NOTES: Number 15 at the Australian box-office for 1956 (this of course includes the takings for 1957), making it Fox's 5th most successful release of the year. This was the last London Film. Alexander Korda died on 23 January 1956.
COMMENT: A curate's egg of a movie. Easy to list all the amateurish acting (led by Sir Ralph Richardson, of all people), to bewail the pedestrian direction and pick holes in the transplanted Richmal Crompton plot. To compensate, however, we have all that Australian scenery in vivid (if somewhat grainy) CinemaScope, plus a likable youngster, Colin Petersen, who rates as a genuine "find".
OTHER VIEWS: "Smiley" is, perhaps, the most refreshing film with an Australian background since "Bush Christmas", with which it can be compared in many ways. It succeeds in authentically portraying some aspects of life in a small bush town, and this fact gives the film a unity which many Australian productions have lacked... CinemaScope and Technicolor show off the Australian landscapes to advantage. — Monthly Film Bulletin.
There are some important exceptions, but generally speaking, I am not a great fan of Anthony Kimmins. I remember reviewing his detective novel "Lugs O'Leary" when it was first published in 1960. I rated it zero. A poorly written dime-store thriller. Although set in Sydney, the background-drawing reveals not even the slightest degree of superficial knowledge of the city where Kimmins himself actually worked on the "Smiley" films. The characters from the eponymous Tasmanian detective who wins the State Lottery and retires to Palm Beach, through to the Badger, "Sydney's king of vice", are totally unconvincing, even allowing that they are probably meant to be caricatures. The dialogue is aptly flat-footed, though this triteness doesn't exactly make for sparkling reading. The synthetic action is over-the-top only in its numbing artificiality... Other Kimmins novels are "It Is Upon the Navy" and "Half-time". Stage plays include "While Parents Sleep", "Night Club Queen", "Chase the Ace" and the huge West End success, "The Amorous Prawn". — JHR writing as Tom Howard.
COMMENT: A curate's egg of a movie. Easy to list all the amateurish acting (led by Sir Ralph Richardson, of all people), to bewail the pedestrian direction and pick holes in the transplanted Richmal Crompton plot. To compensate, however, we have all that Australian scenery in vivid (if somewhat grainy) CinemaScope, plus a likable youngster, Colin Petersen, who rates as a genuine "find".
OTHER VIEWS: "Smiley" is, perhaps, the most refreshing film with an Australian background since "Bush Christmas", with which it can be compared in many ways. It succeeds in authentically portraying some aspects of life in a small bush town, and this fact gives the film a unity which many Australian productions have lacked... CinemaScope and Technicolor show off the Australian landscapes to advantage. — Monthly Film Bulletin.
There are some important exceptions, but generally speaking, I am not a great fan of Anthony Kimmins. I remember reviewing his detective novel "Lugs O'Leary" when it was first published in 1960. I rated it zero. A poorly written dime-store thriller. Although set in Sydney, the background-drawing reveals not even the slightest degree of superficial knowledge of the city where Kimmins himself actually worked on the "Smiley" films. The characters from the eponymous Tasmanian detective who wins the State Lottery and retires to Palm Beach, through to the Badger, "Sydney's king of vice", are totally unconvincing, even allowing that they are probably meant to be caricatures. The dialogue is aptly flat-footed, though this triteness doesn't exactly make for sparkling reading. The synthetic action is over-the-top only in its numbing artificiality... Other Kimmins novels are "It Is Upon the Navy" and "Half-time". Stage plays include "While Parents Sleep", "Night Club Queen", "Chase the Ace" and the huge West End success, "The Amorous Prawn". — JHR writing as Tom Howard.