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The Intruders (1969 film)

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The Intruders
Film poster
Directed byLee Robinson
Screenplay byLee Robinson
Story byRoss Napier
Produced byLee Robinson
Joy Cavill
StarringEd Devereaux
CinematographyPeter Menzies
Ron & Valerie Taylor (underwater)
Edited byDon Saunders
Music byEric Jupp
Production
company
Woomera Productions
Distributed byRegent Films (Australia)
Children's Film Foundation (UK)
Release date
  • 12 December 1969 (1969-12-12)
Running time
100 mins (original version)
70 mins (UK version)
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

The Intruders (also known as Skippy and the Intruders) is a 1969 Australian film directed by Lee Robinson. It is a spin-off of the popular Skippy the Bush Kangaroo TV series.[1][2]

Synopsis

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A gang of criminals led by Meredith is looking for sunken treasure off Mallacoota, pretending to be diving for abalone. Sonny, son of Matt Hammond, the Chief Ranger of Waratah National Park, investigates with their family friend, Clancy. Sonny and Clancy are kidnapped. Skippy comes to the rescue. After a speedboat chase and a fight in the sand dunes, Meredith is captured.

Cast

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Production

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Filming began in October 1968 using the same crew and locations as the TV series. Additional location shooting was done at Mallacoota in Victoria, some 470 km south of the fictional Waratah National Park (Ku-ring-gai Chase) and in Sydney.[3]

Release

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The cinema release of the film was promoted with personal appearances from Skippy.[4]

Critical

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The Age called it "quite a pleasant adventure for the younger set" but Lee Robinson "slow paces the indoor talk which is too formal and deliberate for a telly-raised generation. In fact, some snipping with the scissors would do wonders here, even if it meant sacrificing the "A" feature length the producers aimed for."[5]

Filmink thought it "made the cardinal error of barely using Skippy in the film."[6]

Box office

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The film failed to match the popularity of the TV series and was not a box office success.[3] John McCallum later claimed they:

Got the money back on the film but we thought it would be a bigger success in the cinema. If they could see it for nothing at home, the Mums and Dads weren't too keen to take the kids and pay at the cinema. We sold it to the Children's Film Foundation in England and they did well with it. They cut it down to a 60-minute version and played in Saturday mornings in the cinemas.[7]

In 1976 Robinson said the film had been sold to network television in the US but had not recouped its costs and was "unlikely to" although he felt the short version "was a very good film... it really goes crack along." Robinson put the financial failure down to the fact the series was still being made at the time.[8]

References

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  1. ^ "SKIPPY STARS IN A FEATURE FILM". The Australian Women's Weekly. 17 December 1969. p. 17. Retrieved 10 September 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ Croskell, Wayne (18 December 1969). "Skippy makes her screen debut". The Age. p. 20.
  3. ^ a b Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998 p245
  4. ^ "Much B-O-I-N-G at the airport". The Age. 18 December 1969. p. 2.
  5. ^ Bennett, Colin (22 December 1969). "Hello Dolly, it's nice to have you back". The Age. p. 2.
  6. ^ Vagg, Stephen (23 April 2023). "Barry Humphries – The First Proper Film Star of the Australian Revival". Filmink.
  7. ^ John McCallum interview with Brian McFarlane, The Oxford Companion to Australian Film, Oxford Uni Press, 1999 p 299
  8. ^ Robinson, Lee (15 August 1976). "Lee Robinson" (Oral history). Interviewed by Graham Shirley. National Film and Sound Archive.
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