The popular Australian comic strip The Wonderful World of Barry McKenzie was first brought to the screen in this raunchy 1972 romp. Barry Crocker plays the title character, a carefree Aussie cowboy with an inordinate fondness for beer and "Sheilas". Touring England as a stand-up comic, Barry runs across several odd characters, including addlepated discipline freak
Dennis Price. Also on hand is Barry McKenzie cocreator Barry Humphries, appearing in drag as Dame Edna Beveridge, a character who would bring Humphries worldwide fame and fortune in the 1990s. Director
Bruce Beresford, who went on to such loftier efforts as
Breaker Morant,
Tender Mercies and
Crimes of the Heart, breezes through his scatalogical material with the abandon of a schoolboy scribbling naughty words on the sidewalk. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide