(35mm, New Zealand, 1985)

"Gaylene Preston's first feature, Mr. Wrong, is a low-budget, gently whimsical thriller that stirs tongue-in-cheek memories of a 50s Doris Day under threat. The difference is there is no handsome matinee idol into whose arms the heroine can fall at fadeout. The best help she has on hand is a young man with whom she went to school. Based on a short story by Elizabeth Jane Howard, and with a screenplay for which Preston takes main credit, Mr. Wrong is about girl-next-door Meg, who unwittingly buys a used Jaguar car that is haunted. A previous owner, also a young woman, was murdered. Is Meg to be the next victim? Inventiveness and an eye for sly comic detail mark the unraveling of events. Not everything works. At times Preston seems more interested in the whimsy than the thrills, but, in large part she gets away with it. One of the reasons she does is the central performance of Bolton as Meg. Working against most conventions as a rather dumpy, Everyman's sister, Bolton injects the role with a fetching resourcefulness and resilience that is fresh and never mawkish. David Letch is suitably sinister as the mysterious 'Mr Wrong', with Danny Mulheron quirkily but not repellently wimpish as Wayne. Elsewhere, Margaret Umbers, Gary Stalker and Philip Gordon impact in cameo roles." - Mike Nicolaidi, Variety, 24 April 1985

Credits:
Director: Gaylene Preston
Production co: Preston-Laing Productions
Producers: Robin Laing, Gaylene Preston
Screenplay: Gaylene Preston, Geoff Murphy, Graeme Tetley
From the short story by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Director of photography: Thom Burstyn
Music: Jonathan Crayford
Art director: Mike Becroft
Editor: Simon Reece
Sound: Ken Saville
Production manager: Pat Murphy

With: Heather Bolton (Meg), David Letch (Mr Wrong), Gary Stalker (Bruce), Danny Mulheron (Wayne), Kate Harcourt (Mrs Alexander), Michael Haigh (Mr Whitehorn), Perry Piercy (Mary Carmichael), Margaret Umbers (Samantha), Suzanne Lee (Val)