|
The Beast Robert Mammone stars as a helicopter pilot called Raines in a thriller serial about the residents of a coastal fishing village, who are are terrorised by a giant squid. The film was based on the novel by Peter Benchley (author of Jaws) called 'The Beast'. The cast was predominantly Australian and filmed in Oz by an LA Production company. Whilst the novel itself is very suspenseful and creates a terror originating from the unknown, the TV version really fell short. The squid itself looked like a badly made prop and the suspense just wasn't there.
Robert's performance was strong and he made the best of what he was given. The role didn't really tap into his acting strength but the character was solid, albeit without a great deal of air time.
Additional details:
Writer: J.B. White
Novel: Peter Benchley
Camera: Geoff Burton
Costume: Margot Wilson
Executive producers: Dan Wigintow, Peter Benchley, Julie Cohen
Producers: Mike Joyce, Tana Nagent
Director: Jeff Bleckner
Robert's co-stars:
WILLIAM PETERSEN as Whip Dalton
KAREN SILAS as Kathryn
CHARLIE MARTIN SMITH as Graves
LARRY DRAKE as Lucas Cohen
DENNIS ARNDT as Manning
RONALD GUTTMAN as Talley
MISSY CRIDER as Dana
STERLING MACER JNR as Mike
MURRAY BARTLETT as Christopher
Calamari Productions / 2x120m-e / 1996
Spank! Spank! was filmed on location in the cafe district of Adelaide, South Australia on Rundle Street. The satirical comedy focuses upon a group of Italian-Australians who develop a scheme to find and finance the cafe of all cafes.
Robert plays Paulie, a friend of the group, who has returned from an Italian monastery after 3 years. He comes back to find that his friends have not progressed or matured in life as he has. If anything they are less so than when he left.
Rocky, the son of a wealthy businessman, arranges for the eviction of a restauranteur from a building that is ideal for the proposed cafe. His wife, Jo, watches the power go to Rocky's head and turns to Paulie.
Whilst the movie itself is not the greatest I have ever seen, what struck me the most about it is how realistic the portrayal of the Italian cafe group is. There is one scene where the group are walking down Rundle Street, on the way to an important meeting all dressed in black and wearing shades. They are confident and cocky and waste no time in expressing their appreciation of the women walking past them. This made me laugh as I have experienced it myself on Rundle Street!
I also enjoyed seeing the cafes and hustle and bustle of the cafe strip on film. The cinematography was colourful and interesting. Robert's portrayal of Paulie was great. He was a very likeable and admirable character, who naturally would have attracted someone like Jo. "Robert Mammone and Victoria Dixon Whittle are the real grounded heart of the film", said Margaret Pomeranz (of the Movie Show on SBS) when reviewing the film, and this is very true.
As stated previously, it's certainly not the film to end all films. If anything, some audiences may find it irritating or offensive. However, there are those out there who can identify with the experiences within, or have a good laugh at it and will therefore enjoy it.
Additional details:
Producer: David Lightfoot
Director: Ernie Clark
Screenplay: David Farrell and David Lightfoot
Robert's costars:
VICTORIA DIXON-WHITTLE as Jo
VINCE POLETTO as Rocky
MARIO GAMMA as Nick
LUCIA MASTRANTONE as Tina Vertical Limit Climber Peter Garrett (Chris O'Donnell), launches a dangerous rescue effort up K2, the world's second
highest peak. Time and the elements are against him but
Peter risks his life to save his sister, Annie (Robin
Tunney), and her summit team (Bill Paxton and Nicholas
Lea). The team itself is 26,000 feet up K-2 - above the vertical limit of endurance where the human body cannot survive for long. Their lives depend on Peter who enlists the help of a crew of fellow climbers, including eccentric, reclusive mountain man Montgomery Wick (Scott Glenn) who fight to bring the team back alive.
Robert plays Brian Maki, an assistant to Bill Paxton's character (billionaire climber on a power trip). He charts the weather for the team and runs the base camp (thanks to Kate for the info). It's a small role with a few lines but it's great to see Robert starring in a Hollywood blockbuster of this magnitude.
Robert's costars:
CHRIS O'DONNELL as Peter Garrett
SCOTT GLENN as Montgomery Wick
BILL PAXTON as Elliot Vaughn
ROBIN TUNNEY as Annie Garrett Police Rescue Robert starred in episode 19 of the Police Rescue second series in 1992 titled "Stakeout". The city of Sydney is excited over the Grand Final football match. Meanwhile Mickey, Georgia, and Brian attend an MVA, which becomes complicated by unknown chemicals, a drug squad stakeout, and a man trapped in a truck who cheerfully refuses to be rescued (played by Robert Mammone).
Robert's role was a fairly minor one in this appearance. However, with his usual finesse (and that wonderful smirk of his), he played the delightful truckie.
Robert's costars:
GARY SWEET as Mickey
GIA CARRIDES as Helena Time Trax Time Trax was an American-produced sci-fi series set in 2193AD. The central character, Darien, was a police officer who pursued fugitive criminals back through time. It aired in the US, Britain and Australia, only lasting for 2 seasons.
Whilst it was not successfully received by British audiences, it had a large Australian following. I was a huge fan of the series and the storylines kept me interested from week to week.
Robert starred in episode five entitled 'Darien Come Home'during series one. He played Zack Elliot, brother to Josh. They were a couple of criminals who ran a computer company in the future and planned to rob the US treasury. Darien infiltrates the company, finds out their plan and apprehends them.
Robert's costars:
CHRISTOPHER DANIEL BARNES as Josh Elliott
DALE MIDKIFF as Captain Darien Lambert
ELIZABETH ALEXANDER as Selma
PETER DONAT as Mordecai Sahmbi Good Guys Bad Guys Elvis takes Stella and Reuben for a coffee and gets involved in an argument over a parking spot. The district's well known heavy Alphonse Mazzini rescues them and before he knows it, Elvis owes him.
Alphonse calls in his favour pretty quickly. A pedigree bitch (that belongs to a leading judge) that he had hoped to breed from is missing and both parties want the dog found prior to their professional relationship becoming known.
A severed ear from the missing dog turns up and the race to find the dog and who is responsible turns up the heat for Elvis. He has his suspicions about who is responsible is surprised when he finally tracks down
the missing dog and discovers the offenders.
Robert played Cosimo Mazzini, relation to heavy Alphonse in this episode that was nominated for a 1998 AFI Award "Best Episode in a Television Drama Series" (Roger Le Mesurier, Roger Simpson, and John Wild producers)
Robert's costars:
MARCUS GRAHAM as Elvis
BRIAN HARRIS as Alphonse Mazzini
MARY COUSTAS as Madonna Kapello Blue Heelers Blue Heelers is an Australian series about a group of police officers in the small country town of Mt. Thomas.
I do not usually watch this program but I had seen the previews and knew that Robert would be a guest in these episodes. As usual, I was not disappointed with his performance. He played a hardball internal affairs policeman, who was in Mt. Thomas to investigate one of the station's officers. His portrayal reminded me (in a good way of course) of my Bull Terrier :) Once he has hold of something, he doesn't let it go. No matter what the other officers say or what evidence they find, Robert's character will not budge once his opinion is formed.
Robert's character, Bernie, is called in to investigate after a stakeout fails to intercept a drug shipment into Mt. Thomas. Bernie is convinced that an officer called Jack is involved and deliberately thwarted the stakeout. Anxious to put an end to the allegations against him, Jack comes up with his own theory. When the body of a murdered girl is found and the Heelers start a full-scale search for her murderer, things start to go wrong. Jack is desperate to prove his innocence to Bernie and the other officers and in doing so puts others in life-threatening danger and one of the Heelers is shot?? left for dead. |
