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Terry Bourke

A shifty but clever and cunning little character who did a lot of work. Some was good. However, the good was canceled out by his cavalier attitude to money (always other peoples'), his disrespect of his peers, and an almost obsessive jealousy of anyone else in the industry ... To his credit, Terry had an uncanny ability to make a tiny creek in the suburbs of Sydney look like the back blocks of Vietnam. He could also carve a piece of cardboard, put lights behind it and shoot it with a title beneath, and those that saw it on the silver screen would swear it really was a Manhattan skyline. He could shoot beneath a doctored typewriter or through a disassembled camera or use a single house for the entire shoot of a film ... At best he was an egotistical arsehole who was nowhere near as talented as he imagined he was ... He was also a pathological liar. But that's show business. Roger Ward, as quoted in Wikipedia


Sampan (Terry Bourke, 1968) prod. Gordon Mailloux; Dorothy Fu, Sabrina Kong; made in Hong Kong; NOT Australasian; 122 min.

Noon Sunday (Terry Bourke, 1970) prod. Gordon Mailloux; Mark Lenard, John Russell, Linda Avery, Keye Luke; shot on Guam; NOT Australasian; actioner; 104 min.

Night of Fear (Terry Bourke, 1973) horror; 54 min.; see Michael Helms, Cinema Papers, 129, January 1999: 27

Plugg (Terry Bourke, 1975) wr. Terry Bourke, prod. Ninki Maslansky for Romac Productions, dp Brian Probyn; Reg Gorman, Cheryl Rixon, Peter Thompson, Norman Yemm; Perth WA; colour; sex comedy; 88 min.

Inn of the Damned (Terry Bourke, 1975) prod. Terry Bourke, Rod Hay for Terryrod Productions, wr. Terry Bourke, dp Brian Probyn; Dame Judith Anderson, Tony Bonner, Alex Cord, Michael Craig, Joseph Furst, Reg Gorman, Lionel Long, John Meillon, John Morris, Robert Quilter, Phillip Avalon; Sydney, colour, 35 mm, 118 min.; horror; see Michael Helms, Cinema Papers, 129, January 1999: 27; Pike & Cooper 1998: 446

Little Boy Lost (Terry Bourke, 1978) prod. Phillip Avalon; John Hargreaves, Nathan Dawes, Tony Barry, Lorna Lesley, John Jarratt, James Elliott, Lex Foxcroft, Robert Quilter, Con Crosby, John Nash; "... Tracker Bindi (Steve Dodd), an Aboriginal ... is ... yet another tired reinforcement of a false stereotype": Suzanne Brown 1993, note in Murray 1995: 18

Lady, Stay Dead (Terry Bourke, 1980) prod. Terry Bourke for Ryntare Productions, wr. Terry Bourke, dp Ray Henman, music Bob Young, design Bob Hill, ed. Ron Williams; Deborah Coulls, James Elliott, Les Foxcroft, Chard Haywood, Louise Howitt, Roger Ward; woman in peril thriller; Eastman colour, 35 mm, 92 min.

Brothers (Terry Bourke, 1982) aka Hounds of War; Chard Hayward, Ivar Kants, Margaret Laurence, Alison Best; based on true story of five Australian journalists shot in Timor in 1975; two journalist brothers escape death but find it hard to settle in small town in NZ even after four years

The Tourist (Terry Bourke, 1987) aka Sands of the Bedouin; telemovie; Tony Bonner, Michael Pate, Dagman Blahova, Chard Hayward; clients of an Australian tour guide in Jordan are murdered; romantic drama; 100 min.

References and Links

Harris, Richard, 2017, 'Remembering Aussie pioneer Terry Bourke', FilmInk.


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