Bungala Boys | |
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Directed by | Jim Jeffrey |
Written by | Jim Jeffrey |
Based on | novel The New Surf Club by Claire Meillon |
Produced by | Otto Plaschkes |
Starring | Peter Couldwell |
Cinematography | Carl Kayser |
Edited by | Terry Trench |
Music by | Edwin Astley |
Production companies |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 61 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Bungala Boys is a 1961 children's film directed and written by Jim Jeffrey. [1] It was the second Australian based film made by the Children's Film Foundation, following Bush Christmas and was the first non-documentary film to focus on surf clubs. [2]
Brian is a newcomer to Bungala Beach, near Sydney. He forms a new Surf Life Saving Club which wins first prize in a surf boat race.
The film was based on Claire Meillon's children's novel The New Surf Club (1959). Meillon was formerly assistant fiction editor of The Australian Women's Weekly. The book was based on her brother's founding of Newport Surf Club, on Sydney's Northern Beaches. The name "Bungala" is a combination of "Bilgola" and "Bungan", [3] which are also northern beaches of Sydney, and located near Newport Beach.
Jimar Productions made the film at the request of the Children's Film Foundation. [2]
The film was shot on location at Bungan Beach and at Artransa Studios in Sydney in April–May 1961. Many of the child stars had never acted before. [2]
The actors were given brief training in surf lifesaving. [4]
The film was released in the United Kingdom, Canada and Europe before Australia. [5]
Surf music is a genre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1958 to 1964 in two major forms. The first is instrumental surf, distinguished by reverb-heavy electric guitars played to evoke the sound of crashing waves, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. The second is vocal surf, which took elements of the original surf sound and added vocal harmonies, a movement led by the Beach Boys.
Mona Vale is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 28 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in an area known as the Northern Beaches. Formerly the administrative centre of Pittwater Council, it is now located in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council. The traditional custodians of the area are the Garigal people. It is often colloquially referred to as "Mona".
John Meillon,, was an Australian character actor known for dramatic as well as comedy roles. He portrayed Walter Reilly in the films Crocodile Dundee and Crocodile Dundee II. He also voiced advertisements for Victoria Bitter beer. He appeared in several Australian New Wave films including Wake in Fright and The Cars That Ate Paris.
Newport is a suburb of northern Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia, in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council. It is part of the Northern Beaches region.
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Ronald Grant Taylor was an English-Australian actor best known as the abrasive General Henderson in the Gerry Anderson science fiction series UFO and for his lead role in Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940).
Leslie William Morrison, known professionally as Lucky Starr, is an Australian pioneer rock and roll, pop and country music singer, guitarist and television presenter. His most popular single, "I've Been Everywhere", appeared in early 1962, which peaked at number one in Sydney. Starr became well known through his many TV appearances on show's such as Bandstand and Six O'Clock Rock, in which he briefly hosted taking over from Johnny O'Keefe, he was the first star to entertain troops in Vietnam.
"Surfin' Safari" is a song by American rock band the Beach Boys, written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love. Released as a single with "409" in June 1962, it peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also appeared on the 1962 album of the same name.
The Delltones were an Australian rock 'n' roll band, which formed in 1958. They started as a doo-wop, harmony quartet with Warren Lucas, Brian Perkins, Noel Widerberg and Ian "Peewee" Wilson. In July 1962 Noel Widerberg died in a car accident in Brighton-le-Sands in Sydney, and three weeks later the group's single, "Get a Little Dirt on Your Hands", reached the top five on the local charts. Widerberg's position was filled by Col Loughnan. The group disbanded in 1973.
Bryan Davies is a British-born Australian pop music singer and entertainer. He appeared on 1960s TV pop shows, Sing! Sing! Sing! and Bandstand. From March 1962, at age 17, he became the youngest person in Australia to host their own TV show, The Bryan Davies Show. The singer issued two albums, On My Way (1965) and Together by Myself (1968). His most popular singles were, "Dream Girl" and "Five Foot Two Eyes of Blue" (October), which both reached the top 4 on the Sydney charts.
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Shadow of the Boomerang is a 1960 Australian drama film directed by Dick Ross and written by Dick Ross and John Ford. It is a 'Christian Western' about a cattle station manager who learns to overcome his prejudice against aboriginals.
They Found a Cave is a 1962 Australian children's adventure film directed by Andrew Steane. The film was originally made from a book by the same name by author Nan Chauncy. In 2010, a company called Argosy Films, set up a website to find the production crew and actors/actresses of They Found a Cave and Bungala Boys for the 50th anniversary.
Kenneth John Warren was an Australian actor.
Bush Christmas is a 1947 Australian–British comedy film directed by Ralph Smart and starring Chips Rafferty. It was one of the first films from Children's Entertainment Films, later the Children's Film Foundation.
Digby George "Dig" Richards was an Australian rock and roll singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, musical theatre actor and television presenter, active during the late 1950s and early 1960s as lead singer with the R'Jays. Richards was the first Australian rock and roll artist to record a 12" LP record in Australia, with the self-titled album Dig Richards, released in November 1959. From 1971 he performed as a solo country music artist. According to the Kent Music Report he had four Top 30 national hit singles, "(My) Little Lover" / "Quarrels ", "A Little Piece of Peace", "People Call Me Country" / "The Dancer", and "Do the Spunky Monkey". On 17 February 1983 Digby Richards died of pancreatic cancer, aged 42. He was survived by his wife, Sue and two children.
Hal Lashwood's Alabama Jubilee was an Australian television variety series hosted by Hal Lashwood which aired from 1958 to 1961 on ABC Television. It was essentially a minstrel show, with some of the performers appearing in blackface makeup. In 1960, it was retitled Hal Lashwood's Minstrels.
All at Sea is a 1977 Australian television film about a group of misfits on holiday on an island resort. It features the cast from The Celebrity Game.
"A Tongue of Silver" is an episode of the 1959 Australian TV drama anthology Shell Presents. Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time. It starred John Meillon, who had been in Thunder of Silence in the same series.
Janice Dinnen was an Australian actor of stage, film, and theatre. She was a child actor and model, given a role in the Cinerama film South Seas Adventure. Her parents had emigrated from England in 1940.