A Pat Flower script.
Premise
Three marching girls - Marleen, Hilda and Pamela - are waiting for the results of a competition to elect the World Miss Marching Girl. One of them has a more sinister goal.
Her parents end up shooting a girl.
Cast
- Joy Mitchell as Marleen
- Elizabeth Harris as Major Hilda
- Fay Kelton as Captain Pamela
- Sydney Conabere as Mr Smith
- Dorothy Bradley as Mrs Smith
Production
It was written by Pat Flower.
It was recorded on 2 May 1966. Music - Frank Smith. Technical supervisor - Brian Rodgers. Designer - Cas Van Puffelen. Director - Oscar Whitbread.
Reception
The play was poorly reviewed.
One critic for the Sydney Morning Herald argued "it is time... Australian Playhouse had an independent audit. The works we are seeing are not worth more than two cents of the licence fee. Pat Flower's "Marleen"... was a macabre grin at nothing. Those who saw it must have wondered if they themselves were short on brains, so short was it on plausible entertainment. Those who didn't see it need not die worrying. But Miss Flower cannot be blamed for the series. Efforts which should never have gone to air have included a puerile analogy between a parking ticket and an early baby ... a prissy story about a dotty couple tricking each other over a dead man . . . not to mention the short, short bit of witlessness in which a husband and a lover were ever so conveniently trapped in a lift. The series has had few moments one cares to remember. It would be unfair to blame David Goddard, the overall director, or any of his studio teams. They are involved in production and cannot be expected to stand off with objective judgments. What is required is an independent judge to evaluate scripts, check again at rehearsals and stop dead every play that doesn't look like rising above workshop level. Otherwise, Australian Playhouse will do more harm than good to the cause of home-grown TV."
The Age said "the ABC had never presented anything sillier."
The Bulletin said Pat Flower "is beginning to get the half hour length. The use of film behind, and the senseless, but eerie, marching of the girls up and down the Marching- Girls’ hall, were an advance in more ways than one. But I do wish that someone would write a simple comedy or two for the series."
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| SMH 29 Dec 1966 p 4 |
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| The Age 23 July 1966 p 58 |
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| The Age 23 July 1966 p 58 |
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| SMH 20 July 1966 p 16 |
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| SMH 19 July 1966 p 13 |
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| The Bulletin 30 July 1966 p 43 |
Forgotten Australian TV Plays: Marleen, What About Next Year? and The Runaway
by Stephen Vagg
December 20, 2021
Stephen
Vagg’s series on forgotten Australian TV plays looks at three different
ones from 1966: Marleen, What About Next Year? and The Runaway.
The
year 1966 is an interesting one in small screen Australian drama.
Television had been broadcasting here for a decade and had established
itself as the leading entertainment medium in the country, supplanting
radio and cinema. It hadn’t been a great decade for local shows – in
fact, sometimes it had been downright poor – but the success of programs
like Homicide and Mavis Bramston proved that not only did Australians
enjoy something homegrown, they could like it in large numbers. Quotas
for local drama were introduced in 1967, but prior to that, the ABC
increased its already decent output. This essay looks at three
television plays from 1966. ...
Marleen
Marleen was a half-hour episode of the anthology series ‘Australian Playhouse’. It was a black comedy by Pat Flower, best known for her thrillers (eg. The Tape Recorder), although she did a lot of comedy as well (eg, Done Away With, Tilley Landed On Our Shores). Marleen is named for its central character, a marching band captain (Joy Mitchell). She has two offsiders (Fay Kelton and Elizabeth Harris) plus bewildered parents (Syd Conabere, Dorothy Bradley), who are worried about their daughter’s dictatorial tendencies, which come to the fore when Marleen is up for a competition to elect the World Miss Marching Girl. Marleen goes a bit fascistic and [SPOILERS] war veteran dad puts on his medals and shoots his daughter dead.
Oscar Whitbread directed. This was quite fun if you can get into the broad theatrical mode of it. Reviews were unnecessarily harsh – I think that they couldn’t handle the tonal shift, because the comedy is clear, as is the satirical point.
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