The Empty Beach

The Empty Beach (1985)

Cliff Hardy - One Man Against Sydney's Underworld

Before shady businessman John Singer disappeared off Bondi Beach, his name meant money--big and small, clean and dirty--a man absorbed in a world of greed and dishonesty. Singer's widow, Marion, believes he's still alive and she employs the investigative skills of the tough, no-nonsense private eye, Cliff Hardy to find him. Battered and bruised, Hardy battles through the filth of corruption and the stench of political blackmail. He comes face to face with the crime bosses, who feed off human misery and eliminate their rivals without thinking twice. From the high life and low life of Sydney, to the seediness and splendour of Bondi Beach, Cliff Hardy uncovers the ultimate truth.

Date of release
1985-09-12
TMDB
4.9 / 10 (6)
Runtime
1h 25m
Genres
Thriller, Mystery, Crime
Director
Chris Thomson

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: A$34.3K
  • Based on: The Empty Beach

The Empty Beach is a 1985 Australian thriller film based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Peter Corris, starring Bryan Brown as private investigator Cliff Hardy.

Production

Filming started 8 October 1984 at Elizabeth Bay and mostly took place around Bondi. John Seale made the film after Witness.

According to Corris, "Bryan Brown was good, perhaps too good. I heard later that some of the cast were so overawed by him they gave lame performances. The director, Chris Thompson, and Brown were said to have been at odds. The female lead, supposed to be whippet-thin and feisty, was so when cast but was pregnant by the time of shooting and wore enveloping garments."

According to David Stratton, Thomson also clashed with cinematographer John Seale throughout the shoot.

However, when Corris saw a rough cut of 94 minutes he "impressed. I still dislikled a lot of it but I thought Bryan was good and I liked John Wood." Corris says when he saw the final film, reduced to 89 minutes, "dismay was back. I liked the opening song but the wink at the nuns now looked cliched and dumb. All the effects striven for were old hat, done often before stuff.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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