Yackety Yack

Yackety Yack is a 1974 Australian film about the making of a film directed by Dave Jones. It stars Jones and John Flaus. David Stratton called it "the Hellzapoppin' of poor cinema, a frequently hilarious spoof on the low budget film... a sheer delight."[2]

For the song made famous by The Coasters, see Yakety Yak. For the Australian–Canadian animated television series, see Yakkity Yak.
Yackety Yack
Directed byDave Jones
Written byDave Jones
Produced byDave Jones
Starring
Edited byDave Jones
Production
company
Acme Films
Distributed byVincent Library
Release date
1974
Running time
86 mins
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
BudgetA$4,000[1]

Plot

Maurice is an aspiring film director who talks about movie making with his friends, Steve, Zig and Caroline. He uses his power and edits out any statements that displease him. He asks opinion of a man on the street.

Maurice wants to commit suicide and analyses three famous suicides, Mishima, Socrates and Kirilov (a character in The Possessed). Maurice starts murdering the crew on his film before forcing Steve and Zig to assist his suicide.

Cast
  • Dave Jones as Maurice
  • John Flaus as Steve/himself
  • Peter Carmody as Zig
  • Peggy Cole as Caroline
  • John Cleary as building manager
  • Jerzy Toeplitz as man in the street
  • Doug White as Socrates
  • Rod Nicholls as Kiriolov
  • Andy Miller as Mishima

Production

The film was heavily influenced by the work of Jean-Luc Godard. The script was originally written by Dave Jones in Montreal in 1970.[1] Jones was an American who had worked in Hollywood before coming to teach at the Media Centre of La Trobe University in Australia in 1971.[3]

The film was shot over five weeks in the evenings at the film studio at the university, using many staff and students of the film. It was finished at the end of 1972. Part of the budget came from the Experimental Film and Television Fund.[3]

Release

The film screened at the Melbourne Co-op Cinema in mid September 1974.[3]

References
  1. D.B. Jones, 'inspiration by accretion: Director D.B. Jones on the making of Yakkety Yak (1974)', ACMI accessed 28 Sept 2012
  2. David Stratton, The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival, Angus & Robertson, 1980 p277
  3. Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998, 279.
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