Gross Misconduct | |
---|---|
Directed by | George T. Miller |
Written by | Gerard Maguire Lance Peters |
Based on | the play by Lance Peters |
Starring | Jimmy Smits Naomi Watts |
Cinematography | David Connell |
Edited by | Henry Dangar |
Music by | Bruce Rowland |
Distributed by | Becker Entertainment Magna Pacific |
Release date |
|
Running time | 89 minutes |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Budget | over A$4 million [1] |
Box office | A$489,598 (Australia) |
Gross Misconduct is a 1993 Australian thriller film directed by George T. Miller. It stars Jimmy Smits and Naomi Watts. [2] It was nominated for an award by the Australian Film Institute in 1993. [3] The film has been described as an Australian version of Fatal Attraction . [4]
At an all-girls academy in Australia, a married philosophy professor, Justin Thorne, attracts a fervent admirer in one of his students, Jennifer Carter.
Daughter of the school's headmaster, Jennifer is driven by a passion for the professor, practically throwing herself at him. Thorne resists repeatedly, but finally yields to temptation. Jennifer, feeling rejected later, accuses the professor of a sexual assault. A journal she has been keeping, fantasizing about a lover, makes it appear that she and the professor have been carrying on a long affair, placing Thorne's reputation and future in grave danger.
After Thorne is found guilty in a jury trial it emerges that Jennifer's father has been sexually abusing her over some considerable time, and pesters her once again. This time she snaps, and stabs him in the face with a kitchen implement. The last scene shows Thorne emerging from jail, freed.
The film was based on the play Assault With a Deadly Weapon which was written in 1969 by Lance Peters. It had been suggested by a 1955 scandal in Hobart, where university professor Sydney Orr had been sacked from his job on grounds of gross misconduct. [1] Gross Moral Turpitude, Cassandra Pybus' book on the Orr case which also emerged in 1993, gives a very different reading on Orr from Peters' and this film's. She writes that "in the Orr case... it was almost universally accepted... that an academic who seduced a student should be dismissed. He did. He was." [5]
The movie was the first film to be produced by PRO Films in Australia, a subsidiary of R.A. Beacker & Co. It was shot at various locations around Melbourne, including The University of Melbourne, the Melbourne Magistrates Court and Queen Victoria Market. [1]
Gross Misconduct grossed $489,598 at the box office in Australia. [6]
Naomi Ellen Watts is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama For Love Alone (1986) and then appeared in three television series, Hey Dad..! (1990), Brides of Christ (1991), and Home and Away (1991), and the film Flirting (1991). After moving to the United States, Watts initially struggled as an actress, taking roles in small-scale films until she starred in David Lynch's psychological thriller Mulholland Drive in 2001 as an aspiring actress. The role began her rise to international prominence.
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Raimond Gaita is a German-born Australian philosopher and award-winning writer. He was, until 2011, foundation professor of philosophy at the Australian Catholic University and professor of moral philosophy at King's College London. He is currently professorial fellow in the Melbourne Law School and the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne and emeritus professor of moral philosophy at King's College London. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Jack Perry and Douglas McKenzie — were an entertainer duo from Melbourne who were known and billed professionally as the clown act, Zig and Zag. They appeared on Australian television from its inception in 1956 to 1999 beginning with Peters Fun Fair (1956–69). They featured on the annual Moomba parade, and were regulars at annual charity events including the Good Friday Appeal for the Royal Children's Hospital. Perry was also an actor on television serials and presenter whilst McKenzie, was also a radio and television presenter and producer and former soldier. In March 1999 the duo permanently parted company after it was revealed that Jack Perry had been convicted in 1994 of indecent assault on his granddaughter.
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Sydney Sparkes Orr was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tasmania and the centre of the "Orr case", a celebrated academic scandal of the 1950s.
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