''Dallas Doll'' is an Australian black comedy-drama film starring

Sandra Bernhard Sandra Bernhard (born June 6, 1955) is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She first gained attention in the late 1970s with her stand-up comedy, where she often critiqued celebrity culture and political figures. Bernhard is also well kn ...

David Ngoombujarra David Ngoombujarra (27 June 1967 – 17 July 2011) was an Indigenous Australian actor of the Yamatji people. Born David Bernard Starr in Meekatharra, Western Australia, his acting career spanned over two decades from the late 1980s to 2010 ...

Roy Billing Roy Harwood Billing (born 1947) is a New Zealand television actor, now based on Waiheke Island, New Zealand. He was brought up in Ruawai, Northland Region, Northland, New Zealand. Billing spent almost three decades living and working in Austral ...

, Victoria Longley,

Frank Gallacher Frank Gallacher (7 April 1943 – 23 February 2009) was a Scottish-Australian actor. Early life Gallacher was born in Glasgow in 1943. In 1962, aged 19, he was working in London when his parents and younger sister decided to emigrate to Austra ...

, Jake Blundell,

Rose Byrne Mary Rose Byrne (born 24 July 1979) is an Australian actress. She made her screen debut in the film ''Dallas Doll'' (1994) , and continued to act in Australian film and television throughout the 1990s. She gained her first leading film role in ...

, Celia Ireland. It was written and directed by Ann Turner.

Cast

as Dallas Adair *

as Storyteller *

as Dave Harry * Victoria Longley as Rosalind Sommers *

as Stephen Sommers * Jake Blundell as Charlie Sommers *

as Rastus Sommers * Douglas Hedge as Mayor Tonkin * Celia Ireland as Policewoman * John Frawley

Plot

Dallas Adair is an American consultant brought to Australia to advise on a new golf course project. On the plane from L.A. she meets Charlie Sommers, the 18-year-old son of one of her bosses when there's a near crash landing, after which Dallas moves into the Sommers bourgeois home. While living with the Sommers, Dallas begins a twisted odyssey to seduce and corrupt the family which includes seducing Charlie, then seducing his father Stephen, a workaholic lawyer who is re-awakened by sexual desire. Dallas even seduces Stephen's frustrated wife Rosalind, where Dallas introduces Rosalind to excitement of living on edge and the female body. Only the Sommer's UFO obsessed teenage daughter Rastus, along with her pet dog Argus, are highly suspicious to Dallas's agenda. Her influence over the Sommers family secured, Dallas begins to chart her final objective by appealing to the local Mayor Tonkin, for assistance in setting up the golf links with her wicked charms. However, fate and destiny finally catches up to Dallas when Charlie returns from his lone spiritual quest in the desert with old scores to settle where he, Argus and a spectacular visitation conspire to cause the downfall and death of Dallas Adair.

Production

Shot in April and May 1993, the film was developed with the assistance of the

Australian Film Commission The Australian Film Commission (AFC) was an Australian government agency was founded in 1975 with a mandate to promote the creation and distribution of films in Australia as well as to preserve the country's film history. It also had a product ...

and made with money from the FFC. Sandra Bernhard was imported to play the lead. Ann Turner:

"Dallas Doll" essentially came from being part of and seeing how Australians really worship experts from overseas. I've done some writing workshops where that would happen. An American is brought out – and the willingness for Australians to accept with open arms whatever fraud comes out because they're American, that's absolutely the starting point of ''Dallas Doll''."Interview with Ann Turner", ''Signis'', 16 January 1998
Retrieved 21 November 2012

Reception

The film was released theatrically in 1994 in the United Kingdom and Germany, received mixed reviews. It was released in the United States on 23 June 1995 and had a limited theatrical run.

References

External links

* *{{Internet Archive film, id=dallas-doll-1993 1994 films Australian black comedy films Films scored by David Hirschfelder 1990s English-language films 1990s Australian films