by The Fluffer
What’s the best film that Bruce Beresford ever directed? Most Aussie movie fans would probably go for Breaker Morant with white Americans over forty no doubt plumping for Driving Miss Daisy; there are cults for Don’s Party and The Adventures of Barry McKenzie; Tender Mercies won Robert Duvall an Oscar, Beresford himself felt that Black Robe and Paradise Road were among his best, while your gran probably votes for Mao’s Last Dancer.
But for us, there’s no contest – it’s a movie that flopped commercially, received mixed reviews and which Beresford himself called a “terrible film”. It’s The Money Movers, his 1979 South Australian heist drama that we would argue is one of the best Australian crime films ever made.
The film came about due to an unusual set of circumstances. Beresford had signed a multi-picture deal with the South Australian Film Corporation following The Getting of Wisdom; he originally wanted to make either The Ferryman or a version of the Cowra Breakout called Breakout (accounts vary), but when they proved too expensive/not in the right shape, he looked around for a follow-up project and came across a contemporary crime novel called The Money Movers (NB Beresford is probably Australia’s most literate film director, forever reading books, seeing plays, etc, so he’s always got something that he wants to adapt). The novel was by Devon Minchin, a colourful character who helped establish Metropolitan Security Services, as well as being father of the climate-change-denying-anti-tobacco-regulation former Senator Nick Minchin.
The Money Movers was shot in Adelaide in 1978 and released in cinemas the following year to an underwhelming response; it was completely overshadowed by Beresford’s next film, Breaker Morant and sort of vanished into the ether. But also it didn’t, in part because of the job done by Mark Hartley in promoting Ozsploitation titles such as The Money Movers – but also because the film is bloody amazing.
The Money Movers is Bruce Beresford at his best – unpretentious, stripped back, moves like a freight train, juggles several plots and a wide galaxy of characters with incredible skill, and is superbly acted from the biggest part to the smallest. It doesn’t have anything to do with colonialism or race relations, so there’s none of Beresford’s at-times-dodgy racial politics (formed in the twin crucibles of Kings’ Boarding School and a Nigerian film unit). It gives the role of a lifetime to several cast members, notably leads Terence Donovan (leader of the heist), Ed Devereaux (heroic guard) and Charles Tingwell (villain) – all legends of the small screen, but usually given support parts in features.
Indeed, all the key actors get a moment in the sun, and they play proper characters, not just stock types – such as Terence Donovan’s guard-turned-crim, who loathes his wife (Jeanie Drynan) and misses his racing days; Ed Devereaux as a heroic bad ass trapped in the body of a suburban dad whose character is also slightly bent; Charlies Tingwell’s classical music loving crook and his efficient secretary and mother; Tingwell’s dopey eyed henchman who gleefully takes off Donovan’s toe (a scene that retains the power to shock); Candy Raymond, the gorgeous yet also bogan investigator who has a sweet romance with Tony Bonner (a guard); Bonner playing a non-macho type who likes the ladies but doesn’t like guns, a fact which saves his life; Bryan Brown (one of the crooks) and his 18 year old lover (they have a great farewell); Alan Cassell’s smart, smarmy, corrupt cop; Hu Pryce, as an executive in love with Donovan; Lucky Grills, as the branch manager forever complaining about being overlooked (he has a fantastic final scene); coughing unionist Ray Marshall (one of the criminals), with his Asian bride/lover; Frank Wilson as the exasperated but decent boss. The film was accused of homophobia by some pearl clutching critics but actually offers two three-dimensional queer characters: Tingwell’s mother-loving crime boss, and Hu Pryce’s security honcho (criticisms of misogyny are more justified).
Part of the reason that the film was so ignored by the public may have been that Australian television had been inundated with cop dramas, many of them starring the cast of The Money Movers. That’s not the case now, so the film has aged incredibly well – as a time capsule of a sexist, white-dominated misogynist Australia, yes, but it existed: when robbers carried guns as opposed to computer codes and people regularly died in shoot outs, when everyone smoked and unions were militant, when people punched out their workmates at a union meeting and no one blinked an eye. While the movie feels at times like a British ‘70s crime movie – something like Villain or Sitting Target – it’s always extremely Australian.
This is an action masterpiece. Rolf de Heer, when discussing Beresford, said that The Money Movers was the movie where “everything gels for him in terms of content and form.” David Stratton called it “a superbly crafted piece of work.” They were right – and Beresford was wrong.
Why didn’t the film break through, domestically or internationally? Maybe better known leads would have helped it sell internationally at least (Jack Thompson, say, or George Lazenby or Rod Taylor – both of whom could’ve used a good movie around this point). Maybe it was too violent for Australians, who can be resistant to extreme violence unless it’s in a war film.
Ah, anyway, who cares… see the film. It’s on Brollie.
