Garry McDonaldFilmography

Rabbit-Proof Fence

Actors: Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, Laura Monaghan, David Gulpilil, Kenneth Branagh

Synopsis: After directing a number of major motion pictures in the United States, Australian-born filmmaker Phillip Noyce returned home to make this remarkable adventure-drama, based on a true story as well as a lamentable period in his nation's history. When European settlers first arrived in Australia Read More

All or Nothing

Actors: Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville, Alison Garland, James Corden, Ruth Sheen

Synopsis: After a rather decided departure with his 1999 homage to Gilbert and Sullivan, Topsy-Turvy, Mike Leigh returns to his usual form for All or Nothing, a melancholy look at the day-to-day lives of a dysfunctional lower-middle class British family called the Bassetts. Timothy Spall and Lesley Manville Read More

Moulin Rouge

Actors: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh

Synopsis: The third film from pop-music-obsessed director Baz Luhrmann tweaks the conventions of the musical genre by mixing a period romance with anachronistic dialogue and songs in the style of his previous Romeo+Juliet (1996). Ewan McGregor stars as Christian, who leaves behind his bourgeois father Read More

Code Red: The Rubicon Conspiracy

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Synopsis: Dishonorably discharged Marine lieutenant Peter Doyle (Jeremy Callaghan) is pulled out of "retirement" by gung-ho General Pembroke (Steven Grives) to lead an elite unit on a dangerous mission deep in the jungles of Africa (actually Australia, where this made-for-TV movie was filmed). In addition Read More

Mr. Accident

Actors: Yahoo Serious, David Field, Grant Piro, Jeanette Cronin

Synopsis: Australian comedian Yahoo Serious wreaks havoc in his third effort as writer, director, and star. Roger Crumpkin (Serious) suffers from "obsessive-compulsive dismantling fixation," which is a fancy way of saying he's always taking things apart that he can't put back together. As a result, disaster Read More

Virtual Nightmare

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Synopsis: The "surprise" ending of this made-for-TV sci/fi thriller will not surprise fans of the Matrix movies--nor those senior citizens who heard variations on the same plotline back in the days of such radio anthologies as X-Minus One and Dimension X.The film is set in the future, where the world has Read More

Fallen Angels [TV Series]

Synopsis: The Australian drama series Fallen Angels was set in the fictional Sydney suburb of Endeavor Park. The stories dealt with a community legal center, populated by lawyers who'd either been washed out of legitimate firms or who were too temperamental and unpredictable to survive in any other legal Read More

Sahara

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Synopsis: This desert war adventure is set during WWII and is a remake of Zoltan Korda's 1943 version. The tale chronicles the courage of an American sergeant and his few men who attempt to escape approaching German forces in their tank. As they cruise southward, they pick up a stranded British medical Read More

Eggshells

Synopsis: Eggshells were what protagonist Frank Rose (Garry McDonald) constantly found himself walking on in this weekly half-hour Australian sitcom. A middle-aged roue, Frank was torn between two girlfriends. Making things even dicier, he was constantly being set upon by his ex-wife and his wisecracking Read More

Official Denial

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Erin Gray, Parker Stevenson

Synopsis: The plot of the made-for-cable Official Denial is only partially summed up by the title. Parker Stevenson plays Paul Corliss, a hapless gent who is abducted by extraterrestrials. With no tangible proof, Corliss can't get anyone to believe his story. Even his wife Annie (Erin Gray) thinks he's Read More

The Other Side of Paradise

Synopsis: Adapted from the novel by Noel Barber, the four-part British-Australian miniseries The Other Side of Paradise stars Jason Connery as idealistic 1930s physician Chris Masters. Hoping to find a new purpose in life, Masters heads to the tiny South Pacific island of Koraluna, to set up a modern Read More

Young Soul Rebels

Actors: Valentine Nonyela, Mo Sesay, Frances Barber

Synopsis: This largely character-driven thriller-drama is the feature-film debut of British documentary filmmaker Isaac Julien, and provides viewers with an insider's look at the diverse lifestyles of hip, young black immigrants who lived upon the fringes of 1977 London society. The film begins in a Read More

Ghosts Can't Do It

Actors: Bo Derek, Anthony Quinn, Don Murray, Leo Damian, Julie Newmar

Synopsis: The final cinematic abomination from the late John Derek and his legendary non-actress wife Bo Derek turns out to be their worst collaboration ever, beating out even Bolero for sheer incomprehensible awfulness and ranking as one of the silliest monstrosities ever committed to film. Though no Read More

Struck by Lightning

Actors: Garry McDonald, Catherine McClements

Synopsis: Ollie Rennie (Garry McDonald) really has no business running a caretaking institution of any kind, much less one for the mentally handicapped; he's an alcoholic, has no respect for other people, and persistently tries to put the make on an unwilling social worker. All the same, he runs an Read More

Those Dear Departed

Actors: Garry McDonald, Pamela Stephenson, Su Cruickshank, John Clarke

Synopsis: Max Falcon (Garry McDonald) is a pompous and immensely popular actor who stars in "Freud The Musical" in this offbeat comedy. His wife Marilyn (Pamela Stephenson) is having an affair with her Polish chauffeur Richard (Marian Dworakowski). The two conspire to murder Max by putting broken glass in Read More

The Passion of Remembrance

Actors: Anni Domingo, Joseph Charles, Antonia Thomas, Carlton Chance, Jim Findley

Synopsis: Racism and several other issues come up in this experimental film that looks at the problems of black citizens in the U.K. from different perspectives. In the first half of the film, an unnamed man and woman speak out about black issues in their own way (slightly belligerent in the one instance Read More

Playing Beatie Bow

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Imogen Annesley, Peter Phelps, Mouche Phillips, Nikki Coghill, Moya O'Sullivan

Synopsis: In modern-day (1985) Sydney, Australia, teen-aged Abigail discovers that she can communicate with at least one apparently dead person, who lived in that town back in 1873. As their communications continue, Abigail suddenly finds herself transported back in time. In this light drama, based on a Read More

The Far Country

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Synopsis: Two people trying to leave ugly memories behind them find life and love anew in Australia in this made-for-television adaptation of the novel by Nevil Shute. Carl Zlinter (Michael York) was a doctor who was drafted into the German Army during World War II and forced to serve the Axis war effort. Read More

Place at the Coast

Actors: John Hargreaves, Heather Mitchell, Tushka Bergen, Margo Lee, Willie Fennell

Synopsis: Teenager Ellie (Tushka Bergen) is the only child of the widowed physician Neil McAdam (John Hargreaves) in this finely crafted drama, and the two spend their summers at the family cottage on the Australian coast. Ellie is bored and lonely until Margot Ryan (Heather Mitchell) comes to visit her Read More

Wills & Burke

Actors: Garry McDonald, Kim Gyngell, Jonathan Hardy, Peter Collingwood, Mark Little, Nicole Kidman

Synopsis: Cashing in on the release of Burke and Wills, this undistinguished comedy by Bob Weiss tries to turn the tragic crossing of Australia's desert in 1860 into fodder for humor, but it is tasteless fodder in the end. Robert O'Hara Burke (Gary McDonald) and William John Wills (Kim Gyngell) set out from Read More

Robbery Under Arms

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Sam Neill, Steven Vidler, Christopher Cummins, Liz Newman, Deborah Coulls, Robert Grubb

Synopsis: Many cinematic versions of this story which first appeared in 1889 (authored by Rolf Boldrewood) have been produced, the first was an Australian film dating back to 1907, and this mid-'80s interpretation is also an Australian release. The focus is on Captain Starlight (Sam Neill) and his gang of Read More

Second Time Lucky

Crew: Composer (Music Score)

Actors: Diane Franklin, Roger Wilson, Robert Helpmann, Jon Gadsby, John-Michael Howson

Synopsis: In this tongue-and-cheek comedy, the Devil and God get together and the horned one bets God that were Adam and Eve to get a second go of it, the same result would occur. To prove his point, the film swings back to Roman times, through WW I, the Roaring '20s and more, as temptation prevails Read More

Molly

Actors: Claudia Karvan, Garry McDonald, Melissa Jaffer, Ruth Cracknell

Synopsis: In this uneven children's story, Molly is a talented little dog who can sing for the people who love her -- but is mute when her vocals are required by the more cold-hearted of the human breed. Her new, young caretaker Maxie (Claudia Karvan) has her hands full because the villainous "Old Dan" Garry McDonald Read More

Ginger Meggs

Actors: Garry McDonald, Paul Daniel, Mark Spain

Synopsis: Ginger Meggs (Paul Daniel) is a young "Dennis the Menace" who first appeared in Australian comic strips in 1921. In this film meant for the pre-teen set, Ginger is constantly getting himself in trouble in spite of his good intentions -- at the same time, he prevaricates, he disobeys his teachers Read More

The Pirate Movie

Actors: Kristy McNichol, Christopher Atkins, Ted Hamilton, Bill Kerr, Maggie Kirkpatrick

Synopsis: An introverted girl who yearns for popularity (Kristy McNichol) attends a pirate festival in her seaside community, featuring a swordplay demo led by a curly haired hunk (Christopher Atkins). After selecting Mabel (McNichol) to participate in the act, the instructor invites her aboard his boat for Read More

Gunston's Australia [TV Series]

Crew: Screenwriter

Synopsis: Australian comedian Garry McDonald assumed his familiar alter ego of TV personality Norman Gunston on this lighthearted travel series. On each half-hour episode, Gunston visited a different region of Australia, conducting satirical interviews with the locals and making mocking comments about the Read More

The Picture Show Man

Actors: Rod Taylor, John Meillon, John Ewart, Harold Hopkins, Patrick Cargill

Synopsis: This easygoing drama offers a look back at the early days of the Australian movie business, and it was based on the real-life adventures of pioneering Aussie exhibitor Lyle Penn. Maurice "Pop" Pym (John Meillon) loves motion pictures, and he wants to open a cinema of his own. But shortly after the Read More

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Actors: Rachel Roberts, Dominic Guard, Vivean Gray, Helen Morse, Kirsty Child

Synopsis: Peter Weir's haunting and evocative mystery is set in the Australia of 1900, a mystical place where the British have attempted to impose their Christian culture with such tweedy refinements as a girls' boarding school. After gauzily-photographed, nicely underplayed scenes of the girls' budding Read More

Stone

Actors: Keryck Barnes, James H. Bowles, Jane Gilling, Dewey Hungerford, John Ifkovitch, Lex Mitchell, Ros Talamini, Rhod Walker, Owen Weingott, Bindi Williams

Synopsis: An undercover cop named Stone (Ken Shorter) infiltrates an outlaw biker gang called the Grave Diggers, only to discover that he has more in common with the two-wheeled warriors than he previously though after a professional assassin attempts to set them up for a big fall. A prominent environmental Read More