Barry 'Bazza' McKenzie (Barry Crocker) travels to England with his aunt Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) to advance his cultural education. Bazza is a young Aussie fond of beer, Bondi and beautiful 'sheilas'. He settles in Earls Court, where his old friend Curly (Paul Bertram) has a flat. He gets drunk, is ripped off, insulted by pretentious Englishmen and exploited by record producers, religious charlatans and a BBC television producer (Peter Cook). He reluctantly leaves England under the orders of his aunt, after exposing himself on television. His final words on the plane home are, "I was just starting to like the Poms!"

Bruce Beresford was living in London and knew Barry Humphries socially when he heard about government funding being given to Australian films.

I said to Barry Humphries that we should do a script from the comic strip because they had money available to make films but it hadn't occurred to them that they had no one to make them. I said, "I don't think they've thought about that but if we whip back to Australia with a script, with you starring in it and we're all set to go, we have a good chance of getting the money. There wouldn't be all that many going for it." And that's more or less what happened.^[4]

The film was entirely funded by the Australian Film Development Corporation. Shooting started in London in January 1972, with the unit moving to Australia in February. Local unions complained about the presence of British technicians in the crew, but a compromise was reached where Australian technicians joined the crew. Filming ended in March.^[1]

Phillip Adams wanted to cast Paul Hogan as Curly but he turned down the role. "I suspect he was concerned over his ability to work with professional actors," says Adams.^[5]

Phillip Adams initially insisted on distributing the film himself,^[6] as had been done with an earlier film Adams had co-produced, The Naked Bunyip. Barry McKenzie was very popular at the box office in Australia and London, and the production company repaid the government most of its money within three months of release.^[1] Beresford went on to direct Barry McKenzie Holds His Own – again to great commercial success – in 1974.

Beresford said in a 1999 interview that both films were detrimental to his career:

Personally, it was a massive mistake for me to do it, a massive mistake, because the film was so badly received critically. Instead of getting me work, even though it was successful commercially, it put me out of work... I couldn't find anything else to make because the films were so reviled critically that I thought that, with these two films, I'll never work again.^[4]

He added that 'Luckily Phillip Adams saved my life by offering me Don's Party. But that was a couple of years later.'^[4] Don's Party and Breaker Morant restored Beresford's reputation.

This was the first Australian film to surpass $1 million at the national box office,^[2] and it led the Australian box office in 1972.^[7] The film recovered its $250,000 budget within a few months of release.^[3][8]

The film explores the cultural distance between Australian popular culture and the manners and mores of England, both nations presented in hyperbolically satirical manner. Barry is the extreme embodiment of "Ockerism" of the late fifties and mid-sixties Australia. Swearing, excessive drinking, vomiting, rowdiness and other crassness is glorified. The film also plays with the ideas of the era where the sixties cultural revolution had swept aside the "certainties" of classical education.^{[citation needed]}

The film's success has been put down to the fact the characters, while broad, still had a connection to reality.^[9]

A soundtrack was released by Fable Records (FBSA 026).

Charts edit

• The Adventures of Barry McKenzie at IMDb  
• The Adventures of Barry McKenzie at Australian Screen Online
• The Adventures of Barry McKenzie at Oz Movies