The Adventures of Barry McKenzie ** (1972, Barry Crocker, Barry Humphries, Peter Cook, Spike Milligan, Dick Bentley, Dennis Price, Julie Covington, Avice Landone) – Classic Movie Review 12,484

Barry Humphries teamed up with Bruce Beresford in 1971–72 to create a film version of his Barry McKenzie cartoons, which was savaged by critics but became a huge hit. 

Australian singer Barry Crocker plays the sex-hungry, beer-swilling Aussie ‘yobbo’ Barry ‘Bazza’ McKenzie in all sorts of the most predictable, slapstick trouble on a visit to the good old UK, in director Bruce Beresford’s 1972 Australian comedy film The Adventures of Barry McKenzie.

It is a crude, too long (117 minutes) and shoddily made, but often sneakily funny comedy, based on the Private Eye satirical magazine’s comic strip The Wonderful World of Barry McKenzie written by Barry Humphries and drawn by New Zealand born cartoonist Nicholas Garland.

Humphries co-wrote the film’s juvenile script with the director, and also stars in three different parts, happily including his great, enduring alter-ego character Edna Everage, Barry McKenzie’s aunt, who travels to England with him to advance his cultural education. Peter Cook notably plays the BBC television producer Dominic.

Okay this is supposed to be a bawdy comedy, so all of that’s fine, and there are many amusing moments and amusing turns. But it is very slack and silly, and Dennis Price is demeaned by playing Mr Gort in a schoolboy part that is beneath him.

Barry Humphries teamed up with Bruce Beresford and producer Phillip Adams in 1971–72 to create this film version of the Barry McKenzie cartoons, which was savaged by Australian film critics, but became a huge hit and the most successful Australian feature released in Australia up to that time.

It was filmed in England and Australia with a starry iconic cast including Spike Milligan, Peter Cook, Dennis Price, Dick Bentley, Willie Rushton, Julie Covington, Clive James and Joan Bakewell. It is Beresford’s début, but, surprisingly, he survived it and graduated to posh adult film-making, though only after he directed and co-wrote the sequel: 1974’s Barry McKenzie Holds His Own. Beresford recalled: ‘The films were so reviled critically that I thought that, with these two films, I’ll never work again. Luckily Phillip Adams saved my life by offering me Don’s Party.’

The film was entirely funded by the Australian Film Development Corporation, with shooting starting in London in January 1972 and moving to Australia in February.

In Barry McKenzie Holds His Own, Edna is made a dame by the then Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam.

The cast are Barry Crocker as Barry McKenzie, Barry Humphries as Aunt Edna/ Hoot/ Meyer de Lamphrey, Peter Cook as Dominic, Spike Milligan as landlord, Dick Bentley as detective, Dennis Price as Mr Gort, Julie Covington as Blanche, Avice Landone as Mrs Gort, Joan Bakewell as herself, Paul Bertram as Curly, Mary Anne Severne as Lesley, Jonathan Hardy as Groove Courtney, Jenny Tomasin as Sarah Gort, Chris Malcolm as Sean, Judith Furse as Claude, Maria O’Brien as Caroline Thighs, John Joyce as Maurie Miller, Margo Lloyd as Mrs McKenzie, Brian Tapply as avant-garde composer, John Clarke as an underground filmmaker, Wilfred Grove as customs officer, William Rushton as man on plane, Bernard Spear as taxi driver Jack Watling as TV director, Alexander Archdale, and Clive James as man passed out at party.

The deliriously funny Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist Barry Humphries (17 February 1934 – 22 April 2023) made quite a few films but is of course best known for writing and playing his stage and TV characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.

From the late 1960s Humphries appeared in numerous films, including Bedazzled (1967), The Bliss of Mrs Blossom, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie (1972), Percy’s Progress (1974), The Great Macarthy (1975), Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (1974), Side by Side (1975), The Getting of Wisdom (1977). Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Shock Treatment.

Humphries also appeared in Dr Fischer of Geneva (1985), Howling III (1987),  Selling Hitler (1991), Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills (1995), Immortal Beloved (1994),  The Leading Man (1996), Spice World, Welcome to Woop Woop (1997), Nicholas Nickleby (2002), The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball (1982), A Night of Comic Relief 2 (1989), Les Patterson Saves the World, Finding Nemo, and The Hobbit.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,484

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com