Paul Hogan was already a celebrity on the small screen in 1986 when Crocodile Dundee first went into release; his long-running television show The Hogan Show had made him a star in his native Down Under, and American viewers were delighted with his commercials promoting Australian tourism with the inimitable catchphrase, "Put another shrimp on the barbie." His big screen debut, however, would exceed all expectations: Crocodile Dundee grossed over $328 million and remains the most successful Australian film ever made. The common fish-out-of-water scenario was given a new twist by the charismatic Hogan as the gritty outbacker Mick "Crocodile" Dundee, at ease in the wilds of Australia, who soon finds himself in the middle of New York City with only a cosmopolitan female journalist as his guide. Hogan was inspired to create the character after his first trip to the Big Apple. In an interview, he explained, "I found it a bit dazzling, as anyone who's been to New York will..it's just too many people moving too fast, it's too big and noisy, so everyone goes frantic and gets on and hustles. . . I started to write it as more like the character I played on television, and then I made him more woodsy, more 'outbacky'..eventually became Crocodile Dundee. . . It was also set out to make it more of a romance between the two extremes of civilization: a sophisticated New Yorker and an Aussie outback character."

Hogan's appeal was based in his authenticity as a down-to-earth wisecracker. He was working as a rigger on the Sydney Harbor Bridge in 1972 when his coworkers dared him to try out for a talent show in which contestants were invariably roasted by the semi-celebrity panel. Posing as a "tap-dancing knife thrower and part-time shearer," Hogan got on the show only to turn the tables on the panel members, humiliating them and delighting audiences. He soon had his own sketch-comedy show, which ran for an impressive eleven years, establishing him as an Aussie household name.

For Dundee, Hogan employed some familiar help for behind the scenes: director Peter Faiman also helmed The Hogan Show, and screenplay collaborator John Cornell acted in and produced the show. Ken Shadie, another screenwriter, also wrote for the television series.

Unknown actress and Julliard graduate Linda Kozlowski was cast as the feisty reporter Sue Charlton. She and Hogan made headlines when their onscreen romance became a real-life one: Paul divorced his long-time wife and married Kozlowski in 1990. The pair would go on to make four films together, including Crocodile Dundee II (1988) and Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001), sequels that were never able to match the success of the original. On working with his wife, the always frank Hogan once observed, "They back-chat you a little more than a normal actress would." Reginald VelJohnson played Gus the NY chauffeur, who notably brandishes the limo antennae as a villain-stopping boomerang. VelJohnson was best known as the father Carl Winslow on the television series Family Matters and Bruce Willis' cop sidekick in Die Hard (1988). Australian wrestling star Steve Rackman played the hulking brute Donk, and Paul's son Brett Hogan even has a bit role in Dundee as "Peter (Roo Shooter)." The star of the show, however, was Hogan: he won a Golden Globe for his comedic performance and Dundee was nominated for a 1987 Best Original Screenplay Oscar®. Of the Academy Awards, Hogan mused, "There are three Gs to accepting an award: Be Gracious. . . Be Grateful . . . and Get Off!" He did not, however, get a chance to test out his theory: Woody Allen won for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986).

When pressed for the most difficult co-star to work with, Hogan had a quick answer: "Buffalo. 'Cause if the buffalo doesn't want to do anything, it weighs 2,000 pounds and you know, it doesn't. So you have to hang around. . . It's like he said, 'I'll just sit here.' And you can't do anything about it." Of course, getting the buffalo to lie down, as shown in the film, is another matter: you just have to drug it. Eagle-eyed viewers might recognize the film playing on the television in Hogan's Manhattan hotel room: Peckinpah's Major Dundee (1965). And although Hogan's Mick Dundee was the actor's own invention, he did have an inspiration for the visuals: "He was the first croc hunter I ever met, back in the 70's: his name was Jacko. He had the black hat with the teeth in it and the sleeveless vest, but he was also filthy, tattooed, and sort of toothless. He had all the charm of a cobra, you know, he was a croc hunter."

Producer: John Cornell
Director: Peter Faiman
Screenplay: John Cornell, Paul Hogan, Ken Shadie
Cinematography: Russell Boyd
Film Editing: David Stiven
Art Direction: Graham Walker
Music: Peter Best, Martin Plaza, Greedy Smith
Cast: Paul Hogan (Michael J. 'Crocodile' Dundee), Linda Kozlowski (Sue Charlton), John Meillon (Walter Reilly), David Gulpilil (Neville Bell), Ritchie Singer (Con), Maggie Blinco (Ida).
C-98m. Letterboxed.

by Eleanor Quin