All at Sea (1977 film)


All at Sea is a 1977 Australian television film about a group of misfits on holiday on an island resort. It used the cast from The Celebrity Game.

Premise

The adventures of various guests and staff at Sea Island Resort in Queensland. It is run by Mr Blimer with the help of John Bright. Blimer tries to seduce his assistant; a waitress, Joy, is constantly harrassed by the guests but is working her own agenda; employee Mike likes Maryanne but winds up sleeping with the seemingly proper Miss Farrow; Arthur Pickering, is a government minister; a reverend, Parslow, is actually a thief.

Cast

The film was a rare comedy from the Grundy Organisation. Reg Grundy claimed he was the one who had the idea of making an Australian TV movie in the vein of the Carry On films featuring the most popular comics in the country. He pitched the idea to Ian Holmes at Channel Ten who agreed to finance it. Grundy's wife Joy Chambers was then a panelist on The Celebrity Game on Channel Ten, and she also appeared in the cast.
Grundy assigned producing duties to Howard Leeds who had recently joined Grundys from Hollywood. "So here I had an American producing a show that was based entirely on English comedy with mostly Australian actors", Grundy later wrote. "It was a mishmash."
The Johnny Lockwood part was originally offered to John Meillon who turned it down.
The film was shot in Sydney over 12 days in February 1977 at locations including the Shore Motel at Artarmon, the Pasadena Hotel, Church Point, Sacha's Restaurant, the Newport Hotel and Newport.

Reception

Grundy wrote in his 2010 memoirs that the movie "got a twenty-one rating which these days would be a hit but back then was just okay. Howard had struck out." No TV station wanted to pick it up and turn it into a series.