Alvin Rides Again

I did not really enjoy this movie. While the addition of Frank Thring and Gus Mercurio added a certain upbeat flavour to the film, it did little to suspend the film's monotonous tone which detracts highly from the prestige of the original. I also point to the degeneration of the film as soon as Alvin assumes his gangster persona.

"Alvin Rides Again" (1974) may be a superior comedy to the original, in that it contains one actually funny scene. Its hero, Alvin Purple, is introduced to his doppelganger, Balls McGee, a gangster from America. The gangster wants to watch his favourite TV show - "Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo", and sings along to the theme music.

Graeme Blundell plays both roles with surprising panache - all the more surprising considering that the screenwriters contrive to off the Balls McGee character almost immediately so that we can be subjected to some tedious switcheroo gags as police come looking for Balls, find Alvin, Alvin goes to get dressed up as Balls, returns. This is funny by default, apparently.

Supposedly there was less nudity this time around, which makes sense considering the intelligence that apparently went into the making of both films. The only reason anyone saw the original film was for the nudity, so why not include less nudity in this installment?

There is also a bigger budget, though unless you pay close attention during the more boring moments, you might miss this. The original movie was a big success in Australia, so of course the sequel has to have something to show for it...

The answer is, a pointless car chase at the end of the movie, featuring a car with guns mounted to the side. I don't know if the driver was ever introduced, or if reasons were ever given for why he wants to kill Alvin, but no matter. The chase scene is as tedious as it is pointless, and it features two explosions - so THAT's where the money went! - and ends in the surprisingly violent death of an innocent bystander. Yes, this is the sort of comedy where men impersonate women without shaving moustaches and sideburns and yet fool everybody, people run in and out of rooms chasing each other in fast forward while zany music plays, dwarven actors have their voices dubbed to make them sound as high pitched as possible, and forklift operators are violently machine-gunned to death. One of these things is not like the other.

Some comedies are so witless that they approach surrealism. "Alvin Rides Again" doesn't quite reach that level, for while the violence is bizarre and completely out of place, its presence as an afterthought simply suggests the writers had no idea what to do with the budget they had or the movie they had to make. It is also portrayed so unrealistically that you could miss it pretty easily. There is, after all, perhaps the least painful meat cleaver to the face shot I have ever seen in a movie.

Of course, this one doesn't rise to the former hit, this time around, sees Alvin take a weird and interesting change of story. In the early part, we have Abigail, a café/store/servo worker, teasing us and Alvin with her goodies. She was to become Alvin's wife, a different character in the follow up, Melvin, son of Alvin. Here Alvin and his best friend, (Finney) who still can't get around, how woman are all so attracted to his buddy, get inadvertently mixed up with mobsters, with Alvin doubling as a crime boss, taking the place of dead gangster, Ball's Mcgee. He too hate missing out on Skippy. That's Oz respect for ya. All the usual type actors appear here, who we see in a lot of Tim Burstall's stuff, it's almost a revolving door of performers. Before Alvin lands in all this mess, he and his mate, share house with a female cricket team, led by the late great Penny Hackforth Jones, where he's in over his head in young poontang. Exhausted, he gets his mate to take over, one big woman mistakenly ending up with him. When she leaves, clothes and hair disheveled, her smile of appease is priceless. This is still enjoyable as the first, and I must say, it's different direction of story, worked with a lot of interesting moments. Blundell can show his acting capabilities, but he's not an actor, you could really brag about. Of course, this film wasn't meant to surpass it's predecessor. Alvin too shows us at the start, which the movie, doesn't let you forget it's raunchy intentions, how being a sex magnet can affect his job stability.