It was going to happen someday. After all, "Its a Rocky Thing" and today dear reader was that day. I had been searching for a copy of "Shirley Thompson vs The Aliens" since I first heard of it so many years ago and baby that was sooo many years ago. Today I am under Covid Isolation and there is nothing on TV so, I went for it. And Boy is this film bad. Lots of long establishing shots, I mean LOTS of establishing shots. My copy has a film counter imbedded so I know this is the way the edit was meant to be according to Jim but golly gee there are many minutes of no dialogue and just long shots.
"What?" I hear you say. "I have never heard of "Shirley Thompson vs The Aliens"? Well, it is a rare film. I don't even know if it ever made public release. I do know there is a copy in the Australian film archives..and one on my laptop right now.
Simply put, "Shirley Thompson vs The Aliens" is Jim Sharman's first film predating The Rocky Horror Picture Show by almost 3 years.
Not a lot is known about this film written by Jim Sharman and Helmut Bakaitis. It was Filmed mostly at Luna Park and Mark and Margarets house where ever that was.
Staring Jane Harders, most famous for her later work on Rush, a Country Practice and Heartbreak High is Shirley Thompson, a typically misunderstood 1950's teenager living in a suburban Australian home. She hates her parents played by John Llewellyn and Marie Nicholas almost as much as they hate each other. They want her married off and well, she just wants to party with her motorbike friends, dance and drink coke. There is a LOT of Coke in this movie. After all, it is 1956.! I am not even going to pick on the fact a lot of the Johnny O'Keefe music didn't come out until 3 years after this movie was set!
The film jumps back and forth as we discover Shirley is under Psychiatric care (Kate Fitzpatrick as the Psych nurse, God I love Kate Fitzpatrick... Ever since Return of Capitan Invincible) is telling her story in scenes that later turn up, I suspect, as inspiration for Shock Treatment.
The spiel on the internet movie database says A group of aliens plans to invade Australia as a means of taking over the Earth, But have watched this ow, the aliens are really trying to warn the Earth. The aliens have wiped out their planet and are trying to save ours before we do the same thing. Quite nice of them really. In order to communicate with the people of Earth, they turn to Shirley. Shirley comes back and tells all her friends about everything she learned from the aliens and they try to help.
The aliens ty to communicate via the news and on Radio, but this is just seen as a joke by the general populace. "They did that radio thing before and scared all those Old folk" in a last-ditch attempt to communicate with the World the aliens animate a wax work dummy of Duke of Edinburgh and he makes a speech at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. No one listens and the Aliens just give up. Mankind is left to its own fate. We never see the aliens, we just hear them.
Shirley goes on, gets married and eventually goes nuts. This is where her story is now being told to the doctors on the Psych ward.
I have to admit, I was looking for Rocky Horror all the way through this. Sure, Jim and Richard O'Brien had not met yet, but the bare bones of technique were there. The padding was starting to make sense. Transylvanians on Motorcycle's probably did come from Motorbike hoons tearing around Luna Park in the dark. And I swear Shirley was a voice double for Columbia! I could almost see her being picked up by Frank and driven away to be used later in the next film. It would have made a perfect prequel. Did I mention Brian Thomson was set guy on this movie too. The scary thing is I have those exact same black velvet koala cushions with the fringing. Half that kitchen is in my house right now.
This is a bad film. The concept is good but it is a very young film from a first-time maker. The editing is sharp, the shots too long and the acting is a serving suggestion at best. Three years later he is a GOD, but here he is still learning technique. A technique that worked well for "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and in "The Night, the Prowler" a few years later. Similar film techniques learned on Shirley have been sharpened and wok perfectly now. Another story about a woman mis understood by her parents but find her own path through trauma becoming the heroine the she needs to be to survive, one the world needs but may not want. Jim Sharman knows how to portray a strong woman well. It's a Pity they all end up insane.
"What?" I hear you say. "I have never heard of "Shirley Thompson vs The Aliens"? Well, it is a rare film. I don't even know if it ever made public release. I do know there is a copy in the Australian film archives..and one on my laptop right now.
Simply put, "Shirley Thompson vs The Aliens" is Jim Sharman's first film predating The Rocky Horror Picture Show by almost 3 years.
Not a lot is known about this film written by Jim Sharman and Helmut Bakaitis. It was Filmed mostly at Luna Park and Mark and Margarets house where ever that was.
Staring Jane Harders, most famous for her later work on Rush, a Country Practice and Heartbreak High is Shirley Thompson, a typically misunderstood 1950's teenager living in a suburban Australian home. She hates her parents played by John Llewellyn and Marie Nicholas almost as much as they hate each other. They want her married off and well, she just wants to party with her motorbike friends, dance and drink coke. There is a LOT of Coke in this movie. After all, it is 1956.! I am not even going to pick on the fact a lot of the Johnny O'Keefe music didn't come out until 3 years after this movie was set!
The film jumps back and forth as we discover Shirley is under Psychiatric care (Kate Fitzpatrick as the Psych nurse, God I love Kate Fitzpatrick... Ever since Return of Capitan Invincible) is telling her story in scenes that later turn up, I suspect, as inspiration for Shock Treatment.
The spiel on the internet movie database says A group of aliens plans to invade Australia as a means of taking over the Earth, But have watched this ow, the aliens are really trying to warn the Earth. The aliens have wiped out their planet and are trying to save ours before we do the same thing. Quite nice of them really. In order to communicate with the people of Earth, they turn to Shirley. Shirley comes back and tells all her friends about everything she learned from the aliens and they try to help.
The aliens ty to communicate via the news and on Radio, but this is just seen as a joke by the general populace. "They did that radio thing before and scared all those Old folk" in a last-ditch attempt to communicate with the World the aliens animate a wax work dummy of Duke of Edinburgh and he makes a speech at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. No one listens and the Aliens just give up. Mankind is left to its own fate. We never see the aliens, we just hear them.
Shirley goes on, gets married and eventually goes nuts. This is where her story is now being told to the doctors on the Psych ward.
I have to admit, I was looking for Rocky Horror all the way through this. Sure, Jim and Richard O'Brien had not met yet, but the bare bones of technique were there. The padding was starting to make sense. Transylvanians on Motorcycle's probably did come from Motorbike hoons tearing around Luna Park in the dark. And I swear Shirley was a voice double for Columbia! I could almost see her being picked up by Frank and driven away to be used later in the next film. It would have made a perfect prequel. Did I mention Brian Thomson was set guy on this movie too. The scary thing is I have those exact same black velvet koala cushions with the fringing. Half that kitchen is in my house right now.
This is a bad film. The concept is good but it is a very young film from a first-time maker. The editing is sharp, the shots too long and the acting is a serving suggestion at best. Three years later he is a GOD, but here he is still learning technique. A technique that worked well for "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and in "The Night, the Prowler" a few years later. Similar film techniques learned on Shirley have been sharpened and wok perfectly now. Another story about a woman mis understood by her parents but find her own path through trauma becoming the heroine the she needs to be to survive, one the world needs but may not want. Jim Sharman knows how to portray a strong woman well. It's a Pity they all end up insane.
