The Right Thing (film)

The Right Thing is a 1963 comedy Australian television play, that was produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australian TV drama was relatively rare at the time.

Plot
The adventures of a Sydney family. Clarrie and Vera Hamlin are holding an engagement party for their eldest daughter Elena when a handsome young Spanish man, J.G., comes into an encounter with them.

Cast

 * Lola Brooks as Elena
 * Brigid Lenihan as Vera Hamlin
 * Alister Smart as JG
 * Grant Taylor as Clarrie Hamlin
 * David Yorston
 * Noeline Brown as Shirley
 * Benita Collings as Jean

Production
The play was written by Raymond Bowers, an Australian living in London. It was mapped out at a lunch early in 1963 between Bowers and director Ray Menmuir in London and was commissioned by Associated Rediffusion. It was directed by Memnuir who had recently returned to Australia after several years in London. It was hoped the play would be the first in a number of co productions between England and Australia.

Scenes were shot in a house on Sydney's North Shore, the Cahill Expressway, the Sydney beach of Longreef, and the Harbour Bridge. It was telerecorded and later shown in London by Associated-Rediffusion. It was the first of a series of exchange programs between the ABC and the British television company.

Alister Smart had also recently returned to England.

Reception
American producer and screenwriter Rod Serling saw the play and disliked the script but praised the acting.

The TV critic from the Sydney Morning Herald said "there was polish in the filming and the script" of The Right Thing but "the fun is wearing a little thin... The insistence on heavily accented Australiana may be more acceptable to overseas audiences than home viewers but the comedy was very well handled."

The Sunday edition of the Sydney Morning Herald called it "one of the biggest turkeys the ABC has given us this season... a dreary and slow moving 90 minutes... almost redeemed by the first class acting of its stars."

The Bulletin wrote that in the play "Australians are pre-1939 characters  who drive  1963   cars and live in contemporary homes. The males are Flintstones; publicans and  beach boys in   conflict  with a kind of supple European valor  which  baffles them, though the  girls  understand it well enough.... All of the players acted splendidly to the script,  and   with   an   English   television showing lined   up,   Raymond Menmuir  and his  crew  were  able  to  step  beyond  the usual  confines and  do  a  fine indoors-outdoors  production."