''Funny Things Happen Down Under'' is a 1965 Australian-New Zealand

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks ...

directed by Joe McCormick. It stars

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...

Ian Turpie Ian or Iain is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, derived from the Hebrew given name (Yohanan, ') and corresponding to the English name John. The spelling Ian is an Anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic forename ''Iain''. It is a popular name in Sc ...

and

Howard Morrison Sir Howard Leslie Morrison (18 August 1935 – 24 September 2009) was a New Zealand entertainer. From 1964 until his death in 2009, he was one of New Zealand's leading television and concert performers. Early life Of Māori (Te Arawa), Irish ...

, and is best remembered today for being Newton-John's first film.

Plot

The film centres around a

barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G. ...

that is used by a group of children as a meeting place for singing practice. When the owner of the property experiences financial difficulties and considers selling the barn, one of the children comes up with an idea to raise money. The children dye sheep on his property and market the coloured wool as a naturally occurring phenomenon. The coloured wool soon becomes sought after by buyers all over the world. However, when the coloured wool runs thin, the owner is still in danger of losing his barn. Two station hands, sympathetic to the plight of the children, decide to help by winning the remaining money in a sheep shearing contest.

Cast

Sue Haworth Susanne Haworth is a retired Australian producer and film and television actress. She was a well-known child star during the 1960s, best known as Susan Wells in the children's adventure series '' Adventures of the Seaspray'', but also had memo ...

as Teena *

as Lennie * Bruce Barry as Frank *

as Kingie *

*William Hodge *Kurt Beimel *Frank Rich *John Gray

Production

The film was a spin-off of the

Terrible Ten The ''Terrific Adventures of the Terrible Ten'', more commonly known as ''The Adventures of the Terrible Ten'', was an Australian children's TV show originally titled ''Ten Town'' that ran from 1959 to 1960. The series was filmed in rural Victor ...

TV series. It was shot entirely in Victoria, on location near Melbourne and in the studio of

Pacific Films Pacific Films is a film production company in New Zealand. It is not to be confused with other companies with the name, including the film company in Hawaii that produced Phantom Below''. History The Pacific Film Unit was established in Welling ...

and

were dating during filming.

Reception

''Filmink'' magazine said the film featured "the campest dancing shearers in cinematic history".

References

External links