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| ABBA: The Movie | |
|---|---|
| Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Lasse Hallström |
| Produced by | Stig Anderson Reg Grundy |
| Written by | Lasse Hallström Robert Caswell |
| Starring | Anni-Frid Lyngstad Benny Andersson Björn Ulvaeus Agnetha Fältskog Robert Hughes Tom Oliver |
| Music by | Stig Anderson Benny Andersson Björn Ulvaeus |
| Cinematography | Jack Churchill Paul Onorato |
| Edited by | Lasse Hallström Malou Hallström Ulf Neidermar |
| Production company | Polar Music Reg Grundy Productions |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date | 15 December 1977 (Australia)26 December 1977 (Sweden) |
| Running time | 97 minutes |
| Country | Australia Sweden |
| Language | English Swedish |
| Box office | SEK 5,347,122 |
ABBA: The Movie is a 1977 drama-documentary about the Swedish pop group ABBA‘s Australian tour. It was directed by Lasse Hallström, who directed most of the group’s videos. The film has become a cult film among ABBA fans. Its release coincided with the release of ABBA: The Album, the group’s fifth studio album, and features many songs from that album as well as many of their earlier hits, and one, “Get on the Carousel”, unavailable anywhere else.
The film concerns the adventures of Ashley Wallace (Robert Hughes), a naïve DJ on Radio 2TW, who normally presents a through-the-night country and western-themed show. In spite of this, he is sent by the station’s boss (Bruce Barry) to get an in-depth interview (“Not an interview, a dialogue“, demands his boss) with the group, which is to be aired on the day ABBA leave Australia. Ashley, who has never done an interview before, fails, mainly because he has forgotten to pack his press card, although the fact that he is unable to buy a concert ticket doesn’t help matters. Armed with his trusty reel-to-reel tape recorder, Ashley is forced to follow the group all over Australia, beginning in Sydney, and then travelling, in order, to Perth, Adelaide, and Melbourne, experiencing repeated run-ins with the group’s very protective bodyguard (Tom Oliver), as well as his increasingly exasperated boss. Throughout the movie, we see Ashley interviewing members of the public, asking them if and why they like ABBA. Almost all the comments are positive, but he interviews a man who is driven mad by his ABBA-obsessed twelve-year-old, and another girl who thinks ABBA are over the top.
Eventually, Ashley has a lucky chance encounter with Stig Anderson, the group’s manager, in the foyer of ABBA’s hotel, who agrees to arrange an interview, and gives him tickets to that evening’s concert. But Ashley sleeps in and misses the interview time. Just as Ashley has given up hope, he steps into an elevator and finds himself face-to-face with ABBA. They give him an interview there and then, and he leaves Melbourne just in time to meet the deadline for the radio show to go on-air. He puts together the final edit in the back of a taxi from the airport, as ABBA depart Australia for Europe. With only minutes to go, Ashley makes it back to the radio station where, having set the tape up on the studio’s playback machine, he relaxes at his control desk to listen as the interview is broadcast.
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