User Reviews

Between 1971 and 1975, on any given rain-sodden Friday afternoon (and there were many of them), when it seemed just too cruel to send a herd of under 12s outside to chase a lace-up football around a field, the teacher taking games would announce to us, "OK kids, you're staying in and watching The Bungala Boys." I must have watched it a dozen times, but the thrill of seeing it never seemed to pale. There we were on a grey, wet winters afternoon in London staring at what seemed to be a sun-soaked slice of paradise.

The school only possessed one film that wasn't a documentary about rubber production or human biology, and The Bungala Boys was it. It was the Emergency-Keep-The-Kids-Occupied film, and you only really needed one, it was really the excitement engendered by a change of routine that kept us transfixed on the flickering image; it didn't matter that it was always the same film. Maybe though, the teachers were more canny than that - what better film to show 40 children from a grim council estate on a miserable wet afternoon than one set in an Australian surfing community (I seem to recall that the plot involves skullduggery in a life-saving competition).

For years I thought that the Bungala Boys had to be a famous piece of Australian cinema, but in adulthood every Australian I met looked perplexed when I mentioned it. It was a CFF production and so maybe it was never even shown in Australia... all along it was simply intended as a way to cheer up the rained-in school children of Britain.

I haven't seen it since the age of 11 so I can't really say whether it's even a good children's film (I have a feeling it's not bad... for its day), but it will definitely always have a special, sun-kissed, brightly-coloured place in my film-watching heart.

In the Childrens Film Foundation's endeavour to conquer the world they arrived in Sydney to provide an exotic background for their shenanigans in Eastman Colour

The usual CFF tropes are present and correct with the heroes' noble ambition this time being the building of a clubhouse for lifesavers (with improving advice on administering artificial respiration and the need to lock up at night).

As usual its the girls who supply the diplomacy and the boys the brawn. Naturally there's a gang of moutbreathing louts who rough up our heroes to a dramatic musical accompaniment by Edwin Astley and engage in a little sabotage (with all that water about no prizes for guessing where they're going to end up).

BUNGALA BOYS is a rather undistinguished instalment of the Children's Film Foundation franchise, and the second Aussie production following on from 1947's BUSH CHRISTMAS. This one takes a rather typical story of some tearaway and boisterous boys who learn new respect when they become life savers on the seas around Sydney. The problem about this film is that it's all very artificial: the bad guys are amusing but bland, the locations exotic but shot in a dullish way. Most of the charm comes from the banter from a very young lad who has a natural way with words and bluster. The rest is the kind of thing you forget watching five minutes after it finishes.

This film must have done wonders for the Australian tourist board and encouraged people to move there. A lovely house overlooking a sandy beach with nice surfing waves so who wouldn't want to live there. The interior of the house was great full of wonderful 1950s/60s furniture and decoration for us to enjoy 60 years later, the 60s was when interior design reached its height and had been unmatched since then.

The usual mixture of bad boys and good boys with a few sensible girls mixed in for good measure.

The goodies defeated the baddies of course and in true CFF style involved a right good soaking.