Coogee Media

HOME	COOGEE HISTORY	COOGEE STORIES	COOGEE & BEYOND
COOGEE BLOG	COLLECT & CREATE	COOGEE PEOPLE	ARCHIVES

Molly : 1983

Coogee film about a singing dog

Molly is a 1983 Australian film aimed at the teenage market, about a singing dog which marked the acting debut of Claudia Karvan. It was directed by Ned Lander. Shot largely in Coogee, it gives a view of the suburb way back when it was still rough at the edges.

Plot
When weary Old Dan collapses at Sydney Central Railway Station, he entrusts his beloved dog Molly to young Maxie, played by then 14-year old Claudia Karvan in her film debut. Maxie develops a soft spot for her special new companion - a dog with the rare ability to sing in tune. But the evil Jones, played by Garry McDonald, gets wind of Molly's special talents and sets out to steal the dog and make his fortune touring the animal in show business. Young Maxie and her dog Molly eventually settle in with her Aunt who lives at Coogee. The setting for her new home is an apartment in the old Coogee Palace Aquarium Building in Dolphin Street Coogee. Maxie and Molly end up spending time with a travelling circus with a "big top" which had been set up in Trenerry Reserve. Meanwhile, the evil Jones found accommodation in a room (actually 290 Arden Street, on the corner of Havelock Avenue) in Coogee from where he plots to steal Molly and make off with the dog.

Molly the dog, at the window of their apartment in the old Coogee Aquarium

Molly was a real life singing dog, a small tan-coloured Jack Russell terrier owned by Phillip Roope which would appear on the Mike Walsh daytime television show. Molly, of course, did a number of solo performances during the film, showing a reasonable ability to follow a tune, if not to actually sing. It was also portrayed as a dog with a remarkable ability to escape sticky situations: from the dog-catcher, from being crushed by a garbage truck compactor, and from the lair of the evil Jones.

With help from newly acquired circus friends, Maxie and Molly are able to thwart Jones' plans to steal the dog in an obligatory final "chase" scene.

Molly's circus sets up in Trenerry Reserve
Molly the dog escapes

Maxie (Claudia Karvan) and Molly pursued across Grant Reserve towards the circus
by dastardly Jones (Garry McDonald). The circus is parked in Trenerry Reserve.
Its 1983, showing bare, almost treeless, parks before landscaping in late 1980s.
Molly the dog escapes

Molly escapes from the evil Jones' hideout at 290 Arden Street
Setting
Once the plot settles down, Maxie arrives in Coogee with her aunt. Their car comes down Carr Street, past the old Oceanic Hotel and turns left into the section of Beach Street which used to run along the beachfront (now subsumed by Goldstein Reserve). Past the beach with the old circular watchtower still intact, their car then turns into the parking garage and workshop under the old Palace Aquarium dome building (the sign in the film still reads "McLeod's Garage"). Maxie takes up residence in her aunt's apartment in that building.

Much of the action is in Coogee: in the group of shops in Dolphin Street, along the beachfront, and in Grant and Trenerry Reserves. The Victoriana style apartment building at 290 Arden Street on the corner of Havelock Avenue, is the setting for Jones' hideout apartment where he is always in danger of being evicted by his landlady for not paying his rent, and where he attempts to confine Molly the dog.

In Molly we see an older style of Coogee, still a bit rough at the edges, and before development and landscaping of the late 1980s and 1990s promoted it a a slick tourist destination.

Beach Street, Coogee 1983 - still from film
Reception
As a film aimed at a younger, children's market, hoping to catch school holiday crowds, Molly was never going to find critical acclaim. However it is quite well developed and put-together production with finely crafted performances from its leading actors. It did poorly in the box office, unlucky perhaps, because it came up against another youth centred film BMX Bandits, with a debut performance by another young and up-and-coming Australian female actor Nicole Kidman.

You can still watch Molly in full for free on the SBS streaming service. If nothing else, it is interesting viewing just to be able to see Coogee of a bygone era.

| CONTACT US | ABOUT US |