Obviously I couldn't let this Homicide episode (S8 E15, 25 May 1971) go by without comment although tbh it's not a topic I am keen to dwell on. The David in question is a nice old man (actually I think he's 58, lol) whose main interest is his exotic plants in a greenhouse. He is killed by phosgene gas in same greenhouse before the opening credits. His diary reveals (unimmediately) that he is not only a sexual deviant - he draws pornographic pictures in it - but also a serial abuser of young women and a blackmailer of them too.
I do wonder whether this storyline is, like 'The Corrupter' a few episodes prior, an attempt by the Homiciders to branch out beyond the ordinary and take on some gritty topics, in this case I suppose a version of the 'dirty old man' (though tbh David has too many strings to his bow to be a real study of anything - he's an efficient criminal as well as a deviant).
Obviously you'd have to have a better sense of what was hot in international-tv-currently-watched-in-Australia in 1970/71, as well as films, to know how much Homicide was innovating and how much it was just running to keep up with its competition. Perhaps both. I do note (and you can see it above) the 'authentic case records' stuff, which seeks to suggest that Homicide is just a gauge of what's going on more generally. When I watched an episode called 'In the Dark' (see previous post), in which Susan Scott goes out on a mission to kill men (she only actually kills one, but she does shoot the husband of her 'lady psychiatrist') and starts a very haphazard account called 'Historical Articles' which ostensibly details her reign of terror (I think it ultimately runs to one paragraph in big writing) I was moved to think - wait a minute, could 'authentic case records' include a super-loose adaptation of Valerie Solanas shooting Andy Warhol? I mean they definitely don't say, 'authentic case records of events which happened in and around Melbourne to these kinds of people'.
By the way speaking of the lady psychiatrist here she is pushing her recovering husband around (in the nicest possible way) on one of the balconies of the Epworth in East Melbourne having just told him that she'd quit lady psychiatry to have children with him instead. One step forward, two steps back and he's not even walking.
So that's David Williams and Beverley Dunn as Mr. and Dr. Turner in 'In the Dark' (S8E13, 11 May 1971). I would also like to say this episode has a fabulous scene where the psychopath Susan shows up somewhere in East Melbourne to shoot her flatmate's new husband while they're having their wedding pictures taken. Hubby yells at flatmate (Patti I think her name is) to jump in the fountain to get out of range of Scott's rifle and Patti says 'but my dress!'. Love that bit.
To get back to 'David's Diary' for a second just wanted to note that Everett de Roche wrote one of my favourite movies - Long Weekend - by which I mean the original 1978 version with the amazing John Hargreaves and Briony Behets, I know there was a remake thirty years later but I haven't seen that. He also wrote Patrick, a fuckin' amazing film, and Snapshot, which frankly is not that good, ha ha. And an episode of The Saddle Club. He's dead now.
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