Mad Dog Morgan -1976
Beaten, branded, brutalized, but never broken.

Director
Phillipe Mora

Author
Margaret Carnegie

Starring
Dennis Hopper
Jack Thompson
David Gulpili

Review by Noel Baily

If you check the credentials of Philippe Mora you will find he leans towards the Outré School of filmmaking. In terms of cinematic crap he has managed to helm three of the all time greatest duds: THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN INVINCIBLE, SWAMP THING and the never to be forgotten, HOWLING 2 (The jury is still out on HOWLING III: THE MARSUPIALS…its either WORSE than 2 or a camp classic)

Whatever, MAD DOG MORGAN (MAD DOG in the US) offers too much to either ignore per se or to slate unmercifully. As a towering portrait of a reasonably obscure bushranger, it is just too disjointed and lacking in sane continuity to be considered a winner. Dennis Hopper’s work and intense interpretation of Morgan however is just plain awesome – I consider it amongst his career highlights – up there with BLUE VELVET (are these two characters cosmically related somehow?)

The cinematography is sumptuous although on some dvd’s I’ve noticed a strange discoloration towards the centre of the screen throughout the print…oddly though it adds rather than detracts. The music is at times jarring and fully inappropriate, then before you can say “Is this one odd flick or not?” you’re watching Hopper perched alone in a bar room, musing on his past and telling his would-be seductress – “I only ever knew one woman – my mother…I’m sorry.” That scene alone makes the film worth watching. One of those scenes stays with you if you have any compassion whatsoever.

Frank Thring still thinks he’s playing Herod from KING OF KINGS as the head of Victorian Police. His psychotic demands at the end of the film sicken even his subordinates. Clearly he is closer to an institution even than Morgan!

Excellent support work from Gulpilil as always. He also plays the film’s didgeridoo on the soundtrack.
MAD DOG MORHAN is no thinking-person’s classic, it’s not even an especially good film. What it DOES achieve though, is a fairly accurate representation of Australian Bush life from a bygone period. Within its budgetary limitations, insane direction and superior acting, it is a mini-beacon of sorts from the mid seventies. PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK it isn’t…but neither does it generate the cringe factor of THE ADVENTURES OF BARRY MACKENZIE.