All comments by Johnny Moronic

The Edge of Power

1987, vhs

Anna Maria Monticelli film clip (sample below)

The Edge Of Power is a 1987 political thriller where a bunch of friends get together and come up with a curious hypothetical: What if a politician was a secret Nazi? Well, it was a bit of a joke while drunk with mates but then a socialist newspaper runs with a story that 'next big thing' politician Peter Mueller (Ivar Kants) is a secret Nazi and all hell breaks loose. His people decide to ignore it as it's not true but the people behind the socialist newspaper Ivar (John Stone) and Judy (Katherine Thomson) won't let it go and dress up as fake Nazis and infiltrate his press conferences. The socialists are approached by a power broker (Vic Rooney) who gives them money to stir up more trouble but Ivar refuses the money then they come to Judy and she takes the money. At the next press conference, things go incredibly wrong; Ivar is kicked to death and Mueller is stabbed and it looks like everyone was set up. A petit-bourgeois journalist who used to have ideals Steve (Henri Szeps) gets pangs of guilt for concocting the Nazi story and decides to investigate further. And what he uncovers is a conspiracy that could be coming from the highest office in the land.

This movie attempts to make Australian politics seem exciting but it's the most boring shit imaginable and this movie is not in anyway believable. Socialists posing as Nazis for who knows why, a stupid story that ends up growing legs in the dumbest way possible and assassination after assassination, mostly for no reason whatsoever and then the final twist being completely unbelievable, particularly if you've lived through the last 20 years. It's all more than a bit silly and so many people's motives are well, your guess is as good as mine. A terrible mess with less understanding of Australian politics than I have...

The Everlasting Secret Family

1988

Beth Child film clip (sample below)

The Everlasting Secret Family is a 1987 secret society drama where school boy (Mark Lee) is lured away by a powerful senator (Arthur Dignam) to become his illicit lover. They form a relationship while a chauffeur (Dennis Miller) drives him and sort of looks after him. After a while, the school boy becomes disillusioned by the relationship and looks for a way out. He tries with fellow secret society member, a high court judge (John Meillon), but he dies of a heart attack during some light BDSM. But before he dies, the judge introduces the school boy to a doctor where he goes to keep himself looking young, despite still being a teenager. The senator also takes a wife (Heather Mitchell), who the school boy despises. He continues the relationship with the senator and 14 years later, the school boy has ingratiated himself into the senator's family, now as the senator's son's 'tutor' and looking exactly the same. Oh and he and the senator's son have fallen for one another and mummy is not happy about that one bit.

All very odd with no-one questioning why a senator just openly takes a boy from the school but I guess once you're part of a secret society, nothing really matters. I suppose it helps that Mark Lee is way too old to play a school boy. Lots of strange, baffling behaviour where everyone seems to have a secret of some sort and the death of a high court judge is no big deal. And while it's all very progressive towards homosexuality, you can tell that it's from a less enlightened time because there's a baffling scene involving the school boy 'dragging' up to show that he's hit his 'lowest point'. Very odd movie...

The Boy Who Had Everything

1985, vhs

Caz Lederman film clip (capture below)

The Boy Who Had Everything is 1984 drama set in the 60s where John (Jason Connery, son of Sean) is a 'fresher' at an exclusive college where he is going through the hazing period and he absolutely despises it and the elders know he does so they make his life an extra special hell. This isn't helped by his mother (Diane Cilento, Connery actual mother) who is struggling with life on her own and keeps thinking her husband is coming back in between bouts of alcoholism. John also has a girlfriend Robin (Laura Williams), who he is struggling to find sexual chemistry with. All this heats up and causes John to lose it, rebelling against and just being plain angry to the people hazing him and also 'finding his feet' with a string of sex workers. He become immensely disillusioned and it comes out in bursts of violence and his relationship with Robin hanging by tenterhooks. Hard to get into this movie as John is so mopey right from the start and he doesn't elicit much sympathy along the way. Plus, he has 'everything' so who cares really. John's just not an interesting enough character to care about.

Both The Edge Of Power and The Boy Who Had Everything are from VHS rips so the quality is little down but both are actually pretty good quality for VHS rips. Very brief nudity in the below clips. Anna Maria Monticelli only has nudity in a couple of photos and the relevance of those photos to the plot are so baffling I cannot properly explain it to you. Beth Child briefly has her breast sucked in The Everlasting Secret Family but it could be a double. Caz Lederman has a blink-you'll-miss peek at her bottom, so much so that I didn't notice it until I lightened up the shot (see frame below).