''A Dangerous Summer'' (aka ''Flash Fire'') is a 1982 Australian

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by Quentin Masters and starring

Tom Skerritt Thomas Roy Skerritt (born August 25, 1933) is an American actor and director, who has appeared in over 170 film and television productions since 1962. The beginning of his film career coincided with the New Hollywood movement, with a breakthroug ...

, Ian Gilmour, Guy Doleman and

James Mason James Neville Mason (; 15 May 190927 July 1984) was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes (winning once) and two ...

Premise

Howard Anderson, a restless and discontented American, goes to Australia to team up with an old associate, Julian Fane. They plan the construction of a holiday resort. While Anderson is a builder who takes pride in his work, Fane's only motive in building is to burn down the resort in an insurance fraud. He hires an arsonist to carry out the work. Unfortunately, Fane's plans are triggered too soon and result in murder. Anderson, suspicious about events, forms an alliance with George Engels, an insurance investigator.

Cast

as Howard Anderson * Ian Gilmour * Guy Doleman as Julian Fane *

as George Engels * Giselle Morgan * Shane Porteous as Sergeant Goodwin *

Ray Barrett Raymond Charles Barrett (2 May 19278 September 2009) was an Australian actor. During the 1960s, he was a leading actor on British television, where he was best known for his appearances in '' The Troubleshooters'' (1965–1971). From the 1970s, ...

as F.C.O. Webster *

Norman Kaye Norman James Kaye (17 January 1927 – 28 May 2007) was an Australian actor. He was best known for his roles in the films of director Paul Cox. Early life and education Kaye was born into a tough childhood in Depression Era Melbourne, as one ...

as Percy Farley * Wendy Hughes as Sophie McCann *

Lyn Collingwood Lyn Collingwood (born 6 September 1936 in Sydney), credited also as Lynn Collingwood, is an Australian actress, writer and historian. Collingwood was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and started her early career as an English, drama and histor ...

as Woman in Van

Production

The film was inspired by the Sydney bush fires of the 1979-80 summer.

John Seale John Clement Seale ACS ASC (born 5 October 1942) is an Australian cinematographer. He has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and an American Society of Cinematographers Award. Early life Seale was bo ...

shot footage of the fire which

Brian Trenchard-Smith Brian Medwin Trenchard-Smith (born 1946) is an English-Australian filmmaker and author, known for his idiosyncratic and satirical low-budget genre films. His filmography covers action, science fiction, martial arts, dystopian fiction, comedy, ...

turned into a 25-minute film, ''That Dangerous Summer''. It was then announced this material would be used by Trenchard Smith in a feature version of the story, to be called ''Bushfire''. In the end, Trenchard-Smith did not direct, and Quentin Masters did. Actor Ian Gilmour broke his leg during filming.David Stratton, ''The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry'', Pan MacMillan, 1990 p. 117 Filming was delayed due to an injury to James Mason. The film was originally budgeted at $2.3 million.

Box office

'' A Dangerous Summer '' grossed $33,000 () at the box office in Australia. The film was one of four movies made by Filmco that were part of a legal action in 1985. A judge ordered eight Sydney stockbrokers to repay at least $615,000 to which they borrowed in 1981 to finance four films by Filmco: '' Early Frost'' (budget $1 million), '' The Dark Room'' ($1.1 million), ''

For the Term of His Natural Life ''For the Term of His Natural Life'' is a story written by Marcus Clarke and published in ''The Australian Journal'' between 1870 and 1872 (as ''His Natural Life''). It was published as a novel in 1874 and is the best known novelisation of life ...

'' ($4 million) and ''A Dangerous Summer'' ($2.9 million). The films were not box office successes and the stock brokers refused to repay the loans when they matured in November 1983.

References

External links