An Aussie neo-noir pic about a down-on-his-luck P.I.
“Down-on-his-luck P.I.” seems redundant when applied to fictional detectives. Being an honest private eye doesn’t seem like the pathway to riches, at least not for the detectives in movies and TV.
Australian author Peter Corris wrote more than 40 stories about Sydney-based private detective Cliff Hardy. The Empty Beach (first published in 1982) was the fourth novel in the series.
One summer day, Marion Singer welcomes private detective Cliff Hardy (Bryan Brown) to the sun terrace of a beachfront restaurant. Mrs. Singer informs the detective that her husband’s boat washed ashore two years earlier, containing a note in which he announced he had committed suicide due to a cancer diagnosis. A body was never found, and she has now received an anonymous tip that John Singer is alive. She hires the investigator to find out what is going on.
I don’t know either of these actresses. Their IMDb stories are the same. They played a few small parts in the 1980s, then disappeared from the industry.
Simone Taylor
Bryan Brown punches some dude who turns out to have boobs.
That’s Peggy Wallach
The film clips can be found (as I’m sure you’ve already guessed) at the repository for all things Down Under, Johnny Moronic’s page.