Emerald City.

Based on a 1987 play by Australian playwright David Williamson, Emerald City (1988) is an entertaining satire on film and publishing, directed by Michael Jenkins, it retains much of the humorous dialogue of the stage play.  Described as 'a comedy of life's temptations  - lust, greed and power' it's an account of a family who relocate from Melbourne to Sydney, the Emerald City of the title. The husband, a successful screenwriter down on his luck, imagines that the move will revitalise his creative juices but instead it brings him into contact with hack writer and womaniser Mike McCord and his beautiful and alluring girlfriend Helen Davey.

The young Nicole Kidman as Helen Davey.

The movie won five awards from the Australian Film Institute including Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the 21-year-old Nicole Kidman as Helen. It was this film followed by Dead Calm (1989) that put Ms Kidman on the road to fame and fortune but it's Chris Haywood, who won Best Actor in a Supporting Role, who gets all the best lines as Mike McCord. Haywood, an Essex boy, migrated to Australia in 1970 and has since appeared in a great many Australian movies including Jindabyne (2006) and Muriel's Wedding (1994). Not exactly a threatening watch but entertaining all the same.