Ray Lawler's play is about growing up. It is about growing up and growing old and failing to grow up; and it throws into relief not only the hopes and failures of a dilapidated Melbourne household, but the character of a nation.
For "The Doll", as it came to be known, could only have been written in the 1950s which was something of a watershed of Australia's national consciousness: man pitting his strength against nature, mateship and freedom and alienation in the itinerant life this vast country offers, rugged individualism and the resilient humour that shrugs off despair.
The original play is set in the then shabby old Carlton whereas the film's Sydney settings - views of Bondi, lots of bridge, a romp through Luna Park - is quite alien to the spirit of Lawler's drama and its people. Unlike the play, the movie, shot in the heat of a Sydney Christmas in 1958, becomes no more than a rowdy, raw holiday fling by two couples in Sydney's pubs, Luna Park and ferries, together with their squabbles (and since when has Ernest Borgnine of "McHale's Navy" been an Australian?)
Still, I like it for the people and their accents, their dress code, and the scenery, all of which was still in evidence when I arrived here in 1965.
