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Call Me Mr. Brown

1986 film by Scott Hicks

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ15039756
Source-derived summary

Call Me Mr. Brown is a 1986 Australian movie based on the 1971 Qantas bomb hoax, written and directed by South Australian director Scott Hicks.

Plot

In the true story of Australia's 'Great Plane Robbery', petty criminal Peter Marcari, using the pseudonym 'Mr Brown', extorts $500,000 from Australia's national airline Qantas, by threatening to blow up Flight 755 from Sydney to Hong Kong on 26 May 1971. After making a clean getaway, an international manhunt begins.

Cast

Chris Haywood as Peter Macari

John Polson as Brian Day

Vincent Ball as Captain Ritchie

John Frawley as Captain Howson

Bill Hunter as Detective Sergeant ‘Jim’ Jack McNeill

Russell Kiefel as Ray Poynting

Max Cullen as Fibreglass Factory Foreman

John Noble as Geoff Fraser

Ken Goodlet as Captain Selwyn

Edwin Hodgeman as Bill Harding

Leo Taylor as Major Morrison

Lyn Collingwood as Woman Caller at Phone Box

Also in credits

Brenton Whittle as Qantas Official 2

Grant Piro as Mt Isa Miner

Damon Herriman as Bowser Boy

Stuart McCreery

Huw Williams

Robert Newman

Damien Wiseman

Michael Norman

Patrick Frost

Celine Griffin

Tony Allison

Adrian Shirley

Henry Salter

Release

Qantas actively tried to stop the film being made and despite failing to do so, Network 10, which had invested A$250,000 in the film, refrained from airing it. The film was eventually released on video in 1990.

See also

Cinema of Australia

References

External links

Call Me Mr. Brown at IMDb

Call Me Mr.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Call Me Mr. Brown” as 1986 film by Scott Hicks. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1986, 1971, 1990—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1986. The account is most persuasive where Call, Brown and film can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1986 film by Scott Hicks. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15039756. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1986, 1971 and 1990.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Call Me Mr. Brown”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Call Me Mr. Brown primary sources, Call Me Mr. Brown archive and Call research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Call Me Mr. Brown”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Call Me Mr. Brown” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.