Sweeney!

Sweeney! (1977)

The roughest, toughest men from London's greatest crime squad smash their way onto the big screen!

When one of Regan's snouts complains that his girlfriend's recent suicide was murder, the flying squad detective feels compelled to investigate. He uncovers a conspiracy that reaches the heart of the government, and finds himself fitted up, suspended and under the scrutiny of Special Branch.

Date of release
1977-01-14
TMDB
6.7 / 10 (28)
Runtime
1h 37m
Genres
Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Director
David Wickes
Collection
The Sweeney Movie Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: £1.4M

Sweeney! is a 1977 British action crime drama film and extension of the ITV television series The Sweeney which aired on ITV from 1975 to 1978. The film performed well enough at the box office that a sequel, Sweeney 2, was released in cinemas in 1978.

Production

Sweeney! was made by Euston Films, who also produced the television series. Euston had been planning a feature film version for some time: this movie was part of a £6 million six-film programme announced two years earlier, in 1975, by Nat Cohen of EMI Films.

David Wickes, the eventual director, said Euston Films were reluctant to make a movie but then he persuaded them it was worth it by making it an "X rated" movie that could show things the TV series could not. Wickes also says Nat Cohen of EMI was so enthusiastic about a Sweeney movie that he agreed to cover the whole budget

Filming was relatively quick and inexpensive, using cast and crew from the series. Ranald Graham is credited with the script by Wickes claims it was entirely rewritten by him and Ted Childs. They developed the plot about OPEC and big business. It was also decided to make Regan more of a central character than he had been in the TV series.

The movie was released in 1977, following the conclusion of the show's third season on television, as a money-making big-screen outing for what had become an extremely popular series. In the 1970s it was common for television shows to be given cinematic releases, amongst which were some of the biggest box office hits of the decade.

Several minor characters in the film had previously appeared in the television series. However, Garfield Morgan, who played Regan's boss, Haskins, in the TV show (but who would be largely absent from the final series on TV the following year) did not appear. As with the television series, a large amount of the filming took place on location (as on all Euston Films productions).

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

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