The Clean Machine is a 1988 Australian tele movie about police corruption starring Steve Bisley. It was one of four telemovies made by Kennedy Miller around this time.[1]

The Clean Machine
Directed byKen Cameron
Written byKen Cameron
Terry Hayes
Richard Mortlock
Produced byTerry Hayes
Doug Mitchell
George Miller
StarringSteve Bisley
Grigor Taylor
Ed Devereaux
CinematographyDean Semler
Production
company
Distributed byNetwork Ten
Release date
  • 22 May 1988 (1988-05-22)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

Plot edit

Inspector Eddie Riordan is appointed to head a new anti-corruption squad.

Cast edit

Production edit

The director was Ken Cameron:

They asked me did I want to make it on 35mm. Now, I've always wondered whether I made a big mistake by not doing it on 35mm. But I don't think it would have been a success in the cinema. It wouldn't have had the density that it had on television. In terms of big screen, I could not have had the production values; the money wouldn't have stretched that far. So I don't know. There's a turning point. You never know what these turning points mean. But I knew one of the factors was that we didn't have Mel Gibson in the lead. I think Steve's terrific in it, but to release it as a movie in that genre, you almost needed Mel or a star.[2]

Cameron did say doing the film revived his career after the box office failure of The Umbrella Woman.[2]

Reception edit

Bisley won the Best Actor in a One-off Drama accolade at the 1988 Penguin Awards.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ Ed. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995, Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p26
  2. ^ a b "Interview with Ken Cameron", Signet, 12 April 1996 Archived 21 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine accessed 18 November 2012
  3. ^ Hook, Barbara (21 November 1988). "Doogue aside, Penguins look good". The Age. Retrieved 4 February 2021 – via Newspapers.com. 

External links edit