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Goodbye Paradise

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Goodbye Paradise
DVD cover
Directed byCarl Schultz
Written byBob Ellis
Denny Lawrence
Produced byJane Scott
StarringRay Barrett
Paul Chubb
Guy Doleman
CinematographyJohn Seale
Edited byRichard Francis-Bruce
Music byPeter Best
Production
companies
Petersham Pictures
NSW Film Corporation
Distributed byFilmways
Release date
  • 1983 (1983)
Running time
119 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.1 million (AUS)[1]

Goodbye Paradise is a 1983 Australian film directed by Carl Schultz starring Ray Barrett.

Premise

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On Queensland's Gold Coast, a disgraced former cop, Michael Stacey, is writing a long-delayed book exposing police corruption. To make some money he accepts a job from an old acquaintance, Senator McCredie, to locate the senator's missing daughter Kathy.

He encounters a series of unusual characters, including members of the Queensland seccession movement and a cult led by Stacey's old army friend Todd.

Cast

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Production

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Development

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The idea of doing a Raymond Chandler-type story set on the Gold Coast came from Denny Lawrence. His original idea was to have an ex-police officer working as a private investigator who investigated a quasi-religious commune run by a charlatan that ended with the deaths of many of the commune's followers. Then the Jonestown Massacre happened and Lawrence backed away from this idea.[2]

He then pitched the idea to Bob Ellis, who liked it and the two of them agreed to work together.[3] Ellis said Lawrence "came to me and simply said, 'Surfers Paradise. Ray Barrett. Raymond Chandler.' And that was it."[4]

They always envisioned Ray Barrett in the lead role as the private eye Stacey and the three of them got some money from the NSW Film Corporation to go up to Surfers Paradise for a week to research and write the script.

Many of Ray Barrett's characteristics found their way into the character of Stacey. Barrett:

Bob is a great observer, and when I finally read the script, I thought "You bugger; you've observed Barrett!" But I didn't mind. I was flattered because Stacey is a living person. He is a failure, really, but a loveable failure; a kind man at heart. Yet everything's slipped by him and he hasn't achieved the things he's wanted to. The character relates to a lot of people, including myself. Bob's put the finger on it. He's brilliant.[5]

According to Lawrence, he was more interested in a genre piece whereas Ellis tried to incorporate his personal politics, but the collaboration was a successful one and the two men would work again many times in the following years.[2]

The film was financed by the NSW Film Commission under Paul Riomfalvy.[6]

The NSW Film Commission wanted Michael Thornhill to direct but he wanted several changes to the script and Ellis and Lawrence insisted that Carl Schultz direct.[3] "The script was so good all I had to do was follow it, which I did, religiously," said Schultz. "It was so packed with detail that it didn't really need me. I suppose my task was to unify all the different elements."[7]

Casting

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Bob Ellis claimed the producer wanted to cast Max Gillies in the lead instead of Barrett.[8]

Janet Scrivener was a young model.[9] Many of the roles were written for specific actors. Robyn Nevin said "I very much like my part because it's different from anything I've done before. It's a bit mad, and rather fun to be doing the sort of role you'd never think of casting yourself in."[10] The character of Quiney was meant to be played by Anthony Quayle but Guy Doleman was cast instead.[2]

Filming

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The movie was shot in the winter of 1981 in and around Surfers Paradise over eight weeks.[1]

Release

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In September 1982, 12 months after filming completed, it was announced the movie had found a distributor, Filmways - with a release planned for November.[11][12] However the film was not released in Sydney until July 1983. "Distributors kept telling me that it was 'unconventional' and 'too difficult to handle'," said Scott.[4]

Awards

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The film was nominated for 4 AFI Awards, won in the Best Actor in the Lead Role (Ray Barrett) and Best Screenplay, Original or Adapted (Bob Ellis, Denny Lawrence) categories. John Seale won the Cinematographer of the Year award of the Australian Cinematographers Society.[13] These took place in October 1982 before the film had been released.[14][15]

The movie also won Best Film and Best Actor at the Sydney Film Critics Circle Awards.[16][17]

Reception

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Filmnews wrote "you can't help but feel that despite the excesses, there's a good film in there somewhere. And, if only as an object lesson in the pathology of contemporary Australian filmmaking, it deserves to be seen."[18]

The Bulletin wrote "Although it comes out of the traditions of hard-boiled Californian fiction, it’s not a museum-piece. It has a life of its own and an essentially Australian character."[19]

Sequel

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Bob Ellis and Denny Lawrence wrote a sequel for the film called Goodbye Adelaide. The plot involved Stacy finishing the book he is writing in the first movie and visiting the Adelaide Festival to promote it, where he is caught up in an attempted defection by a Russian poet. In January 1985 The Age reported the film would be made that year with a budget of $3 million.[20] However, the movie was never made.[1][2]

The movie was one of a number of films sold by the NSWFC to the Pepper Group.[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b c David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation, Pan Macmillan 1990 pp. 234-236
  2. ^ a b c d Christine Cremen, "Denny Lawrence", Cinema Papers, May–June 1983 p 113-115
  3. ^ a b David Stratton interview Bob Ellis at SBS Movie Show. Retrieved 28 March 2015
  4. ^ a b "Goodye Paradise - the classic detective movie nobody wants". The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 July 1983. p. 6.
  5. ^ Mark Stiles, "Ray Barrett", Cinema Papers, October 1982 p439
  6. ^ Glover, Richard (15 August 1986). "A willingness to fund new talent". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 22.
  7. ^ "Stacey's journey - a long goodbye to paradise". The Sydney Morning Herald. 15 July 1983. p. 21.
  8. ^ Ellis, Bob (20 November 1985). "Casting aspersions". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 19.
  9. ^ "Learning in Paradise". The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 49, no. 14. Australia, Australia. 30 September 1981. p. 136. Retrieved 25 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ "Robyn spreads her wings". The Australian Women's Weekly. Vol. 49, no. 14. Australia, Australia. 30 September 1981. p. 139. Retrieved 25 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ "Goodbye paradise finds a distributor". The Sydney Morning Herald. 18 September 1982. p. 36.
  12. ^ Ellis, Bob (25 September 1982). "Australian cinema: oblivion revisited?". The Age Saturday Extra. p. 11.
  13. ^ IMDb awards
  14. ^ "18 Australian films put up for awards". The Canberra Times. Vol. 56, no. 17, 132. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 24 August 1982. p. 13. Retrieved 25 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ "'Lonely Hearts' best film". The Canberra Times. Vol. 57, no. 17, 197. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 28 October 1982. p. 1. Retrieved 25 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "LATE NEWS Film awards". The Canberra Times. Vol. 58, no. 17, 516. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 13 September 1983. p. 1. Retrieved 25 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ^ "CRITICS CIRCLE". Filmnews. Vol. 13, no. 10. New South Wales, Australia. 1 October 1983. p. 3. Retrieved 25 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ "Goodbye Paradise (Aust, 1982; dist: Filmways; rt: 120 mins)". Filmnews. Vol. 13, no. 7. New South Wales, Australia. 1 July 1983. p. 15. Retrieved 25 January 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ^ "FILMS Hard-boiled wit found in Paradise", The Bulletin, Sydney, N.S.W: John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 26 July 1983, nla.obj-1578612128, retrieved 25 January 2025 – via Trove
  20. ^ Simpson, Graham (29 January 1985). "A Busy Year Planned for Our Film Industry". The Age. p. 14.
  21. ^ Walker, Frank (17 December 1989). "Our film classics lost to Panama". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 18.

Notes

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  • Murray, Scott (1994). Australian Cinema. St.Leonards, NSW.: Allen & Unwin/AFC. p. 257. ISBN 1-86373-311-6.
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