Stone | |
---|---|
Directed by | Sandy Harbutt |
Screenplay by |
|
Produced by | Sandy Harbutt |
Starring |
|
Cinematography | Graham Lind |
Edited by | Ian Barry |
Music by | Billy Green |
Production company | Hedon Productions |
Distributed by | British Empire Films |
Release date |
|
Running time |
|
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Budget | A$192,000 [1] |
Box office | $1.57 million |
Stone is a 1974 Australian outlaw biker film written, directed and produced by Sandy Harbutt. It is a low budget film by company Hedon Productions.
Police officer Stone goes undercover with the Gravediggers outlaw motorcycle gang, to find out who is murdering their members, one by one.
The film stars Ken Shorter and features Rebecca Gilling, Bill Hunter and Helen Morse. The film's soundtrack was composed by Billy Green and featured some members of his group Sanctuary. Motorcycles featured include the legendary Kawasaki Z1(900). Stone initially rides a Norton.
The promotional trailer video features narration by radio and media personality John Laws. The film was featured in the documentary, Not Quite Hollywood , in which Quentin Tarantino enthuses about his admiration for the film.
Australian stuntman Peter Armstrong set a then-world record for riding a motorcycle off an 80-foot cliff to fall headfirst into the sea.
When several members of the GraveDiggers outlaw motorcycle club are murdered, Sydney detective Stone (Ken Shorter) is sent to investigate. Led by the Undertaker (Sandy Harbutt), a Vietnam war veteran, the GraveDiggers allow Stone to pose as a gang member. Leaving behind society girlfriend Amanda (Helen Morse), Stone begins to identify with the Undertaker and his comrades Hooks (Roger Ward), Toad (Hugh Keays-Byrne), Dr Death (Vincent Gil), Captain Midnight (Bindi Williams), Septic (Dewey Hungerford) and Vanessa (Rebecca Gilling), the Undertaker’s girlfriend. Amid violent confrontations with the Black Hawks, a rival gang the GraveDiggers hold responsible, Stone uncovers a political conspiracy behind the killings. When the truth is revealed, Stone must choose between his job and his loyalty to the GraveDiggers.
Sandy Harbutt got the idea in 1970 when he wrote a script for an episode of the TV police series The Long Arm in which he was appearing. [1]
Filmink magazine said "The biker movie was the modern day Western of choice in the 1960s" but argued this was one of the few Australian films to "embrace it as a story option." [2]
The Australian Film Development Corporation invested $154,000 in the film. The remainder of the budget and most of the technical facilities were provided by Ross Wood Productions in Sydney. The movie was shot in late 1973. [1]
The Hells Angels club (Sydney) provided assistance during production.
Although Stone was given an "R" rating it grossed $1,572,000 at the box office in Australia, [3] which is equivalent to $10,611,000 in 2009 dollars. It made a profit to its investors within 18 months. [1]
The soundtrack was released by Warner Bros. (600002)
Chart (1974) | Position |
---|---|
Australia (Kent Music Report) [4] | 89 |
Several of the cast went on to appear in Mad Max (1979), including Hugh Keays-Byrne, Roger Ward, Vincent Gil, David Bracks and Reg Evans. [5]
Stone Forever | |
---|---|
Directed by | Richard Kuipers |
Produced by | Richard Kuipers |
Edited by | Andrea Lang |
Music by | Billy Green |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | SBS |
Release date |
|
Running time | 63 minutes |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
Stone Forever is a 1999 documentary about Stone. Richard Kuipers was contacted by David Hannay and Sandy Harbutt to film a bike ride commemorating the film's 25th anniversary, which led to a full documentary about the impact of the film and the fate of the people who made it. [6]
Easy Rider is a 1969 American independent road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda, and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and South, carrying the proceeds from a cocaine deal. The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood era of filmmaking during the early 1970s.
David Byrne is a Scottish-American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American new wave band Talking Heads.
Edward Kelly was an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. One of the last bushrangers, he is known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour during his final shootout with the police.
Mad Max is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller, who co-wrote the screenplay with James McCausland, based on a story by Miller and Byron Kennedy. Mel Gibson stars as "Mad" Max Rockatansky, a police officer turned vigilante in a dystopian near-future Australia in the midst of societal collapse. Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns and Roger Ward also appear in supporting roles.
Mark William Calaway, better known by his ring name The Undertaker, is an American retired professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Calaway spent the vast majority of his career wrestling for WWE and in 2022 was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
The Outlaws Motorcycle Club, incorporated as the American Outlaws Association or its acronym, A.O.A., is an international outlaw motorcycle club. Founded in McCook, Illinois in 1935, the Outlaws MC is the oldest outlaw biker club in the world. With 441 chapters located in 43 countries, and a membership of over 3,000, the club is also the third-largest in the world, behind the Hells Angels and the Bandidos. Outlaws members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
Ned Kelly is a 1970 British-Australian biographical bushranger film. It was the seventh Australian feature film version of the story of 19th-century Australian bushranger Ned Kelly, and is notable for being the first Kelly film to be shot in colour.
Charles Alfred Zito Jr. is an American actor, stuntman, celebrity bodyguard and former outlaw biker who was president of the New York chapter of the Hells Angels.
An outlaw motorcycle club, known colloquially as a biker club or bikie club, is a motorcycle subculture generally centered on the use of cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals that purport to celebrate freedom, nonconformity to mainstream culture, and loyalty to the biker group.
The Long Arm was an Australian television police series shown from April 1970, which ran for 19 episodes.
Hugh Keays-Byrne was a British-Australian actor. He began his career on stage in his native England, where he was member of the Royal Shakespeare Company between 1968 and 1972. After emigrating to Australia in 1973, he established himself as a supporting actor in action and thriller films like Stone and The Man from Hong Kong. His breakthrough film role was as the antagonist Toecutter in the original Mad Max. Decades later, he played another villain in the series, Immortan Joe in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Bed of Roses is an Australian comedy drama television series which was first shown on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from 10 May 2008. It stars Kerry Armstrong and was created by Jutta Goetze and Elizabeth Coleman. It was produced by Mark Ruse and Stephen Luby (Crackerjack).
Psychomania is a 1973 British outlaw biker horror film directed by Don Sharp, and starring Nicky Henson, Beryl Reid, George Sanders, and Robert Hardy.
Mad Dog Morgan is a 1976 Australian bushranger film directed by Philippe Mora and starring Dennis Hopper, Jack Thompson and David Gulpilil. It is based upon the life of Dan Morgan.
Five Mile Creek is a western television drama series adapted from Louis L'Amour's novel The Cherokee Trail and produced in Australia. It starred Liz Burch, Louise Caire Clark, Rod Mullinar, Jay Kerr, Michael Caton, Peter Carroll, Gus Mercurio, Martin Lewis, Priscilla Weems and Nicole Kidman. It also featured a then-unknown Asher Keddie in her film debut. Jonathan Frakes was a guest star as Maggie's estranged husband, Adam Scott. The series aired on the Disney Channel in the US in the 1980s.
The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) is an international outlaw motorcycle club whose members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In the United States and Canada, the Hells Angels are incorporated as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation. Common nicknames for the club are the "H.A.", "Red & White", "HAMC", and "81". With a membership of over 6,000, and 467 charters in 59 countries, the HAMC is the largest "outlaw" motorcycle club in the world.
The Man from Hong Kong, originally released in the US as The Dragon Flies, is a 1975 action film written and directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith in his directorial debut and starring Jimmy Wang Yu and George Lazenby, with Hugh Keays-Byrne, Roger Ward, Rosalind Speirs, Rebecca Gilling, Sammo Hung, Grant Page and Frank Thring in supporting roles. The first film to be made as an international coproduction between Australia and Hong Kong, it serves as a satire of the James Bond and Dirty Harry franchises, combined with tropes of the concurrent chopsocky craze. Its plot follows Inspector Fang Sing Leng (Wang) of the RHKPF's Special Branch, who travels to Sydney to perform an extradition, only to find himself locked in battle with Jack Wilton (Lazenby), the city's most powerful crime lord.
Numerous police and international intelligence agencies classify the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) as a motorcycle gang and contend that members carry out widespread violent crimes, including drug dealing, trafficking in stolen goods, gunrunning, extortion, and human trafficking operations. Members of the organization have continuously asserted that they are only a group of motorcycle enthusiasts who have joined to ride motorcycles together, to organize social events such as group road trips, fundraisers, parties, and motorcycle rallies, and that any crimes are the responsibility of the individuals who carried them out and not the club as a whole. Members of the club have been accused of crimes and/or convicted in many host nations.
Sandy Harbutt was an Australian actor, writer and director, best known for the outlaw biker film, Stone (1974) starring his friend Ken Shorter. Although it was very successful at the box office and became a cult classic, it was the only feature he ever directed. He was once married to actress Helen Morse.
Resistance is a 1992 Australian film set in the future in a military dictatorship.