title: The Journalist (1979 film)
text: # The Journalist (1979 film)
  
  The Journalist is a 1979 Australian sex comedy about the romantic adventures of a journalist (Jack Thompson). It has the reputation as one of the worst Australian films of all time.
  
  ## Plot
  
  Journalist Simon Morris has trouble with his love life. He is separated from his wife Wendy and daughter Suzie and lives with his girlfriend Liz.
  
  ## Cast
  
  * Jack Thompson as Simon Morris
  * Sam Neill as Rex
  * Elizabeth Alexander as Liz Corbett
  * Carol Raye as Maggie
  * Bud Tingwell as Sid Mitchell
  * Penne Hackforth-Jones as Gillie Griffiths
  * Frank Wilson as Vic Parson
  
  ## Production
  
  Money came from Roadshow, who wanted Jack Thompson to play the lead, and the New South Wales Film Corporation. The shoot started January 1979 and went for four weeks.
  
  ## Reception
  
  The film was very poorly received critically and commercially. Thornhill:
  
     The Journalist was a misfire completely and I think it was my fault entirely. We should never have had Jack Thompson. He was just miscast. He's not a comedian. He's a serious, solid actor. We should have had Sam Neill in the lead role and you would have had a debonair roue - it was meant to be a debonair roue. It was meant to be a piece of fluff, a piece of effervescent fluff that came out feeling like lard.
  
  Robert Macklin wrote a novelisation of the script for $5,000.
  
  