User Reviews

When this episode premiered in Australia, the critical response was unfavourable, to say the least - to the point where Smith apologised for the episode.

Having watched it, it's not as bad as many other "set in Australia" US and UK series. Smith reportedly shot the establishing shots of Sydney's Kingsford-Smith Airport himself while on holiday in the country, and managed to get right a few little detail pieces that most miss - the cars were right-hand drive, for example, and the vehicle license plates were a good facsimilie of the NSW plates of the period.

Yes, the plot's neither great nor original, but the performances are generally OK - and it gets bonus points for having genuine Aussies Shaw, Pate, and St. Clair, rather than the usual stock actors bunging on dreadful faux-Cockney accents to try and sound "Aussie".

Hokeysmoke, Reviewers! It's only 1962 series television, for cryin' out loud! It's NOT a freakin' documentary! Some of you folks make this "77SS" outing sound like the disaster of the decade. And it's just plain NOT! And sure, there are better installments of this series, but I found "The Down Under Caper" to be quite watchable - even enjoyable. It was written by Roger Smith, the "Spencer" of the "Bailey & Spencer" detective agency, and if he turned in a script that the producers thought was good enough to buy and produce, good for him!! If you're familiar with the show, or even for the uninitiated, THIS one would work fine as a way to introduce a friend to the 77 Sunset Strip.

I so agree with the last reviewer, there's no question this Australian adventure was filmed at the studio in Burbank and probably around Griifith Park in Hollywood! That's about as far as the budget would take them.

It's still pretty good, and the star of the show is British character actor Ronald Long, who always reminded me of Sydney Greenstreet to a "slight" degree. Long plays a ruthless treasure hunter who has his sights on an Australian sheep ranch. Lots of action in this one, however best of it all is Roger Smith appearing with his real wife, Victoria Shaw, who plays Margaret. In this case, Jeff is slowly falling in love with Margaret, but at the same time has to save her from homicidal Long. This guy is whacko, making a sport of hunting down humans.

Another wild episode written by Smith, who wrote seven for the series. His wife, Victoria, was voted Australia's model of the year in 1951, later co-starring in the EDDY DUCHIN STORY.

Well directed by the master of action, Michael O'Herlihy, who was behind such hits as THE FALL GUY and THE A TEAM. Ronald Long is perhaps best known for all his over the top roles on BEWITCHED, appearing as Santa and King Henry the VIII. He also guested on BATMAN as Karnaby Katz. One fun actor to watch.

Must see tv. SEASON 4 EPISODE 16 remastered WB dvd box set. Take note as some of the dvd box sets are manufactured in Europe and may not be playable on American made dvd players.

Quite fun. Like many of Roger Smith's 77SS scripts, this one makes no real sense, and seems to exist only to give RS some extremely unconvincing action sequences, and a part for his previous/current/future wife Victoria Shaw. He never seems to have considered the strong probability that the girl might have made a valid will, or to have bothered to look up (a) what 'billabong' means, lazily substituting 'lake', or (b) how a boomerang is thrown and why it is distinctive. The episode was clearly shot entirely in Burbank and the foothills, apart from some file footage of the Harbour Bridge, various marsupials, a bushfire, etc. Nice to see Michael Pate at work: at this point he was still resident in USA. Pate and various other Aussies slightly overdoing it.

I wasn't terribly clear on just how Roger Smith got himself involved in an Australian range war. But he never got closer than the Warner Brothers back lot to the Outback in this episode.

Which has Jeff Spencer traveling to Sydney, Australia to file some papers on a case. He runs into Victoria Shaw gets punched out by her neighbor Michael Pate and there you have it.

Seems that this outback story is recycled from a gazillion westerns where the bad guy wants someone else's land for whatever reason, gold, silver, water rights, etc. and the good guy in the white hat steps in to stop him.

In this case Pate is working with Jacques Aubuchon and these two are pursuing Smith and Shaw.

One line I thought was memorable. Smith says to one guy who uses a number Australian colloquialisms and words that he'd like to see this guy converse with Kookie. A trans-Pacific call to Los Angeles to Efrem Zimbalist for some background on the bad guys must have cost plenty back in the day.

Interesting, but not one of the better episodes.

Nothing to add regarding the flimsy story, badly acted action sequences and overall low production quality of this episode. The main plot point was that there were extremely valuable rocks just lying on the ground. If that was the case for Margaret's land, why wouldn't be the case for Reggie's land?

What got me as I watched the show was the total lack of chemistry between Roger Smith and Victoria Shaw. Despite the fact they had been married around 6 years and were the parents of three children. The most realistic scene was at the end when they were separating. Despite the dialog, both actors radiated through their characters that they didn't want to see each other ever again. They did get divorced four years later.