The Fourth Wish


The Fourth Wish is a 1976 Australian family film directed by Don Chaffey based on a three-part 1974 TV drama from the ABC.

Plot

Casey is a simple man living alone with his 12-year-old son Sean in a rented run-down apartment in suburban Adelaide. He works as a machinist in a small factory, making a modest living but is happy to have a job with congenial workmates. His wife, Connie, had left him for another man when Sean was a baby, but Casey pretends to his son that she has a glamorous career in America.
Casey learns that Sean has leukaemia and will die in a few months. Casey stubbornly refuses to accept the inevitable, and mentions it to nobody. He quits his job, giving no reason, not wishing to elicit sympathy, and devotes himself to making his son happy. They attend John Martin's Christmas Pageant and ride paddle boats on Torrens Lake. He offers to fulfill three wishes; Sean requests: to own a dog, be reunited with his mother, and meet the Queen, who was visiting Australia en route to the Commonwealth Games.
Acquiring the dog, a playful "bitser" from the pound, is easy. But keeping a dog in the apartment is prohibited, and when the landlord threatens eviction Casey gets help with delaying tactics from a lawyer.
Finding Sean's mother is problematical: she is a serial monogamist, and also a compulsive drinker. Casey tracks her down and persuades her to act the part for one day. At first it seems she has failed and Casey fabricates a cover story, but then she appears and plays the part magnificently; at the end of the day they farewell her at the airport. She slips away to a waiting taxi while the plane takes off.
Casey blusters his way into Government House in an attempt to arrange an audience with the Queen, and is rebuffed, but Jenny, a newspaper journalist, becomes interested in the story and arranges for Sean to be among the patients of St Margaret's Rehabilitation Hospital which the Queen was scheduled to visit. When Sean recounts the events, he grants his father a fourth wish, which is not revealed, but is presumably peace and resignation.

Cast

Lionel Williams, an Adelaide television personality, had a cameo part, as Mr Peterson; Audrey Stern was Mrs Peterson. Also mentioned in the credits were Marilyn Allen as Matron, Mark Lawrence as Boy on Dodgem, Ann Peters as Rent-a-Car Girl and Moishe Smith as "Roger".

Awards

Meillon won the 1977 AFI Award for Best Actor for his part in this film.

Home media

The 1976 film The Fourth Wish was released on DVD by Rainbow Products Cat. RDVD9719

Television miniseries

The original miniseries aired in 1974. John Meillon won a Best Actor Logie for his performance.

Production

John Meillon had appeared in the TV show. He formed Galaxy Productions, a company with Michael Craig and Don Chaffey to make the movie.
Shooting began in Adelaide in November 1975 with Robert Bettles replacing Mark Shields as Sean.