Caddie **** (1976, Helen Morse, Jack Thompson, Takis Emmanuel, Jacki Weaver, Melissa Jaffer, Ron Blanchard, Drew Forsythe, Kirrily Nolan) – Classic Movie Review 13,814

The 1976 Australian biopic film Caddie stars Helen Morse, who won the Australian Film Institute’s Best Actress award in 1976.

Director Donald Crombie’s 1976 Australian biopic film Caddie stars Helen Morse, Jack Thompson, Takis Emmanuel. Helen Morse won the Australian Film Institute’s Best Actress award in 1976 as Caddie, and Jacki Weaver and Melissa Jaffer were the first recipients of Best Supporting Actress for their roles as Josie and Leslie, while Drew Forsythe won Best Actor in a Supporting Role as Sonny.

Helen Morse gives a sympathetic account of young middle class Sydney, Australia woman Caddie Marsh, who walked out after her brutish husband’s infidelity and supported herself and two children with work as a barmaid in a pub in the 1920s and 1930s. She catches the eye of a smooth dandy named Ted (Jack Thompson), but he gets involved with another woman, and then she strikes up a romantic relationship with a dashing Greek immigrant called Peter (Takis Emmanuel), but he is already married to another woman and he has to return to Greece.

The film is a smooth, plush and involving adaptation of the partly fictitious autobiographical book Caddie, the Story of a Barmaid by Catherine Beatrice ‘Caddie’ Edmonds, with a strong screenplay by Joan Long.

Nevertheless, the compelling, naturalistic performances of Morse, Jack Thompson and Takis Emmanuel, as the pub client who befriends Caddie, are the film’s main attraction, along with those of Jacki Weaver and Melissa Jaffer as Josie and Leslie, as well as Drew Forsythe as Sonny.

Director Crombie gets the period atmosphere and posh art-work picture feel just right, telling a downbeat tale in a bright, crowd-pleasing way.

It is one of the little gems of the New Australian Cinema of the 1970s.

Released on 1 April 1976.

It was a hit. Costing A$400,000, it took A$2,847,000 at the Australia box office.

Cast: Helen Morse, Jack Thompson, Takis Emmanuel, Kirrily Nolan, Jacki Weaver, Melissa Jaffer, Ron Blanchard, Drew Forsythe.

The real-life barmaid Catherine Edmonds published her autobiographical book in 1953.

Australian Film Institute

When the AFI launched the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) in 2011, it changed the annual ceremony to the AACTA Awards, with the current AACTA award being a continuum of the AFI Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Toni Collette and Judy Davis are the most awarded actresses in this category, with three wins each, Judy Davis for Hoodwink, On My Own and The Dressmaker.

Judy Davis has received eight AACTA Awards, two BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and one Screen Actors Guild Award.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,814

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