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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Queensland canecutters Roo and Barney have spent the previous sixteen summers off in Sydney with their girlfriends, Olive and Nancy. Each year, Barney has ritualistically presented Olive (a barmaid) with a kewpie doll. Time has begun to take its toll, however, and this seventeenth summer is very different. After a bad season--which saw him lose his position as head canecutter to a younger man, Dowd--Roo quits the gang, leaving him without a job and short of money. His and Barney's friendship is subsequently tested when Barney decides to continue working under Dowd. In another change since their last visit, Nancy has married, and although Olive has arranged for Pearl, a manicurist, to move in with Barney, the new arrangement doesn't feel right. When Roo tries to persuade Olive to settle down with him in marriage after all these years, she at first refuses angrily but later accepts.
The film's screenplay moves the play's location from the Melbourne suburb of Carlton to Sydney. The theme of faded dreams is also weakened by a more optimistic ending.
Notes
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The film was heavily criticised in Australia, largely in response to the changes in both the setting and the ending of Ray Lawler's play and the casting of non-Australian actors in the principal roles.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Why Old Is New Again - the Mid-century Homes Made Famous by Don’s Party and Dame Edna
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 19 July 2019; -
Masculinity and Cultural Contestation in the Australian 1950s
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , vol. 49 no. 2 2018; (p. 184-202)'Enduring popular narratives posit the 1950s as a time of gendered oppression and conservative stability. While previous historians have pointed to the social and political changes of the period, their work has understood culture as a passive reflector of these transformations. Through analysis of four Australian films, this article argues that the contemporary cultural landscape was a dynamic space that actively negotiated between competing ideals. Exploring the representation of distinct albeit legitimate models of masculinity in these films, this article reveals the complex and unsteady gender order unfolding in the cultural world of the 1950s.' (Publication abstract)
-
The Polysemous Coathanger : The Sydney Harbour Bridge in Feature Film, 1930-1982
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , July - September no. 40 2006; 'The cinema has long been attracted to photographing great cultural icons. This article provides a thorough account of the celluloid life of one of Australia's most distinctive landmarks.' (Publisher's abstract)
-
y
The Historical Relations Between Theatre and Film: 'The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll'
Perth
:
Centre for Research in Culture and Communication (Murdoch University)
,
1995
Z1627641
1987
single work
criticism
Using the theatrical and film productions of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll as an example, Tom O'Regan explores the failure of film studies to create the kind of productive relationship with theatre/performance studies that it had had for more than a decade with literary theory. He argues that 'nowhere is this more evident than in the separation of the study of Australian theatre and filmmaking in critical discourse. This is despite the fact that the theatre has constituted a reference point for film producers from pre-sound cinema days to the present in terms of film properties, script-writers, acting talent, and directors; and there has always been a significant crossing over of personnel from one medium to the other right up to David Williamson in the present.'
-
y
Australian Film in the 1950s
1987
Perth
:
Centre for Research in Culture and Communication (Murdoch University)
,
1995
Z1611522
1987
single work
criticism
Tom O'Regan notes that 'historiographically, the Australian film industry of the 1950s is known for both the restrictive circumstances of production and its location films.' In this essay he examines both the development of particular frameworks for the appreciation of films (including Australian cinema) and the interrelationship between film and cultural spheres (particularly theatre and arts policy) across the decade. O'Regan also demonstrates how events and discourses of the 1950s formed an important conceptual and institutional pre-history for subsequent developments in the 1960s leading towards the 1970s Australian film industry revival.
-
y
Australian Film in the 1950s
1987
Perth
:
Centre for Research in Culture and Communication (Murdoch University)
,
1995
Z1611522
1987
single work
criticism
Tom O'Regan notes that 'historiographically, the Australian film industry of the 1950s is known for both the restrictive circumstances of production and its location films.' In this essay he examines both the development of particular frameworks for the appreciation of films (including Australian cinema) and the interrelationship between film and cultural spheres (particularly theatre and arts policy) across the decade. O'Regan also demonstrates how events and discourses of the 1950s formed an important conceptual and institutional pre-history for subsequent developments in the 1960s leading towards the 1970s Australian film industry revival.
-
y
The Historical Relations Between Theatre and Film: 'The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll'
Perth
:
Centre for Research in Culture and Communication (Murdoch University)
,
1995
Z1627641
1987
single work
criticism
Using the theatrical and film productions of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll as an example, Tom O'Regan explores the failure of film studies to create the kind of productive relationship with theatre/performance studies that it had had for more than a decade with literary theory. He argues that 'nowhere is this more evident than in the separation of the study of Australian theatre and filmmaking in critical discourse. This is despite the fact that the theatre has constituted a reference point for film producers from pre-sound cinema days to the present in terms of film properties, script-writers, acting talent, and directors; and there has always been a significant crossing over of personnel from one medium to the other right up to David Williamson in the present.'
-
The Polysemous Coathanger : The Sydney Harbour Bridge in Feature Film, 1930-1982
2006
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Senses of Cinema , July - September no. 40 2006; 'The cinema has long been attracted to photographing great cultural icons. This article provides a thorough account of the celluloid life of one of Australia's most distinctive landmarks.' (Publisher's abstract)
-
Masculinity and Cultural Contestation in the Australian 1950s
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Historical Studies , vol. 49 no. 2 2018; (p. 184-202)'Enduring popular narratives posit the 1950s as a time of gendered oppression and conservative stability. While previous historians have pointed to the social and political changes of the period, their work has understood culture as a passive reflector of these transformations. Through analysis of four Australian films, this article argues that the contemporary cultural landscape was a dynamic space that actively negotiated between competing ideals. Exploring the representation of distinct albeit legitimate models of masculinity in these films, this article reveals the complex and unsteady gender order unfolding in the cultural world of the 1950s.' (Publication abstract)
-
Why Old Is New Again - the Mid-century Homes Made Famous by Don’s Party and Dame Edna
2019
single work
column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 19 July 2019;
- Sydney, New South Wales,
- 1950s
