''Half an Hour with Robert Helpmann'' is a 1964 Australian television program featuring

Robert Helpmann Sir Robert Murray Helpmann (né Helpman) (9 April 1909 – 28 September 1986) was an Australian ballet dancer, actor, director, and choreographer. After early work in Australia he moved to Britain in 1932, where he joined the Vic-Wells Ballet (no ...

. Helpmann was in Australia for the Adelaide Arts Festival at the time and the program was devised to illustrate his versatility. According to ''Filmink'' "in under thirty minutes, its star tries to do pretty much everything in the showbiz handbook: Shakespeare, pop songs (one ballad, one dance number), ballet, crime drama. You know how in the sitcom ''Will and Grace'' the character Jack had a one-man show he was always talking about, Just Jack? ''Half an Hour'' with Robert Helpmann is a little like that." Over half an hour Helpmann does a variety of solo acts including: * singing a ballad *performing the role of Oberon and Hamlet *dancing a solo *singing the song "Surfer Doll" *re enacting his appearance in '' Box for One'' (with Carole Potter providing female voices). It was shot at the ABC's studios in Melbourne. A copy of the production is at the National Film and Sound Archive. Later that year the ABC did a half hour documentary on Helpmann for ''The Lively Arts''.

Reception

''Filmink'' wrote "it’s all fascinating and enormously fun... The performance of “Surfer Girl” is bizarre, certainly, but that’s because of our notions of ageism in pop music... The lighting and photography are beautiful. Sterling could sometimes show off too much in his directing, but here, he serves the material very well."

References

{{William Sterling Australian short documentary films 1964 films 1964 short documentary films 1964 television films Australian black-and-white films 1960s English-language films Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming 1960s Australian films English-language short documentary films