LADY, STAY DEAD

Marie (Deborah Coulls) is a glamorous celebrity who lives in a remote beachside mansion in Sydney. Her life is charmed to the point that she's accommodated to speaking to those around her like they're shit.

Alas, this attitude rankles her secret admirer, her slightly simple gardener Gordon (Chard Hayward). At first he can curb his urges to debase her by sleeping with a mannequin doll made up to resemble the object of his affection or having the odd sly wank on the beach while spying on her through his binoculars.

But, after one insult too many, Gordon breaks Marie's rules by entering her home one sunny afternoon. He proceeds to rape her, and then drown her in her fish tank.

Hiding the body, Gordon's pretty pleased with himself ... until he realises someone new is on the scene mere days later. Having been unable to get hold of Marie, her sister Jenny (Louise Howitt) has turned up and decided to stick around until she shows up.

Gordon lays on the charm to begin with, but by this point the viewer knows all too well what he's capable of. And, after a short while, Jenny starts to put two-and-two together too. All of which leads to a tense final half as the film transforms into an effective game of cat and mouse.

Written and directed by the late Terry Bourke (NIGHT OF FEAR; INN OF THE DAMNED in 1981, LADY STAY DEAD is a real curiosity that plays like a film of two very distinctly different halves.

The first half is quite laconic. Soft pop music lures the viewer in, while languid scenes of waves crashing against the shore and Gordon going about his daily chores seem designed to fool us into expecting little to evolve from the slow-burning screenplay. Even the early rape is quite restrained; the murder which immediately follows avoids all sensation.

Then, midway through and just as the penny starts to drop for Jenny, Bob Young's score suddenly adopts a classic clattering piano key approach and the film plays along by mutating into a stylish, tense thriller. Part home invasion-part police siege, the final third of the film allows for more violence, swearing and even MAD MAX's Roger Ward as a tough copper - wearing the most obvious wig in the history of cinema.

Clearly a low budget affair - reportedly 610,00 Australian dollars - LADY STAY DEAD gets mileage from its small cast and remote sandy setting. The interior location is expertly employed, and what few actors were cast for the film are all well-chosen. Hayward, a veteran of the TV series "The Thornbirds", makes for a convincingly sleazy psychopath; Ward is always value for money; Howitt exhibits charm and backbone as the damsel in distress.

A weird little film, LADY STAY DEAD also has an inconsistent pace and doesn't really fall into any single genre. You could even argue that it's not a "good" film - but then, that would suggest it doesn't entertain, when it most certainly does.

An unlikely candidate for a blu-ray release, the film has nevertheless been given the HD upgrade treatment courtesy of the fine folk at Code Red.

The blu-ray, a region-free disc, presents LADY STAY DEAD uncut and in its original 1.78:1 ratio. This anamorphic transfer comes from a largely clean print and looks very good indeed, considering the film's age and relative scarcity. Colours are strong, blacks are stable, detail on closer shots is impressive. Some wider shots do look a tad soft, but that appears to be inherent of how the film was lensed. Natural grain is fine throughout; the texture of the presentation is consistently natural and filmic.

English Master audio is clear and clean for the duration of playback.

The static main menu allows access to the film. While there is no scene selection menu, the film is divided into 10 handset-navigational chapters.

We even get a bonus feature: an optional 4-minute video introduction entitled "The Banana and the Lady" which pits gorgeous brunette Katrina against a guy in a banana suit. She offers a few facts about the film while he re-enacts pervy moments such as spying on her with binoculars. It's all very silly, of course. Keep watching after the end credits of the main feature too, as Katrina comes back on screen to summarise what we've just seen.

Nudity, sleaze, 70s TV film production-type values, Roger Ward ... LADY STAY DEAD is a genuinely odd, highly watchable slice of early 80s Ozploitation. And it looks very nice indeed on Code Red's region-free blu-ray.

Review by Stuart Willis