They're a Weird Mob

They're a Weird Mob is a classic and very popular Australian novel published in 1957, and a 1966 film based on the book. The novel was written by John O'Grady, although it was published under the pen name "Nino Culotta", the name of the main character. The subsequent film was one of the last collaborations by the British filmmakers Powell & Pressburger.

Film production

The book was optioned many times by filmmakers before a workable treatment was arrived at. Michael Powell managed to make it into a film that showed Australia from the point of view of an outsider while still avoiding many of the worse sterotypes.

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There were a few attempts at writing the script but none of them worked until Powell brought in his old friend Emeric Pressburger who wrote it under the pseudonym Richard Imrie.

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The film is said to have been one of the factors that led to an Australian Film Industry.

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