Malcolm (film)

Malcolm
Australian DVD cover
Directed by	Nadia Tass
Produced by	David Parker Nadia Tass
Written by	David Parker
Starring	Colin Friels John Hargreaves Lindy Davies Chris Haywood
Music by	Paul Coppens Simon Jeffes
Cinematography	David Parker
Editing by	Ken Sallows
Distributed by	Vestron Pictures
Release date(s)	20 July 1986 (1986-07-20)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	$544,472 (USA)

Malcolm is a 1986 Australian cult film, written by David Parker and directed by Nadia Tass. The film stars Colin Friels as the titular tram enthusiast who becomes involved with petty crime. The film won the 1986 Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film.

At the start of the film Malcolm is working for the then operator of Melbourne's trams. He builds himself a "tram", which leads him to losing his job. With his mother dead and no income, he is forced to take a boarder, Frank (John Hargreaves). Frank is a petty criminal, and Malcolm turns his mechanical mind to helping him pursue his career. Malcolm creates a number of surreal inventions, including a getaway car which splits into two independently powered halves and devises a bank robbery done by remote control.

Production

Filming locations

The scenes of the exterior of Malcolm's house were filmed at 23 Napoleon Street, Collingwood. The house has since been demolished and the land is currently vacant. The interior scenes are believed to have been filmed at a house in Elm Street, Flemington, an inner city suburb of Melbourne.

A facade was constructed in Napoleon Street for the exterior scenes of the Milk Bar. The interior scenes were filmed at the former milk bar located on Wellington Street near Napoleon Street.

The Leinster Arms Hotel, located in Gold Street Collingwood, was used for filming the inside scenes at the pub Frank often frequents.

The scenes of the headquarters of the fictional Anglo Swiss Bank were filmed at two locations. The building where Frank and Judith deliver a number of ashtrays is the Commonwealth Bank in Collins Street, near the intersection with Queen Street. All signage related to the Commonwealth Bank was removed for the purpose of filming.

The overhead bridge featured in the robbery of the bank is located at the William Angliss TAFE, on LaTrobe Street.

The tram depot featured in the beginning of the film is the former South Melbourne Depot which was located on Kingsway at the corner of Dorcas Street (and is now a BMW dealer). Kew Depot features briefly in a dawn scene of a tram depot, prior to Malcolm taking his own tram for a test run. The Foreman's office in which Malcolm is sacked is located in the Body Shop at Preston Workshops. The scene in which Malcolm, Frank and Judith switch from a getaway van to Malcolm's tram was filmed near the Workshops in Miller Street, Thornbury.

Vehicles

The model tram that Malcolm "built" ran on a motorbike engine, the rest having being put together with spare parts by workers at Preston Workshops in Melbourne, Australia. After the film was completed, the tram was donated to the Tramway Museum Society of Victoria.

In the late 1990s, a man bought a furnished house (which also contained a lot of junk) in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. To his surprise, the garage contained the yellow getaway car from this movie. The car had not been seen since the film wrapped.^{[citation needed]}

The remote controlled car used by Malcolm to rob his first bank is a Tamiya Sand Scorcher, model number 58016.

All the remote control cars including the ashtrays were assembled by Kenneth Liddiard (deceased).

Music

The music used in the film, although not specifically written as a score, perfectly matched the inventiveness of its main character. Composed by Simon Jeffes and performed by him and fellow members of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, the clever mix of technical sounds and gentle rhythms evoked the nostalgia of the Melbourne tram and the quirky, lonely life Malcolm followed in the film. This unique and joyous music still finds its way into a number of films and television documentaries.

Box Office

Malcolm grossed $3,482,129 at the box office in Australia, which is equivalent to $7,592,242 in 2009 dollars.

See also

• Cinema of Australia

External links

• Malcolm at the Internet Movie Database
• Malcolm at the National Film and Sound Archive
• Malcolm at the australianscreen web site