A Dangerous Summer (original) (raw)

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This article is about the 1982 film. For similar uses, see Dangerous Summer.

1982 Australian film

A Dangerous Summer (aka Flash Fire) is a 1982 Australian crime film drama film directed by Quentin Masters and starring Tom Skerritt, Ian Gilmour, Guy Doleman and James Mason.

Howard Anderson, a restless and discontented American, goes to Australia to team up with an old associate, Julian Fane. They plan the construction of a holiday resort.

While Anderson is a builder who takes pride in his work, Fane's only motive in building is to burn down the resort in an insurance fraud. He hires an arsonist to carry out the work.

Unfortunately, Fane's plans are triggered too soon and result in murder. Anderson, suspicious about events, forms an alliance with George Engels, an insurance investigator.[2]

• Tom Skerritt as Howard Anderson
• Ian Gilmour as Steve Adams
• Guy Doleman as Julian Fane
• James Mason as George Engels
• Giselle Morgan
• Shane Porteous as Sergeant Goodwin
• Ray Barrett as F.C.O. Webster
• Norman Kaye as Percy Farley
• Wendy Hughes as Sophie McCann
• Lyn Collingwood as Woman in Van

The film was inspired by the Sydney bush fires of the 1979-80 summer. John Seale shot footage of the fire which Brian Trenchard-Smith turned into a 25-minute film, That Dangerous Summer. It was then announced this material would be used by Trenchard Smith in a feature version of the story, to be called Bushfire. In the end, Trenchard-Smith did not direct, and Quentin Masters did with the film being produced by Peter Fox. Actor Ian Gilmour broke his leg during filming delaying production several weeks.[3]

The film was originally budgeted at $2.3 million.[4]

A Dangerous Summer grossed 33,000(equivalentto33,000 (equivalent to 33,000(equivalentto130,767 in 2022) at the box office in Australia.[5]

The film was one of four movies made by Filmco that were part of a legal action in 1985. A judge ordered eight Sydney stockbrokers to repay at least 615,000towhichtheyborrowedin1981tofinancefourfilmsbyFilmco:[EarlyFrost](/wiki/Early615,000 to which they borrowed in 1981 to finance four films by Filmco: [Early Frost](/wiki/Early%5FFrost "Early Frost") (budget 615,000towhichtheyborrowedin1981tofinancefourfilmsbyFilmco:[​EarlyFrost](/wiki/Early1 million), The Dark Room ($1.1 million), For the Term of His Natural Life ($4 million) and A Dangerous Summer ($2.9 million). The films were not box office successes and the stock brokers refused to repay the loans when they matured in November 1983.[6]

• Cinema of Australia

1. ^ a b "How film investors found themselves in a foxhole". The Sydney Morning Herald Good Weekend. 30 March 1985. p. 7.
2. ^ Panorama newspaper TV guid; 19/10/1987; Page 16
3. ^ David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 p. 117
4. ^ "HOW FILM INVESTORS FOUND THEMSELVES IN A FOXHOLE". The Canberra Times. 31 March 1985. p. 26. Retrieved 9 September 2025.
5. ^ "Film Victoria – Australian Films at the Australian Box Office" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 February 2011. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
6. ^ Wilson, Malcolm (15 March 1985). "Brokers to repay Australian film loans". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 19.

• A Dangerous Summer at IMDb
• A Dangerous Summer at Oz Movies