Stanley: Every Home Should Have One

Stanley: Every Home Should Have One (1984)

Stanley Dunstan is a young eccentric. The son and heir to a family fortune has eluded all attempts by his father to make him "normal", and escapes from attempts to incarcerate him in the family sanatorium. Stanley retreats to prove he can become "normal" on his own, and does so by tracking down Australia's most "normal" family with whom he moves in and on whom he models his behaviour. Stars Graham Kennedy, Nell Campbell, Peter Bensley and Michael Craig.

Date of release
1984-08-23
TMDB
6.5 / 10 (2)
Runtime
1h 33m
Genres
Action, Comedy
Director
Esben Storm

Casting

Interesting facts

Stanley is a 1984 Australian comedy film directed by Esben Storm and starring Peter Bensley and Graham Kennedy.

Production

Andrew Gaty had developed the original script. He had a man working for him called Steve Kibbler, who had worked with Esben Storm. Gaty asked Storm what he thought of the script and Storm did not like it. Gaty then hired him to rewrite and direct the movie, with Stanley Mann acting as script editor. Storm said:

Andrew had certain things that he wanted, which I had to accommodate, but within that I was trying to make a comedy about acceptance and prejudice. But even though it was hugely unsuccessful, it was my first attempt at comedy, which I really enjoyed. Some people still come up and say they like it and have it in their collections and talk about it being hugely underrated.

Storm said the lead character "is just an honest, vulnerable, slightly wacky but mainly innocent guy interested in love. It was an attempt to make a film in the genre of Arthur or Cousine Cousine."

Gaty admitted "everyone says" the film sounded like Arthur but he felt "the only similarity is that it’s a fairytale about rich people. I think it has more to say than Arthur."

Andrew Gaty originally offered the title role to Mel Gibson who turned it down. He then tried to propose Tom Conti play the lead but Actors Equity objected. Gaty claims he tested more than 30 actors but could not find one he was happy with. He then attempted to import Anthony Andrews or Tom Conti but Actors Equity objected although filming was to star in a week.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended