Funny Things Happen Down Under

1965 Australian film

August 1965 (1965-08) (New Zealand)
23 December 1966 (1966-12-23) (Australia)

Running time

61 minutesCountriesAustralia
New ZealandLanguageEnglish

Funny Things Happen Down Under is a 1965 Australian-New Zealand musical film directed by Joe McCormick. It stars Olivia Newton-John, Ian Turpie and Howard Morrison, and is best remembered today for being Newton-John's first film.^[2]

Plot

The film centres around a barn that is used by a group of children as a meeting place for singing practice. When the owner of the property experiences financial difficulties and considers selling the barn, one of the children comes up with an idea to raise money. The children dye sheep on his property and market the coloured wool as a naturally occurring phenomenon.

The coloured wool soon becomes sought after by buyers all over the world. However, when the coloured wool runs thin, the owner is still in danger of losing his barn. Two station hands, sympathetic to the plight of the children, decide to help by winning the remaining money in a sheep shearing contest.

Cast

Sue Haworth as Teena
Ian Turpie as Lennie
Bruce Barry as Frank
Howard Morrison as Kingie
Olivia Newton-John as Livvy
William Hodge
Kurt Beimel as Herr Kuhn
Frank Rich as Mr. McIsaac
John Gray
The Terrible Ten (troupe of child actors)
Frank Taylor as Policeman (uncredited)

Production

The film was a spin-off of the Terrible Ten TV series. It was shot entirely in Victoria, on location near Melbourne and in the studio of Pacific Films.

Olivia Newton-John and Ian Turpie were dating during filming.^[3]

Reception

Filmink magazine said that Joe Latona's choreography for the film's finale featured "the campest dancing shearers in cinematic history".^[4]

References

^ History and heartburn: the saga of Australian film, 1896–1978. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. 1980. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-8386-3082-2. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
^ Vagg, Stephen (23 December 2019). "Australian Film Musicals You Probably Didn't Realise Existed". Filmink. Archived from the original on 27 April 2021.
^ "Episode 64: Olivia Newton-John interview". Enough Rope with Andrew Denton. 18 October 2004. Archived from the original (web.archive.org) on 18 July 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
^ Vagg, Stephen (14 July 2019). "Australian Singers Turned Actors". Filmink. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021.