This Australian made-for-television movie – produced in 1977 by Reg Grundy and aired on Channel Seven in June 1979 – opens “somewhere in England” with a blast of violence as a psychiatric patient (Paul Chubb) hurtles out of a room and attempts to throttle an unsuspecting male nurse.
Following a series of experiments designed to increase the alertness of long-distance lorry drivers through the use of tonal repetition, a combination of tones that produces instant and complete amnesia in the listener is accidentally discovered.
The uses for “reprogramming” such a mind – cleansed of all memory – to perform any type of action are immediately obvious to British Intelligence. To protect their secret from determined enemies, it is decided to send the tape to “the colonies” – namely, Australia.
Aussie Peter Clarke (John Waters) – a retired international courier for the Home Office who is still beholden to the government because British Intelligence has knowledge of his direct involvement in a homicide – is tasked to transport an audio tape of the tones to his native Sydney.
His controller, Ainsley (Vincent Ball), hopes that a representative from the “other side”, an agent named Korchek (Keith Lee), will follow Peter, seize the tape, and subsequently neutralise himself by listening to it.
Matters are complicated further when a third set of (unidentified) individuals becomes involved in affairs.
With the exception of some stock footage of London, the film is set and shot in Sydney, where Clarke is continually attacked, battered, double-crossed and shot with tremendous durability.
In the meantime, he takes up with a young woman, Faith (Belinda Giblin), who soothes his brow, bandages his wounds, and comes to a sorry end as a result of her involvement. All for nought, it seems, as Clarke – discovering she is a call girl – ends the relationship.
The climax occurs when Clarke, wounded, on foot and unarmed, finds himself at the African Lion Safar Park in Warragamba (New South Wales) with the big cats in hot pursuit.
Vincent Ball is superb as the senior British operative in this opaque tale.
Peter Clarke
John Waters Faith Camden
Belinda Giblin Eddie
Fred Steele Ainsley
Vincent Ball Korchek
Keith Lee Henderson
Donald McDonald Drag Queen
Tracy Lee Hudson
Allan Penney Psychiatric patient (Harry)
Paul Chubb The Don Burrows Quartet
Don Burrows
George Golla
Paul Jansen
Paul Baker
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His controller, Ainsley (Vincent Ball), hopes that a representative from the “other side”, an agent named Korchek (Keith Lee), will follow Peter, seize the tape, and subsequently neutralise himself by listening to it.
