Caddie

Caddie is an Australian film biopic directed by Donald Crombie and produced by Anthony Buckley. Released on 1 April 1976, it is representative of the Australian film renaissance which occurred during that decade. Set mainly in Sydney during the 1920s and 1930s, including the Great Depression, it portrays the life of a young middle class woman struggling to raise two children after her marriage breaks up. Based on Caddie, the Story of a Barmaid, a partly fictitious autobiography of Catherine Beatrice "Caddie" Edmonds, it made Helen Morse a local star and earned Jacki Weaver and Melissa Jaffer each an Australian Film Institute Award. Plot In 1925 Sydney, Caddie leaves her adulterous and brutish husband and takes her two children, Ann and Terry, with her. Forced to work as a barmaid in a pub she struggles to survive. A brief affair with Ted (Jack Thompson) ends badly when his involvement with another woman comes to light, but she falls in love with a Greek immigrant, Peter (Takis Emmanuel). Peter has to return to Greece to face family obligations–he is already married to another woman. Caddie runs out of money and goes to work as a barmaid. Peter sends letters from Greece and Caddie has to evade police as she works for an SP bookie. Peter asks her to come to Athens but she decides to stay. Main cast Helen Morse as Caddie Marsh Takis Emmanuel as Peter Jack Thompson as Ted Jacki Weaver as Josie Melissa Jaffer as Leslie Ron Blanchard as Bill Drew Forsythe as Sonny Kirily Nolan as Esther Lynette Curran as Maudie June Salter as Mrs Marks John Ewart as Paddy Reilly John Gaden as Solicitor Jane Harders as Vikki Phillip Hinton as Jon Marsh Mary Mackay as Mater Lucky Grills as Pawnbroker Robyn Nevin as Black Eye Vivienne Garrett Sean Hinton as Terry Marsh, aged 10 Marianne Howard as Anne Marsh, aged 7 Production The original autobiography was published in 1953. The real-life barmaid, Catherine Edmonds, got to know Dymphna Cusack while she was writing Come in Spinner and Cusack helped the book get published.