A sequence of Alvin at school in which schoolgirls fight for his attentions and run after him as he flees on his bike sets up the film’s premise: described in Man magazine as the ‘hilarious adventures of a male stud, Alvin . . . a fairly ordinary and inoffensive sort of bloke, except that . . . women find him irresistible’. Made possible by a change in censorship laws, Alvin was a hit. Documentary photographer Rennie Ellis was also on hand to capture the film’s climatic chase sequence in which a bevy of ‘hot-eyed damsels’ chase Alvin, wearing nothing but a wig and his underpants, through Melbourne’s CBD. Post-Alvin, Blundell found himself an unexpected pin-up, and was pursued in the streets by fans.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2006
© Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive
www.RennieEllis.com.au
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Bon Scott and Angus Young photographed by Rennie Ellis are part of a display celebrating summer and images of the shirtless male.
Rennie Ellis photographs the self-proclaimed 'Witch of Kings Cross'.
