FILM · 1980 · AUSTRALIA
Harlequin
28 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (28)
- #001
No trick photography or deceptive camera angles were used for the scene in which Alex Rast (Mark Spain) is seen dangling over the edge of a cliff at the hands of Gregory Wolfe (Robert Powell). Spain really hung over the edge of a cliff, but he wore a safety harness hidden beneath Powell's white cape so that audiences could not see it.
- #002
The Rast family in the film takes its name from members of the Romanov House, Russia's last imperial dynasty. Rast is Tsar spelled backwards. Nick Rast (David Hemmings) is named after Tsar Nicholas II (Nikolay II, Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov). His wife Sandra Rast (Carmen Duncan) is named after Nicholas II's wife, Tsarina Alexandra (Alix of Hesse, also known as Victoria Alix Helena Louise Beatrice). Their son Alex Rast (Mark Spain) is named after their heir, Russian Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. The names Nick, Sandra and Alex stand in for Nicholas, Alexandra and Alexei respectively.
- #003
The opening sequence was inspired by the disappearance of former Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt.
- #004
The film was shot in Perth, Australia, but neither the city nor the country is identified in the film. In an issue published around the time of the film's Australian release, the Australian magazine Movie News said: "... the inference is that the story takes place in America. This is said to have been done deliberately to help increase international sales."
- #005
Actor Robert Powell underwent six makeup changes while playing the character Harlequin in the film.
- #006
The film's core reworks two events from history. Its main idea — the charismatic mystic Gregory Wolf miraculously healing politician Nick and Sandra Rast's sick son Alex — mirrors events in St Petersburg in the early 20th century: the charismatic mystic Grigory Rasputin miraculously healed Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra's sick son Alexei (Rast is an anagram of Tsar). Wolf's death likewise mirrors Rasputin's death in 1916. Meanwhile, the disappearance at sea of Deputy Premier Steele, apparently after drowning, mirrors the December 1967 event in which Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt vanished while swimming and was subsequently presumed dead.
- #007
Robert Powell's character Gregory Wolfe is in fact a combination of two legendary figures: Rasputin, the Mad Monk, and Harlequin. The latter gives the film its title and Powell's character his nickname, and provides one of Wolfe's most important costumes, while the former, Grigory Rasputin, is the basis for Wolfe's first name, Gregory, and for his character's purported psychic and faith-healing abilities. Supernatural powers are an additional character trait.
- #008
The Rast mansion seen in the film was actually the home of Western Australian millionaire entrepreneur Alan Bond. The house was mostly used for exteriors only. Most of the house's interiors were shot at a Perth studio, though one room of the mansion was used for interiors because of its panoramic sea view.
- #009
The screenplay was written with David Bowie in mind for the lead role, and talks were held with Bowie, but the producers got cold feet at the last minute and cast Robert Powell.
- #010
The film is known by three titles in English-speaking territories: 'Dark Forces', 'The Minister's Magician' and 'Harlequin'.
- #011
According to the DVD commentary, Mel Gibson auditioned for the role of security guard Robinson but was told the part was too small for him.
- #012
Child actor Mark Spain shaved his head for the scenes in which he appears bald in the film. Spain did not wear a leather skullcap in those scenes.
- #013
Near the end of the film, the shot in which a dead Gregory Wolfe (Robert Powell) is seen floating horizontally on the surface of the water was cut from prints for the film's release in the UK and France.
- #014
In the film Robert Powell appears as the "heterosexual" character Gregory Wolfe as well as a party clown, a magician, a healer, a jester and an elderly gentleman from Vienna.
- #015
The Harlequin character comes from the Italian Commedia dell'arte and its derivative, the Harlequinade. Harlequin is the most famous and most popular of the comic servant (or 'zanni') characters. The Harlequin character is known as Arlequin in French, Arlecchino in Italian and Arlequín in Spanish.
- #016
The DVD audio commentary states that the film was the first major film shot in Perth, Western Australia, in twenty-five years. However, the Australian film Nickel Queen (1971) had been shot there in the early 1970s.
- #017
Gregory Wolfe's assault on the Rasts' maid recalls Grigory Rasputin's history of womanizing and of using the hypnotic powers he claimed to seduce women. Gregory's relationship with Sandra also echoes false reports that Rasputin had a romantic connection with Tsarina Alexandra in pre-revolutionary Russia.
- #018
The film is a modern-day retelling of the classic Rasputin story. Its main characters are named after Grigory Rasputin and the last family of the Romanov House. The historical events involving these real people in the early 1900s inspired the film's story. The monk Rasputin was assassinated after he gained (apparently) too much influence at the Russian royal Romanov court by healing the Tsar's son of hemophilia. In the film, Gregory Wolf (Robert Powell) treats Senator Nick Rast's son Alex (Mark Spain) for leukemia. Politically, Senator Rast is being groomed as the country's future president.
- #019
The film aired on ITV in the United Kingdom on 19 September 1992.
- #020
The game Alex plays in his bedroom is Chinese Checkers.
- #021
It is one of three feature films made by director Simon Wincer and producer/executive producer Antony I. Ginnane. The films are the thrillers The Day After Halloween (1979) and Harlequin (1980) and the war epic The Lighthorsemen (1987). Both men appear in the documentary Not Pretty Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation (2008).
- #022
The fundraiser the Rusts held at their home was for the 20th Annual Children's Hospital Appeal.
- #023
In one of the film's many subtle nods to Grigory Rasputin, a news report at the end of the film states that water was found in Gregory Wolfe's lungs. This follows a sequence in which he is believed to have been killed by gunfire and to have met his end in the Rast kitchen. Rasputin was notoriously difficult to assassinate, and after being poisoned, shot, stabbed and beaten, he was thrown into the Volga River in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he drowned. When Rasputin's body was recovered, water was found in his lungs.
- #024
English actor Robert Powell was brought to Australia to take the lead role in this film. Other imports included the American actor Broderick Crawford and David Hemmings, both also from England. Gus Mercurio, who appears in the film, is an American-born Australian.
- #025
Australia's Movie News magazine reported that the film had secured $900,000 (Australian) in sales when a twenty-minute promotional film was made for the MIFED market. As a result, it is one of the few Australian films to have covered its production cost before its initial release.
- #026
It was Mary Simpson's last film.
- #027
The production shoot for this film lasted thirty-six days (about five weeks).
- #028
Harlequin is director Simon Wincer's 1980 Australian supernatural thriller starring Robert Powell and David Hemmings. In the film, Robert Powell plays a mysterious stranger with psychic abilities, and the enigmatic stranger becomes the target of assassination by a corrupt political idealist when he cures a politician's (David Hemmings) terminally ill son.
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