The Right Thing (film)

The Right Thing is a 1963 comedy Australian television play.[3] Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.[4]

The Right Thig
Written byRaymond Bowers
Directed byRaymond Menmuir
Country of originAustralia
Original language(s)English
Production
Running time80 mins
Production company(s)ABC
Release
Original networkABC
Original release2 October 1963 (Sydney)[1]
9 October 1963 (Melbourne)[2]

Plot

The adventures of a Sydney family. They are holding an engagement party for their eldest daughter Elena when a Spanish expat, J.G., comes into an encounter with them.

Cast
  • Lola Brooks as Elena
  • Brigid Lenihan as Elena's mother
  • Alastair Smart
  • Grant Taylor as Elena's father
  • David Yorston

Production

The play was written by Raymond Bowers, an Australian living in London. It was commissioned by Associated Rediffusion. It was directed by Ray Memnuir who had recently returned to Australia after several years in London.[2]

Scenes were shot on Sydney's North Shore, the Cahill Expressway, a Sydney beach, and the Harbour Bridge. It was telerecorded and later shown in London by Associated-Rediffusion. It was the first of a series of exchange programs between the ABC and the British television company.[5]

Reception

Rod Serling saw the play and disliked the script but praised the acting.[6]

The TV critic from the Sydney Morning Herald said "there was polish in the filming and the script" of The Right Thing but "the fun is wearing a little thin... The insistence on heavily accented Australiana may be more acceptable to overseas audiences than home viewers but the comedy was very well handled."[7]

The Sunday Sydney Morning Herald called it "one of the biggest turkeys the ABC has given us this season... a dreary and slow moving 90 minutes... almost redeemed by the first class acting of its stars."[8]

The Bulletin wrote that in the play "Australians are pre-1939 characters who drive 1963 cars and live in contemporary homes. The males are Flintstones; publicans and beach boys in conflict with a kind of supple European valor which baffles them, though the girls understand it well enough.... A ll of the players acted splendidly to the script, and with an English television showing lined up, Raymond Menmuir and his crew were able to step beyond the usual confines and do a fine indoors-outdoors production."[9]

See also
  • List of television plays broadcast on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1960s)

References
  1. "TV Guide". Sydney Morning Herald. 30 September 1963. p. 20.
  2. "Australian TV Play Goes Overseas in New Export Deal". The Age. 3 October 1963. p. 12.
  3. "Yorston Here Again In Play". The Canberra Times. 38 (10, 708). Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 2 December 1963. p. 9. Retrieved 8 May 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. Vagg, Stephen (18 February 2019). "60 Australian TV Plays of the 1950s & '60s". Filmink.
  5. "Play for London". Sydney Morning Herald. 23 September 1963. p. 14.
  6. "Let's go to the zoo". The Australian Women's Weekly. 31 (21). Australia, Australia. 23 October 1963. p. 15. Retrieved 8 May 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. "Drama". Sydney Morning Herald. 3 October 1963. p. 13.
  8. Marshall, Valda (6 October 1963). "TV Merry Go Round". Sydney Morning Herald. p. 74.
  9. Roberts, Frank (19 October 1963). "The Wrong Thing". The Bulletin. p. 37.


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