Sixty years ago, on 13 October 1966, the classic comedy "They're A Weird Mob" was released. It's about an Italian immigrant, a 'New Australian', who has just newly arrived in Australia. It was based on the 1957 novel of the same title by John O'Grady who wrote under the pen name "Nino Culotta", the name of the main character of the book.
In order to learn about real Australians, Nino takes a job as a brickie's labourer with a man named Joe Kennedy. The comedy of the novel revolves around his attempts to understand English as it was spoken in Australia by the working classes in the 1950s and 1960s. Nino had previously only learned 'good' English from a textbook.
"The House That Nino Built" in the movie is at 128 Greenacre Road in Greenacre, a suburb of Sydney. There the actors dug trenches, poured concrete, and laid bricks. It was then finished professionally and sold to raise funds for The Royal Life Saving Society. The stars' footprints were set in concrete slabs in the pathway. When it last sold in 2023 for $1,800,000, it had already been forgotten as "the house that Nino built" - click here.
The novel is a social commentary on Australian society of the period; specifically male, working class society. Women mostly feature as cameos in the story, with the exception of Kay who becomes Nino's wife.
The final message of the novel is that immigrants to Australia should count themselves fortunate and should make efforts to assimilate into Australian society, including learning to speak Australian English.
The movie met with some not so favourable reviews, such as, ""Behind the rugged exterior and grating speech of the average Australian, there lies a heart of gold: or so would seem to be the cosy message of this rather patronising tale of how an immigrant makes good in barbarous Sydney (by marrying the boss's daughter – how else?). Michael Powell seems ill-at-ease during the chummily extrovert opening, with its repeated assurances that Australia is a big, big country and its endless jokes about a foreigner's difficulties in understanding the slang; but after that the film stops trying so hard to be jolly, and the quieter sequences in which the Italian learns to live his new life are moderately effective. Nothing, though, can really conceal the fact that this is just a routine women's magazine romance in a new setting; and the acting is mostly indifferent.""
When the movie was shown in cinemas in 1966, I also had just arrived in Australia. I immediately fell in love with it and the country. In the movie Nino Culotta is called a Dago. I was sometimes called a Hun. I'm reminded of it every time I sit down to order something from a menu and the waitress comes over and asks, "What can I getcha, Hun?"
Sixty years later, Australia has changed but my love for it has not. Every so often, when I want to remind myself of what I fell in love with and why, I sit down and watch "They're A Weird Mob" again. And so can you!
"Australians live Down Under. Like flies on the ceiling, they never fall off. Of course, they see themselves like this! They're a nation of sportsmen. They have a shot at anything that moves. This they call 'doing your block'. These they call 'schooners'. These they call 'sheilas'. Or 'beaut' sorts'. And this they call 'English'. They're a weird mob."
