Michael Powell, who went into semi-retirement after making Peeping Tom in 1960, emerged in 1968 to make The Age of Consent, his last completed film to date. Made in Australia, it features James Mason as an Australian artist disenchanted with his commercial success and the New York lifestyle that accompanies it. He returns to an island on the Great Barrier Reef, hoping to revitalize his work. William K. Everson notes: “Although its relaxed tempo prevents any bravura sequences, there are many indirect echoes from previous Powell films, (for instance his) preoccupation with the eye, and ways of ‘seeing' in the modern world (including, of course, the world of film).... One also can't help but wonder how much of himself Powell inserted into the character of the artist as played by James Mason. Certainly his own disillusionment in England, and his retreat to the unspoiled barrier reef islands to make this film, can be seen as a parallel to the similar retreat of Mason's artist to find new impetus for his work.... Reversing the usual fate of Michael Powell films in this country, the American version (which we show tonight) was several minutes longer than the British release version.”