Sunstruck

Sunstruck, also known by the alternative title of Education of Stanley Evans, is a 1972 British–Australian comedy film directed by James Gilbert and starring Harry Secombe, Maggie Fitzgibbon and John Meillon.[2]

Sunstruck
Directed byJames Gilbert
Produced byJames Grafton
Jack Neary
Written byStan Mars
StarringHarry Secombe
Music byPeter Knight
CinematographyBrian West
Edited byAnthony Buckley
Barry Peters
Production
company
Immigrant Productions
Distributed byBritish Empire Films
Release date
18 November 1972
Running time
92 mins
CountryAustralia
United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
BudgetA$400,000[1]

Plot

Stanley Evans, a Welsh schoolteacher, is very proud of the choir that he's formed with his pupils. But when the girl of his dreams – a new gym teacher – marries a fellow teacher, he decides to leave and migrate to Australia for a better life 'in the sun'.

From Sydney, he is assigned to a small school in the dead-end town of Kookaburra Springs, living in a small room over the local hotel run by Sal and Mick. All the kids live in farms throughout the district.

Homesick, and constantly playing recordings of his original school choir, he decides to form a choir of his new pupils, who haven't been taking him seriously and play pranks on him.

Mick secretly decides that the kids should enter a schools choir competition in Sydney, and when the application is accepted, Stan has only a few weeks left to train the group. They travel by bus to Sydney accompanied by Shirley, a feisty young lady who has taken a shine to Stan. But Shirley's brother doesn't want his sister involved with 'a fat little Welsh Pom', and makes clear his feelings to Stan before they leave.

The choir win a special commendation.

On his return, Stan marries Shirley.[3]

Cast

Production

The film was inspired by a poster used by the New South Wales government to attract teachers from Britain, where a teacher wearing swimmers and an academic board stands on Bondi Beach. It was designed as a vehicle for Harry Secombe and was shot near Parkes in New South Wales from January 1972. The budget mostly came from United States and British sources, with $100,000 from the Australian Film Development Corporation.[1][4]

The pupils seen acting at choir practice in the early part of the film were from Afon Taf High School in Troedyrhiw. The choir recorded the entire choral soundtrack at the school and it was used in both the Welsh and Australian sequences. The beginning of the film used locations in two Welsh mining villages; Treharris and Trelewis near Merthyr Tydfil. The name of the school is Webster Street School, Treharris which has since been demolished for housing.

Release

The film did not perform particularly well commercially or critically.[1]

Bibliography
  • Readle, Eric. History and heartburn: the saga of Australian film, 1896–1978. Associated University Presses, 1981.
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References
  1. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998 p267
  2. BFI.org
  3. Readle p.184
  4. "FEATURES WRITERS' WORLD BOOKS Dusty bush setting for former Goon's film". The Canberra Times. 22 January 1972. p. 11. Retrieved 10 December 2013 – via National Library of Australia.
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