SCOBIE MALONE

Australia, 1975, 98 minutes, Colour.
Jack Thompson, Judy Morris, Shane Porteous, Jacqueline Kott, James Condon, Cul Cullen, Noel Ferrier, Max Meldrum.
Directed by Terry Ohlsson.

Scobie Malone is the detective created by Jon Cleary. For over forty years Scobie Malone had a series of very popular novels – which means that it is a great disappointment that Jack Thompson didn’t continue in the central role and that more films have not been made of Cleary’s novels.

The film is set in Sydney, capitalises on the scenery of the city, especially the comparatively new opera house. The murder mystery involves a callgirl, politicians.

Scobie Malone had made an appearance in the 1968 film The High Commissioner with Rod Taylor in the central role – a pity that he didn’t continue in that role as well.

An interesting variation on the detective film, Australian style. Another attempt at this kind of film was made with Chris Thomson’s The Empty Beach in 1985 with Bryan Brown as Peter Corriss’s Cliff Hardy but that did not materialise as a series either. In 2004 David Wenham appeared as Shane Moloney’s Murray Whelan. This was followed up by The Brush-Off?.

1. This film as an example of the detective genre? A good mystery film or not?

2. The conventions of the detective film, especially from the American police and private eye films? How closely did this film follow these patterns? How distinctive was the Australian flavour in the characterization of the detective, the police and their attitudes, police work?

3. The use of Sydney, the locations, especially the Opera House? How credible was the plot as set in Sydney, the issues, especially crime and drugs, as situated in Sydney?

4. The dramatic effect of the structure: the revelation of the death, the flashbacks and their style, the growth in understanding of Helga, the suspense and the build-up to her murder? How involved did the audience become and why?

5. Scobie Malone as a man: his image, Australian, the swinging style, the non-moral stances, the emphasis on masculinity? His being pictured at his flat, at the motel, the girls around him? Strengths and weaknesses of character, his skills? Audience interest in him, empathy? His decision to accept the sixty days at the end? A kind of copout at the end?

6. How interesting was the character of Helga? How credible a prostitute in Sydney high society? As a character? Audience sympathy? Her clothes. her various means of blackmailing them? The implications of her connections for the important clients and their public name? Her record of her clients etc.? The danger and violence inherent in her way of life?

7. How credible was Mr Sin, his power and wealth, his influence, henchman, their violence, drugs? How satirical was this presentation of Mr Sin?

8. The presentation of Helga’s other clients, as suspects for her murder? The implications of these characters?

9. The focus on the government minister, his character, relationship with Helga, relationship with his wife? Scobie Malone's interviews with them, especially with the wife? The political overtones and scandal?

10. The character of Mr. Sin's henchman, his madness, as a suspect? The build-up to the actual murder?

11. How cynical was the ending in Malone's suspension, the political silence?