Melvin: Son of Alvin

1 9 8 4 (Australia)

This second and final sequel to the 1973 hit comedy Alvin Purple followed Alvin Rides Again (1974) and a short lived television series (1976).

Gerry Sont (best known in Australia for the television soap, Waterloo Station) plays the virginal Melvin, who works as a teenage car-wash attendant. He is irresistibly attractive to women but cannot understand why, as he does not realise he is the son of Alvin Purple.

Melvin becomes friendly with a Greek usherette, Gloria, who rescues him from marauding women and becomes his well-meaning girlfriend. Eventually a reunion of the Purple clan takes place where all is revealed. Graeme Blundell reprises his Alvin persona, now sadly middle-aged and burnt out, working as a singer in a purple jumpsuit on the Club circuit, singing schmaltzy ballads to his adoring women fans.

In thankless support roles, Tina Bursill as a crusading 60 Minutes-style reporter and David Argue as her bumbling cameraman, are teamed as comedy relief.

The humour is curiously old-fashioned and replete with poofter jokes and sexual sniggering of the Benny Hill variety, the only topicality being a dubious gag reference to the emerging AIDS epidemic. Before the movie's release, three cuts were ordered by the censors - the offending material contained nudity and a simulation of oral sex. What remained in the final cut was innocuous enough to ensure a brief theatrical run and public indifference.