Reviews

A curiosity - a bit like the Big Sleep transposed to 1980s Sydney. Bryan Brown is Cliff Hardy - an Aussie Sam Spade - uncovering corruption and general nastiness.

Brown, sometimes accused of woodeness, is personable enough as the down-at-heel investigator.

The plot takes our hero through the inherent humiliations of the genre and leads to a creepily disquieting finale.

Interesting principally in the way it presents a rather nasty counterpoint to the usual sun 'n' fun vision of Sydney.

Villain is a classic example of the English gangster genre which stretches from Brighton Rock, through Get Garter and the Long Good Friday, to Lock, Stock etc. Writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais have fashioned a kind of East-End version of White Heat with Burton in the mother-fixated Jimmy Cagney role.

Burton gives us his Ronnie Kray impersonation and clearly relishes the sly dialogue of the script. The support includes notable turns from Nigel Davenport, Donald Sinden, and an hilarious Joss Ackland as a would-be heavy with an upset tummy.

The action is well-handled and the settings convincingly grubby but it's the superb dialogue that repays repeated viewings.