Philippe Mora - Trouble in Molopolis 1971
Philippe Mora: Bibliography | Martin Sharp Archive | Pheasantry, London 1968 | Trouble in Molopolis 1971 | UFOs |
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| Poster 1971. |
Contents
- Introduction
- Synopsis
- Mora looks back
- Production
- Cast
- Adventures along the way
- Review 2025
- References
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1. Introduction
Australian film make and artist Philippe Mora began his film career in Victoria at the age of 15 with shorts Back Alley (1965), a parody of West Side Story, followed by Dreams in a Grey Afternoon (1965) and A Day in the Life of Charles Blackman (1965) featuring local artists, then Man in a Film (1966), the anti-Vietnam war themed Give it Up (1967). Upon travelling to England that year, Mora's first feature film Trouble in Molopolis - the title a homage to Fritz Lang's 1927 Metropolis - was a homage to the gangster genre. Made in London during 1969, it was promoted in September of that year within OZ magazine, though did not officially premiered until February 1971. It remains little known amongst the oeuvre of the well-known, US-based director. As an avante garde production, with acting ranging from stilted and amateurish to professional, a lead character mayor at times incomprehensible in words and actions; a strange script - confused though always interesting; and high production values in regards to cinematography and design, its status is likely to remain unchanged, though, with time, and like Plan 9 From Outerspace, its quirkiness should continue to bring new audiences to it. A DVD release with commentary by the makers such as Mora would be welcome, as this sixties artefact attains the glow of cultural icon.
Like Alfred Hitchcock, the director floats in front of the camera on occasion, and is an active participant in all aspects, from script development to shooting, choreography, music, casting and locations. As a first feature, the film is a notable achievement and, in the opinion of the writer, just misses the mark in attaining classic status, let down by a confused narrative, an unattractive lead actor, and the placement of a bunch of late sixties hippies in a 1930s gangster land setting. Why? one must ask. Would it not have been better simply to set it in London in 1969 and let the colourful characters fill the screen? Standout actors include the lead love interest Jack, the quirky Germaine Greer, a strange and menacing Martin Sharp as a straight face / smiling mime who reminds one of nothing less than the psychotic Joker of Gotham City, and the lovely Shirley, as she pines for Jack. As an ever-present non-actor seen on screen, director Philippe Mora as gangster Piano is an interesting feature, and in someways his presence holding the chaotic narrative together. The film, is nothing if not colourful, as befitting London in 1969, as the height of Swinging era, or rather as it began to descend into the darker, drug-drenched days of the early seventies where superstars such as Jimi Hendrix fell to a dreaded 27 and out drug overdose.
Though the film had been seen and reviewed by the press early in 1970, a belated official premiere took place at 11pm, Sunday, 21 February 1971 at the Paris Pullman cinema (1911-1983), Chelsea, London. It was a first class, art house theatre, and the event was a special fundraiser for the OZ magazine obscenity trial. The Kensington Post in its preview described it as .... a send-up farce of the American Prohibition era, with a cutting edge to present-day affairs. What that cutting edge refers to remains unclear. Perhaps it is the contemporary meandering comments referring to the sale of computer stock by an unnamed, somewhat pretentious commentator. The Kensington News and West London Times of 26 February noted that ..... The late night premiere of Philip Mora’s Trouble in Molopolis at the Paris Pullman last Sunday was according to OZ special effects man Stan Demitrijevic a marvellous success. The premiere was also apparently notable for the fact of one of the lead actors collapsing during the screening in a drunken stupor.
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2. Synopsis
The scene is London in the 1930s. We are introduced to the public and private life of the aged Umberto Hump (John Ivor Golding), lord mayor of Molopolis, and his palatial residence, peopled with an eclectic cast of characters. These include a "nutcase", mute, nameless son (Martin Sharp), a wispy daughter Shirley (Billie Dixon), and a policeman disguised as a gangster known as Jack (Michael Ramsden). A romance develops between Jack and Shirley as all the while the lord mayor hosts a dinner party with his son and chanteuse (Germaine Greer). He later appears before the press with Jack and a PR person (Richard Neville), and wanders in his garden with his dog, talking to himself. Jack engages with gangster associates whilst undercover, including the Charlie Chaplain-like Piano (Philippe Mora). Two gangsters threaten a lonely bartender (David Litvinoff), and are involved in a shootout with the police..... [under construction]
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3. Mora looks back
Director Philippe Mora briefly described the making of the film in a piece published during 2003 within Art Monthly Australia:
..... Inspired by the Marx Brothers, Hollywood musicals and Bertolt Brecht, I decided to make a 35 mm musical film. Written by myself and Peter Smalley, it was called Trouble in Molopolis.
[#16 - Peter Smalley wrote an account of the making of the film in Lumiere magazine, October 1970.]
The financiers of this film were the unlikely combination of Arthur Boyd and Eric Clapton. Arthur loved movies and encouraged me, and Eric was a Kurosawa fan and a film buff. When Robert Stigwood, Eric’s then manager, handed over a cheque for Eric, he asked: ‘What’s the deal?’ This confused me and Eric, who replied: ‘There is no deal.’ Those were the days.
[#17 - Robert Stigwood, an Australian manager and entrepreneur, handled Cream and less musically radical groups like the Bee Gees.]
Sandy Lieberson, the producer of Performance, gave me the 35 mm short ends of that movie to use. Such was the zeitgeist that I deliberately cast a real lunatic as the crazy mayor. Germaine Greer was cast as a cabaret singer, Martin Sharp as a mime, Richard Neville as a PR man, Jenny Kee as Shanghai Lil and Tony Cahill from the Easybeats did the music with Jamie Boyd. Every Australian I knew in London was pulled in to the picture. Robert Hughes lent his apartment as a location, and we also shot in the Pheasantry and in the appropriately called World’s End part of London. The film premiered at the Paris Pullman, Chelsea (11 pm of course), in aid of an OZ magazine legal fund to fight obscenity charges, and was introduced by George Melly.
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| Jenny Kee & Germaine Greer, Trouble in Molopolis, 1969. |
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| Anna May Wong, Hollywood, 1925; Jenny Kee, London, 1969. |
[#18 - The press was okay. Derek Malcolm, The Guardian, 14 May 1970: ‘The film is rough and at times amateurish, but it is distinctly original without being pretentious. Gentleman’s Quarterly, March, 1970: ‘Remember a movie called Chappaqua? The one you didn’t exactly have to see, but if you couldn’t talk about it - clunk? A concoction called Trouble in Molopolis is having the same effect on Londoners, and when it comes here (New York) – as it certainly will – you better know a few things about it’.]
The festivities were only slightly delayed when the loony star defecated in the front row and then passed out in an alcoholic coma.
[#19 - Anthony Slide in The International Film Guide (1971) wrote: ‘John Ivor Golding is quite brilliant as Mayor Hump’. This fellow got a great review then retired back into a mental asylum.] (Mora 2003)
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4. Production
The following is a listing of production related items and associated personnel. The scope of the production is revealed in the credits presented at the beginning of the film, and anecdotal evidence regarding those involved.
* Genre - Musical / fantasy / homage to the gangster genre / a burlesque of 1930s musicals, with a plot based around a gangster-run-city.
* Length - 85 minutes. When submitted to the Adelaide Film Festival by Mora in 1981 its length was 2,249 metres (Cinema Papers, 30, 30 December 1980 - January 1981).
* Film - 35mm colour. Negative wastage from the Nicholas Roeg film Performance starring James Fox, Mick Jagger and Anita Pallenberg, with set design assistance from Martin Sharp.
* Director - Philippe Mora
* Assistant Directors - Frank Kennington-Weilley
* Screenplay - Philippe Mora and Peter Smalley.
* Casting - Philippe Mora.
* Producers - Philippe Mora, Eric Clapton (money) and Arthur Boyd.
* Production manager - John Wheilley
* Production cost: UK£6,000.
* Release - the film was advertised in the September 1969 edition of OZ magazine, London. The official classification release date was 9 February 1971 according to the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). It ran for 78 minutes at that point and was distributed by Cine Independent.
* Cinematography - Tom Cowan. He entered film making in 1961 as a film trainee with the A.B.C. During that period he made a 12 minute film Dancing Class. At the end of 1964 he left the ABC and went to the Commonwealth Film Unit (now Film Australia) as a cameraman. Between 1968 and 1970 he was overseas, during which time he shot Philippe Mora's first feature Trouble in Molopolis (London 1969) and his own short Australia Felix (London 1970). In the same year he shot Samskara (dir. Rama Reddy, India 1970). Although perhaps best known as a cinematographer, Cowan has made three feature films. The first The Office Picnic was made in 1972. The second Promised Woman, was completed in 1974. It opened in Sydney in December 1976. The following year he completed Journey Among Women, his most recent, and best known work (Cinema Papers 1 April 1978).
* Music (speech, background, song) - Jamie Boyd and Tony Cahill (The Easybeats), Nicholas Palmer, Michael Liber and Paul Beck.
- Regarding Tony Cahill: Latter-day drummer Tony Cahill had been reluctant to do the Australian tour as he was apparently involved in an underground film being made at the time. With The Easybeats virtually at a standstill (other than the "St Louis" single) in 1969, it is unsurprising that Tony sought out other ventures. He appears to have fallen in with the Australian hippy collective in London (Richard Neville et al), and to have spent much of 1969 in The Pheasantry, a Kings Road, Chelsea building housing studios and a nightclub. Among the doyens of the underground largely resident in or around the building were Eric Clapton, feminist writer Germaine Greer, pop artist Martin Sharp, photographer Robert Whittaker and film maker Philippe Mora, who filmed most of "Trouble in Molopolis" in the building. Tony was, with Jamie Boyd, responsible for providing the music for the soundtrack (only Boyd is credited on the IMDB website but Tony is credited as musical director on the film poster). The film, which was co-produced by an uncredited Eric Clapton and featured "every Australian (Mora) knew pulled into the picture", premiered at the Paris Pillman cinema in Chelsea at a benefit for "Oz" magazine, an event made all the more memorable when the film's star John Ivor Golding defecated in the front row and then passed out into an alcohol-induced coma (Hoffman 2014).
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| Credits - music and sound. |
* Sound recordist - Robert Allen.
* Songs
- Jack's Love Song - sung by Michael Rumsden
- Shirley's Love Song - sung by Billie Dixon
- Jack's Defiance Song - sung by Michael Rumsden
- Piano's Song
- Shirley's Dilemma Song
- Milk Easy Song
- Trouble in Molopolis - sung by Germaine Greer
- Top Cop
* Editor - Stephen Carthew.
* Locations - The Pheasantry, King's Road, London; Robert Hughes' apartment, London.
* Costumes - John Crittle (Men's), and Emmerton and Lambert (Women's).
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| Production crew. |
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5. Cast
The cast selected in large part by Philippe Mora and, according to a 2023 Instagram post by Jenny Kee, they performed for free. Some of those who worked behind the camera also appeared in front of it. There were three lead actors: Australian Michael Ramsden as Jack, a gangster and love interest; American Billie Dixon as Shirley, daughter of the lord mayor and love interest; and John Ivor Golding as lord mayor Umberto Hump. Some of the supporting actors also featured, such as Germaine Greer and Martin Sharp. All those known to have been involved are listed below.
* John Crittle
* Billie Dixon - Shirley Hump, daughter of the lord mayor and lover of Jack.
* John Ivor Golding - Mayor Umberto Hump. Of Golding, all that is known if from a 1973 biopic, with the following introduction: Neil White, who produced this film in his final year at Newport Film School, met his subject in a pub in Cardiff. John Ivor Golding, on day release from Whitchurch (psychiatric) Hospital, would hold court in the city’s bars. He enjoys the attention of the camera, his thoughts and opinions voiced-over, and he celebrates homosexuality, recently legalised in the UK for those aged 21 and over. Puffing away, he warns that smoking is not the cancer-causer but “milk! Milk, my dear.” Neil White discovered that many of Golding’s fantastic tales were actually true. He had been a Merchant Seaman, a photographer for Picture Post and a dancer in a BBC troupe. He had spent some years in London, where he met e.g. Eric Clapton and David Litvinoff (who associated with e.g. the Krays and Mick Jagger), featured in the magazine ‘Oz’ and appeared in Philippe Mora’s film ‘Trouble in Molopolis’ (1969) with Germaine Greer (he recalls that “she was not facetious enough to come to my intellect or vibrations”). He is believed to have been the inspiration for the title character of Harold Pinter’s play ‘The Caretaker’. NB: Homosexuality was legalised for 21s and over in 1967.
* Germaine Greer - cabaret singer. Philippe Mora comment: Germaine Greer starred as a chanteuse in my first feature film, Trouble in Molopolis, made in 1969. She lived downstairs from me in London. I was in awe of her. At that time, The Female Eunuch was yet to be published. She was a comedic actress and singer, doing things for the BBC. She could have had a great career if she wanted to do that. Germaine doesn't suffer fools. If you were an idiot, she'd tell you. Not many people are that honest (Mora 2016).
*Anthony Haden-Guest - unnamed self-obsessed commentator on current (1969) affairs.
* Lawrence Hope - gangster
* Clytie Jessop (1929-2017), wife of script writer Peter Smalley.
* Jenny Kee - Shanghai Lil. The following was noted in 1973: .....What was more, Jenny herself became a movie star — for ten minutes. That was the length of her appearance as Shanghai Lil in the underground movie, "Trouble in Molopolis." Her co-stars were fellow Australians Germaine Greer (then writing "The Female Eunich"), Arthur Boyd, and Richard Neville. "As the hero's girlfriend, I had to say — Anna May Wong style — 'Hello, Jack, long time you no visit Shanghai.'" Off-screen, "Jack" is 26-year-old Australian artist Michael Ramsden. He is the reason why, for the time being, Jenny has abandoned London. "Michaels exhibition — his third — opens at Melbourne's Tolarno Gallen, in March." Does Jenny plan to return to London? Her face puckered thoughtfully: "Well, I've kept on my flat at the Fulham end of King's Road. It's dinky — just like a little country cottage in the middle of London. "And Tarzan, my Burmese cat, is still there. He only missed me for a day, the little horror (Carr 1973).
* David Litvinoff - a London-based gangster who later travelled to Australia with Sharp and was resident at the Yellow House.
* Philippa Mora
* Philippe Mora - Piano (gangster)
* Richard Neville - a PR person, attached to the lord mayor.
* Michael Ramsden - Jack "Stealthy" Hump (alias Chief of Police Hump)
* Martin Sharp - a mime / nut case, son of the lord mayor.
* Gerber Motifart
* The Singer in the Milk Easy
* Twitch
* Mad Mick
* Andrew the Anarchist
* Davy Crockett
* Fudzy
* The Stealthies
* Street Fighters
* Dancers (female)
* Assorted distinguished extras
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| OZ Magazine, #23, London, September 1969. |
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6. Adventures along the way
The film appears only to have been screened briefly in London during 1971. In the July 1977 edition of Sydney-based Filmnews, the following story was published regarding the film:
Who's doing what. Philippe Mora, working on several projects at stages "too early to talk about", is trying to locate a print of his first feature Trouble in Molopolis, made in London in 1969. and never seen in Australia. An 85 minute, 35mm colour musical, it star«s Australian painter (and sometime singer) Michael Ramsden, an American, Billie Dixon in the lead female role (her main claim to fame was that she had appeared in The Beard at the Royal Court), a very strange little man called John Ivor Golding, and a supporting cast of such notables as Richard Neville, Martin Sharp, Jenny Kee , Germaine Greer, John Crittle, and David Litvinoff. Shot by Tom Cowan, with John Weiley as production manager, the film was made on 6,000 pounds contributed by Eric Clapton and Arthur Boyd. Music was by Mick Liber (not unrelated to one of the eds), and Jamie Boyd (totally unrelated to either of the eds). It will be interesting to see how the film holds up after all this time, but if nothing else, it will be a marvellous nostalgia trip for lots of people.
The same magazine reported on the film in its November 1980 edition as follows:
Philippe Mora, whose long-lost Trouble in Molopolis, made in London in 1969 with, among others, Richard Neville, Germaine Greer and David Litvinov, turned up at the Adelaide Film Festival this year (and wasn't banned) and may be shown later by the NFTA, is currently working on a horror film entitled The Beast Within, shooting early next year in Mississippi.
In connection with the 2003 Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, Larrikins exhibition, the following comments appeared in a Sydney Morning Herald review:
The encounter lit a creative spark that burned as Clapton became flatmates with Sharp and Mora. They shared the Pheasantry, the grand house on Chelsea's Kings Road which became a bohemian mecca through whose doors wandered everyone from George Harrison and psychiatrist R.D. Laing, author of Knots, to a criminal associate of the Kray twins. Downstairs, Greer was shaping ideas that would become The Female Eunuch. Upstairs Sharp worked on collages and posters that captured the freewheeling spirit, with images of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Magic Theatre collage and the covers for the seminal albums Wheels of Fire and Disraeli Gears, on which Tales of Brave Ulysses appeared. "Previously [the album covers] would have been commissioned by the record company," Sharp says. "But suddenly the middleman was gone and it was just artists dealing with other artists. So it was a direct line of energy there. [Artists] had the say." And some of them had the money. Flush with funds from the success of Cream, Clapton bankrolled Mora's first movie - along with Arthur Boyd, an unlikely film-financing duo. Trouble in Molopolis is a curious snapshot of Australians in London at the time, with Hughes's flat as a backdrop and Greer in a little-known guise, as a cabaret singer. It also included a local man with a history of mental illness who interrupted shooting one day when he defecated on the set. "It sounds totally crazy, and maybe it was, but the spirit was that everybody was equal, it didn't matter if you had a ton of money, were George Harrison or a homeless guy," says Mora. "I can't emphasise too much how different the spirit of the times was. It wasn't materialistic, it wasn't career-oriented. It was really celebrating anything creative." Fine art was viewed with suspicion, says Mora. The interest was in seeing artworks cheaply and widely available. Ironically some of the images Sharp created as cheap posters now change hands among collectors for more than $1000.
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7. Review
The writer is a massive fan of so-called Swinging London during the sixties; of the psychedelic era when LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs such as marijuana and hashish turbocharged a countercultural revolution amongst young people, as revealed through their music, art, fashion, and social and sexual interactions. From 1966 through to 1970 it was a colourful period which replicated in part that seen in the United States around the same period. The hippies, music, and psychedelic art (mostly through posters and record covers) of San Francisco were reflected on the streets of London by individuals such as The Beatles, Australian expatriates Richard Neville and Martin Sharp in association with OZ magazine and Big O posters, the UFO club, Carnaby Street fashion, and film such as Antonioni's Blow Up. Peace, love and freedom of thought and expression blossomed as the shackles of a post-war conservative 1950s were released. Like Dorothy stepping into the rainbow-colored land of OZ, the dour, monotone, bombed out streets of London were transformed into a multicoloured environment of painted shop fronts, open air concerts in Hyde Park, Portabello Road markets, and the super cool Carnaby Street when mini cooper cars painted with the Union Jack cruised whilst young people dressed such as Jimi Hendrix walked the streets dressed in old military jackets. It was an exciting time to be alive, and Philippe Mora was there from 1967, resident in The Pheasantry on King's Road, Kensington, with a group of Australian and British friends, including Sharp, Neville, Germaine Greer, Eric Clapton and Robert Whitaker.
Trouble in Molopolis was therefore approached by the writer upon first viewing in January 2025 with a deal of excitement. It would feature many of the Australian characters known from the London edition of OZ magazine, and locations such as the interior of the Pheasantry. For this reason alone it would be of interest. The fact that the film was little known or discussed did not bode well for its actual quality as a feature film. Terms such as underground, avante garde, independent pointed to the fact that it was not mainstream, did not necessarily have a clearly defined narrative typical of the Hollywood productions of the day, and its technical qualities may be lacking. At the outset it can be stated that the latter was definitely not the case, due in no small part to the use of high quality 35 mm colour film, the cinematography of Australian Tom Cohen, editor Stephen Carthew, and director Philippe Mora. Unfortunately the script let the project down. It was a bit of a mess, though in setting a bunch of London hippies in the 1930s British / American gangster era and adding music, the outcome was bound to be somewhat anarchic and chaotic. The smiling figure of Mora present throughout on screen, directing and acting, drove the story along, as did the wonderful, quirky acting by amateurs such as Germain Greer, and Martin Sharp, in support of professionals such as the Wilfred Brambell ("Steptoe") like and rather old, stunted, ugly in looks, speech and action, Lord Mayor Hump, and the dashing Jack and lovely Shirley, pining for each other as guns are fired and deals are made. The story? Well, that is hard to describe, and it may take a number of viewings before the writer can provide a succinct synopsis. Gangsters, dancing and singing, weird behaviours, British toffs, inner city locations, incomprehensible dialogue, humour, colour in sets and characters.... a visual delight though narrative mess, with a decided production gloss. Disappointing, but also delightful in a Monty Pythonesque way.....
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8. References
Carr, Valerie, Beatlemania took Jenny Kee to London, The Australian Women's Weekly, 7 February 1973.
Cox, Steve, Philippe Mora: Australian Auteur, Filmlink, 6 May 2019.
Harris, Mike, Philippe Mora, Cinema Papers, 10, September-October 1976, p.112.
Hoffman, Steve, The Easybeats: The Solo Years, May 2014.
- garethofoz, 30 May 2014.
- Mylene, 31 May 2014. I saw "Trouble in Molopolis" at a film festival. The theme song was a sort of big ballad Bond theme 'sung' by Germaine Greer and the plot had something to do with the mayor of Molopolis trying to ban milk. Beware.
- paulisdead, 31 May 2014. The film even received a certification from the British Censors: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/trouble-molopolis
IMDB, Trouble in Molopolis (1969), IMDB, n.d.
Kee, Jenny, Anna May Wong, Hollywood, 1925 & Jenny Kee, London, 1969, Instagram, 17 November 2023.
Malcolm, Derek, Trouble in Molopolis [ Review], The Guardian, London, 14 May 1970.
Mora, Philippe, Culture Shock: Australians in London in the sixties, Art Monthly Australia, 156, December 2002 - February 2003, 2003.
-----, What I know about women, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 November 2016.
-----, Poster for Trouble in Molopolis 1971, [Artwork for sale], England & Co. Gallery, accessed 29 January 2025. Ink on paper, 16.7 x 21.5 inches, 1971.
Mubi, Trouble in Molopolis (1969), Mubi, n.d.
Neville, Richard (editor), A Philippe Von Mora Film, OZ Magazine, #23, London, September 1969, p.40.
Philippe Mora, The Wheeler Centre, Melbourne, accessed 28 January 2025.
Philippe Mora [audio], The Movie Crypt, episode 581, 22 July 2024, duration: 61 minutes. Interview with Adam Green.
Pim, Kieron, Jumping Jack Flash: David Litvinoff and the Rock n' Roll Underworld, Penguin, London, 3026.
Roddick, Nick, Mora way of life - Philippe Mora, director, Cinema Papers, 61, January 1987, p.9.
Simon, Alex, Philippe Mora, The Hollywood Interview, 24 November 2009.
Slide, Anthony, Trouble in Molopolis [Review], The International Film Guide, 1971.
Smalley, Peter, A Wrap of Molopolis, Lumiere, 1(5), October 1970, 19-20.
Trouble in Molopolis [Review], Gentleman’s Quarterly, London, March 1970.
Up yours, Britannia, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 August 2003. Review of Larrikins exhibition.
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Philippe Mora: Bibliography | Martin Sharp Archive | Pheasantry, London 1968 | Trouble in Molopolis 1971 | UFOs |
Last updated: 29 January 2025
Michael Organ, Australia
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