Fresh and Exciting

A different way of telling a story

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

"Alvin Rides Again" (1974) may be a superior comedy to the original, in that it contains one actually funny scene. Its hero, Alvin Purple, is introduced to his doppelganger, Balls McGee, a gangster from America. The gangster wants to watch his favourite TV show - "Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo", and sings along to the theme music.Graeme Blundell plays both roles with surprising panache - all the more surprising considering that the screenwriters contrive to off the Balls McGee character almost immediately so that we can be subjected to some tedious switcheroo gags as police come looking for Balls, find Alvin, Alvin goes to get dressed up as Balls, returns. This is funny by default, apparently.Supposedly there was less nudity this time around, which makes sense considering the intelligence that apparently went into the making of both films. The only reason anyone saw the original film was for the nudity, so why not include less nudity in this installment? There is also a bigger budget, though unless you pay close attention during the more boring moments, you might miss this. The original movie was a big success in Australia, so of course the sequel has to have something to show for it...The answer is, a pointless car chase at the end of the movie, featuring a car with guns mounted to the side. I don't know if the driver was ever introduced, or if reasons were ever given for why he wants to kill Alvin, but no matter. The chase scene is as tedious as it is pointless, and it features two explosions - so THAT's where the money went! - and ends in the surprisingly violent death of an innocent bystander. Yes, this is the sort of comedy where men impersonate women without shaving moustaches and sideburns and yet fool everybody, people run in and out of rooms chasing each other in fast forward while zany music plays, dwarven actors have their voices dubbed to make them sound as high pitched as possible, and forklift operators are violently machine-gunned to death. One of these things is not like the other.Some comedies are so witless that they approach surrealism. "Alvin Rides Again" doesn't quite reach that level, for while the violence is bizarre and completely out of place, its presence as an afterthought simply suggests the writers had no idea what to do with the budget they had or the movie they had to make. It is also portrayed so unrealistically that you could miss it pretty easily. There is, after all, perhaps the least painful meat cleaver to the face shot I have ever seen in a movie.

Of course, this one doesn't rise to the former hit, this time around, sees Alvin take a weird and interesting change of story. In the early part, we have Abigail, a café/store/servo worker, teasing us and Alvin with her goodies. She was to become Alvin's wife, a different character in the follow up, Melvin, son of Alvin. Here Alvin and his best friend, (Finney) who still can't get around, how woman are all so attracted to his buddy, get inadvertently mixed up with mobsters, with Alvin doubling as a crime boss, taking the place of dead gangster, Ball's Mcgee. He too hate missing out on Skippy. That's Oz respect for ya. All the usual type actors appear here, who we see in a lot of Tim Burstall's stuff, it's almost a revolving door of performers. Before Alvin lands in all this mess, he and his mate, share house with a female cricket team, led by the late great Penny Hackforth Jones, where he's in over his head in young poontang. Exhausted, he gets his mate to take over, one big woman mistakenly ending up with him. When she leaves, clothes and hair disheveled, her smile of appease is priceless. This is still enjoyable as the first, and I must say, it's different direction of story, worked with a lot of interesting moments. Blundell can show his acting capabilities, but he's not an actor, you could really brag about. Of course, this film wasn't meant to surpass it's predecessor. Alvin too shows us at the start, which the movie, doesn't let you forget it's raunchy intentions, how being a sex magnet can affect his job stability.

WARNING: PLOT SPOILERS! Alvin Purple was Australia's first real sex film, and despite (or because of) a phenomenal domestic box office and even a TV special on the making of the movie, it is usually written off by the cultural elite. In the Noughties the film is enjoying somewhat of a reappraisal, usually from the same cultural archaeologists who have just discovered the wonders of the Barry Mackenzie series. Despite its `sex film' tag it had and still has a legitimacy thanks to Burstall's quirky direction, Brian Cadd's hit film score, an assured supporting cast loaded with familiar TV and film faces, and the endearing acting by Blundell. Of course its timing - the `Permissive Society' and the R rating were in full swing - was perfect.The inevitable sequel, Alvin Rides Again, appeared in 1974. Burstall, it seems, was more concerned with building on his reputation as a `legitimate' filmmaker (he directed the much superior Petersen the same year, and had marked his first dramatic narrative in the four-part, four director Libido in 1973) and slipped into the producer's chair; this time Burstall's usual editor and cameraman, David Bilcock and Robin Copping, were credited as directors. Alan Hopgood again wrote the script, with additional material by Burstall and Alan Finney (who plays Purple's even more hapless mate Spike Dooley in the two films). Another surprise was the rating - dropped from an R to M rating, still showing full nudity but with no simulated sex scenes. Purple again goes from one dead-end job to another - window washer, taxi driver, office cleaner (almost an A-Z of British sex comedy situations!) - and thanks to the amorous advances of middle aged nymphos, gets fired from each one. He and Spike decide to head for a fishing holiday; the car breaks down at a servo run by Maurie Fields and his sex-starved bra-busting wife (the welcome return of Abigail, in an extended cameo). After single-handedly destroying the shop, Purple grabs Spike and they hitch a ride with an all-girl cricket team (their motto: `stuff the men'), and after a night of bedhopping till stumps, they end up in drag on the cricket pitch trying to win back their bets.At a casino gambling away their ill-begotten gains they run into Purple's dead ringer: a cornball Italian-American gangster called Balls McGee. Purple accidentally sets of a champagne cork that leads to Balls getting plugged. Alvin now has to pose with the rest of the criminal gang as Balls McGee to get a foot in the plan by local crime kingpin Fingers (a great overtheatrical role by stage giant Frank Thring) to rob the casino. Predictably it goes horribly wrong, and hitman The Hatchet (another eye-rolling, scene-chewing appearance by Noel Ferrier) is dispatched to finish off Alvin and co for good. The film ends with a hilarious car chase through Melbourne's tram country, Hatchet behind the wheel of a hearse, machine gun on the bonnet with barrels blazing!Alvin Rides Again ups the ante on guest spots: US-born perennial tough guy Gus Mercurio plays one of Balls' henchmen, and shaggy haired Brian Cadd makes a memorable appearance as the casino entertainer. Blundell as the real Balls is a hoot, leading a rousing tearful chorus of `Skippy The Bush Kangaroo', but a few writers have noted that his appearance marks the downturn of the movie. It's true - the first half hour is pure British Confessions-style sex farce, the gangster schtick is sitcom territory and even in 1974 when the sight of Blundell stuffing his cheeks with tissues a la Brando was still fresh, I'm sure it got old quick. Ever see the feature film version of George And Mildred? They had gangsters too, and they were about as funny.

I did not really enjoy this movie. While the addition of Frank Thring and Gus Mercurio added a certain upbeat flavour to the film, it did little to suspend the film's monotonous tone which detracts highly from the prestige of the original. I also point to the degeneration of the film as soon as Alvin assumes his gangster persona.