Eliza Fraser (1976)

The full title of the movie is actually A Faithful Narrative of the Capture, Sufferings and Miraculous Escape of Eliza Fraser, which is supposed to give a warning of the jolly bawdy Tom Jones-style romp which is to follow, but which doesn’t.

Pretty Eliza Fraser (Susannah York) and her elderly, fat husband, Captain Fraser (Noel Ferrier) – a figure of much fun – are leaving for Britain from the penal colony of Sydney, Australia, on board the Stirling Castle.

Before they leave, Eliza is bedded by Captain Rory McBryde (John Castle), a notorious rake, and convict David Bracefell (John Waters) who she helps to escape.

The Frasers are subsequently shipwrecked on a reef and come to shore on a beach, which they believe to be on the mainland.

They are, in fact, on an island and are shortly confronted by aboriginal natives who are fascinated by Eliza.

The Frasers are forced to travel through bush and swamp with the natives as they move camp, eventually to discover Eliza is to be married to an aboriginal.

Fortuitously, the escaped convict Bracefell is now living among the natives and stops the marriage from taking place.

Rescuers, led by the sadistic homosexual prison commander Captain Foster Fyans (played with much relish by Trevor Howard), arrive but Captain Fraser is killed by mistake.

Eliza is rescued, returns to Sydney and goes on to make a fortune recounting her adventures in the Music Hall and sideshows.

Tim Burstall’s direction has no sense of period, and the comedy sequences, in particular, are ponderous. Made at a cost of around $1.5 million, Eliza Fraser was almost universally panned by critics.

Eliza Fraser
Susannah York
David Bracefell
John Waters
Captain Rory McBryde
John Castle
Captain James Fraser
Noel Ferrier
John Graham
Martin Harris
Captain Foster Fyans
Trevor Howard
Darge
Gus Mercurio
Euenmundi
Lindsey Roughsey
Duncan Fraser
Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell
Brown
John Frawley
Bruce McIver
Bruce Spence
Lieutenant Otter
George Mallaby
Mrs Otter
Ingrid Mason
Youlden
Bill Hunter
Martin Cameron
Gerard Kennedy
Johnny
Fabian Muir
Mrs Annie Fraser
Vicki Bray
Doyle
Serge Lazareff
Hodge
John Cobley
Elliott
Sean Scully
Stone
Martin Phelan
Mrs Cameron
Arna-Maria Winchester
Mrs Shortland
Carole Skinner
Buxom Girl
Abigail

Director
Tim Burstall

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