Melvin: Son of Alvin (1984)

This second and final sequel to the 1973 Australian hit comedy Alvin Purple followed Alvin Rides Again (1974) and a short-lived Alvin Purple television series (1976).

Gerry Sont (best known in Australia for the television soap, Waterloo Station) plays the virginal Melvin, who works as a teenage car-wash attendant.

He is irresistibly attractive to women but cannot understand why – as he does not realise he is the son of Alvin Purple – and has grown up deathly afraid of women.

Melvin becomes friendly with a Greek usherette, Gloria (Lenita Psillakis), who rescues him from marauding women and becomes his well-meaning girlfriend.

Eventually, a reunion of the Purple clan takes place where all is revealed.

Graeme Blundell reprises his Alvin persona, now sadly middle-aged and burnt out, working as a singer in a purple jumpsuit on the Club circuit, singing schmaltzy ballads to his adoring women fans.

In thankless support roles, Tina Bursill as crusading 60 Minutes-style reporter Dee Tanner and David Argue as her bumbling cameraman, are teamed as comedy relief as they set out to reveal that Alvin is being exploited by his seedy manager Burnbaum (Jon Finlayson) and that he is the long-lost father of Melvin.

The humour is curiously old-fashioned and replete with poofter jokes and sexual sniggering of the Benny Hill variety, the only topicality being a dubious gag reference to the emerging AIDS epidemic.

Before the movie’s release, three cuts were ordered by the censors – the offending material contained nudity and a simulation of oral sex. What remained in the final cut was innocuous enough to ensure a brief theatrical run and public indifference.

Melvin Simpson
Gerry Sont
Gloria 
Lenita Psillakis
Burnbaum 
Jon Finlayson
Dee Tanner 
Tina Bursill
Cameraman 
David Argue
Mrs Giannis 
Arianthe Calani
Mr Simpson 
Col McEwan
Mrs Simpson 
Abigail
Alvin Purple
Graeme Blundell
Matron 
Patsy Martin
Miss Fosdyke 
Marianne Collopy
Bullo 
Steve Bastoni
Ferret 
Greg Stroud
Streaky 
David Beresh

Director
John Eastway

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