The Removalists

The Removalists (1975)

By the time they are through with Kenny Carter, he doesn't have a wife, a child or a hope in hell.

An adaptation of David Williamson's play; John Hargreaves and Peter Cummins star as a good and bad cop who assist a battered wife as she tries to escape her belligerent husband.

Date of release
1975-10-15
TMDB
5.0 / 10 (3)
Runtime
1h 33m
Genres
Drama
Director
Tom Jeffrey

Casting

Interesting facts

The Removalists is a 1975 Australian film based on the play of the same name.

Production

Film rights to the play were bought by Margaret Fink. She originally wanted Roman Polanski to direct and Robert Mitchum to star but this proved impossible. She offered the film to Ted Kotcheff, who turned it down. She then considered Tim Burstall, who worked well with Williamson, but decided he was unsuitable after watching Alvin Purple (1973) and did not want to work with Fred Schepisi despite that director's interest.

The Australian Film Development Corporation put up half the budget in the form of a two-year loan. The rest of the money came from Ross Woods Productions, Clearing House, TVW7 and Leon Fink Holdings.

Kate Fitzpatrick and Jacki Weaver repeated their stage performances however Don Crosby and Max Phipps, who played the police, were replaced by Peter Cummins and John Hargreaves. The setting of the story was changed from Melbourne to Sydney.

The film was shot at Ajax Studios at Bondi. It was the last movie shot at the studio before it closed. It is now used as a haberdashery store. The studio hosted Michael Powell's Age of Consent and Ted Kotcheff's Wake in Fright among several others.

Filming was tense, with the relationship between Fink and Jeffrey disintegrating. Fink ended up firing Jeffrey's wife, Sue Milliken, from her position as production manager.

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

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