During the flight two henchmen of Count Plasma (a Dracula-type Minister of Culture from the People's Republic of Transylvania) mistake Edna for the Queen of the United Kingdom and kidnap her during their brief stopover in Paris, believing that she will draw tourists to their country.

It is then up to Barry, his identical twin brother the Reverend Kevin McKenzie, his Parisian expatriate Aussie friend "Col the Frog" and his other expatriate mates in France and England to head a team of Australian agents to be parachuted into Transylvania and rescue Edna.

Bruce Beresford wanted to make a film of the 1910 novel The Getting of Wisdom by Henry Handel Richardson but was unable to raise finance.

[6] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Barry McKenzie is basically the Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman joke extended to include every possible racial and sexual stereotype, in every permutation of cultural collision and with all mythical characteristics reduced to their lowest common denominator.

The introduction by the Minister of Culture (Humphries himself), and the Monty Pythonish Migration Game in which possible English emigrants are quizzed to see if they have suitably pro-Aussie, anti-Pommie attitudes, display a sharpness not found in The Adventures of Barry McKenzie and suggest that there is still room for development and improvement if the series proves to be a continuing one.