Number 96/Fun Facts

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

< Number 96
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

Number96ff.jpg

  • There were said to be only five 35mm prints of the film, all blown-up from 16mm, which journeyed around Australia for screenings. This helps explain the slight 'soft-focus' feel and general scratchy quality of surviving prints.
  • The fact that the film is in colour was a major selling point -- at the time the parent TV show was transmitted (and indeed made) entirely in monochrome.
  • Early audiences applauded the regular characters' initial appearances, delighted to see them on the big screen.
  • A kiss between Don Finlayson and Simon Carr was seemingly excised from all of the currently-existing film-prints at some point after the film hit cinemas; consequently the sequence is no longer known to exist.
  • It is claimed that the film was shot (mainly on the TV show's existing sets) in eleven days before the crew broke for their regular Christmas holiday. David Sale remembers Lynn Rainbow shooting the entirety of her scenes as Sonia Hunter over the course of one day.
  • David Sale and Johnny Whyte storylined the film together then split the writing chores 50/50.
  • Bettina Welch was a very infrequent and moderate drinker, so actually indulged in a small amount of alcohol to help her play the scene of a drunken Maggie Cameron more convincingly.
  • "Bloody hell, it's Abigail!" exclaims Alf Sutcliffe when Norma Whittaker arrives at the Evans' ruby wedding costume party. When the film went before the cameras at the close of 1973 the actress had recently -- and publicly -- left the show's cast, resulting in the hurried recasting of her character Bev Houghton.
Newsletter
  • Grindhouse Database Newsletter
  • Exploitation books
  • Kung fu movies
  • Giallo BluRay