willjohn

The book was written in the middle 1950s. By the time the film was mad Australia had changed a lot and the plot was out of date.

Nino was written in the book as a Triestino, a man over 6 feet tall and fair haired. Walter Chiari looked more like a southern Italian. Australians in the 1960s were more sophisticated than Joe and his team of labourers. The slang had changed due to the influence of American and English music. I can remember people in Australia were laughing at how dated the film was. Clare Dunne was a poor choice to play a young Australian women, she was Irish and too fair skinned. Her accent was all wrong. All I remembered her for at the time the movie was made was as a "weather girl" and doing a few commercials.

In Primary photo the actor with his back to the camera is not Warren Mitchell, it is Stephen Lewis. Warren Mitchell is not in the photo. It is obvious that the actor is Lewis, not Mitchell because he is taller than the other actors. Mitchell was a short man.

Because Hardin seemed to have difficulties in getting lines straight the Australian crews tagged him as "Try Harder." The series attracted some good Australian actors who thought the series would be better than it was. It was nor vey popular in Australia.