The autobiography of a Sydney barmaid in a city being overtaken by the Great Depression, CADDIE is a greatly loved milestone from the blazing new Australian film industry of the 1970s. It established the young director Donald Crombie, bestowed star status on the radiant Helen Morse, furthered the movie careers of Jack Thompson, Jacki Weaver and many of its wonderful supporting cast and captured the hearts of both critics and moviegoers around the world. Joan Long's screenplay tells of a fiercely independent young mother who, when confronted with her husband's infidelity, takes her children and leaves their comfortable middle class surroundings behind, to fend for herself. Without skills, and faced with the responsibility of housing and feeding her kids, she gets work as a barmaid and when SP Bookie Ted (Jack Thompson) comes into the pub she earns herself a new name into the bargain. He calls her Caddie because she has "class and beauty", just like his brand new Cadillac automobile. Over the next seven years Caddie finds and then loses the love of Greek immigrant Peter (Takis Emmanuel), has difficulty staying employed, falls ill, and is befriended by Bill "the Rabbito" and his brother Sonny. Out of it all she emerges a winner with the promise of a better and more fulfilled life ahead.