Sweeney! (1977)

Director:

David Wickes

Writers:

Ranald Graham (writer)
Ian Kennedy Martin (TV series The Sweeney)

Release Date:

January 1977 (UK)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

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

Plot:

Cinematic spin-off from the popular TV series. Hard-bitten Flying Squad officer Jack Regan gets embroiled...

Plot Keywords:

Police | Based On TV Series | England | London England | Sergeant

Awards:

1 win

Cast

John Thaw	...	Det. Insp. Jack Regan
Dennis Waterman	...	Det. Sgt. George Carter
Barry Foster	...	Elliott McQueen
Ian Bannen	...	Charles Baker, MP
Colin Welland	...	Frank Chadwick
Diane Keen	...	Bianca Hamilton
Michael Coles	...	Johnson
Joe Melia	...	Ronnie Brent
Brian Glover	...	Mac
Lynda Bellingham	...	Janice Wyatt
Morris Perry	...	Flying Squad Commander
Paul Angelis	...	Secret Serviceman
Nick Brimble	...	Det. Con. Gerry Burtonshaw
John Alkin	...	Det. Sgt. Tom Daniels
Bernard Kay	...	Det. Chief Insp. Matthews
Antony Scott	...	Johnson's Henchman
Anthony Brown	...	Murder Inquiry Superintendent
John Oxley	...	Chadwick's Deputy Editor
Peggy Aitchison	...	Carter's Neighbour
Hal Jeayes	...	Manservant
Sally Osborne	...	Sally
John Kane	...	Special Branch Sergeant
Chris Dillinger	...	Johnson's Henchman
Peter Childs	...	Murder Inquiry Inspector
Alan Mitchell	...	Detective Inspector
Leonard Kavanagh	...	Pathologist
Anthony Woodruff	...	Coroner
Michael Latimer	...	PPS
Matthew Long	...	Traffic Police Sergeant
Joyce Grant	...	McQueen's Secretary
Johnny Shannon	...	Scotland Yard Duty Sergeant
David Corti	...	Young Boy
Susan Skipper	...	Chadwick's Secretary
Nadim Sawalha	...	Chairman of Oil Producers' Conference
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tony Allen	...	Bill the Driver (uncredited)
Del Baker	...	Johnson's henchman (uncredited)
Harry Fielder	...	Wages Security Guard (uncredited)

Directed by
David Wickes

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ranald Graham		writer
Ian Kennedy Martin		TV series The Sweeney

Produced by
Ted Childs	....	producer
Lloyd Shirley	....	executive producer
George Taylor	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Denis King

Cinematography by
Dusty Miller		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Chris Burt

Art Direction by
William Alexander		(as Bill Alexander)

Makeup Department
Michael Morris	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Laurie Greenwood	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Michael Murray	....	second assistant director
Bill Westley	....	first assistant director

Sound Department
Tony Dawe	....	production sound mixer
Clive Smith	....	sound editor
Hugh Strain	....	dubbing mixer

Special Effects by
Arthur Beavis	....	special effects

Stunts
Peter Brayham	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Paul Borg	....	electrician
John Maskall	....	camera operator (as John Maskell)
Douglas Webb	....	still photographer

Music Department
Denis King	....	conductor

Production Companies

• Euston Films

Distributors

• EMI Distribution (1977) (UK) (theatrical)
• Thorn EMI Video Australia
• Warner Home Video (1991) (UK) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2003) (UK) (DVD)
• Weintraub Entertainment (1987) (UK) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Lee Lighting  lighting

Runtime:

89 min | 97 min (DVD)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 (video rating) | UK:X (original rating) | Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Norway:16 | Norway:18 (video rating)

Filming Locations:

26 Longridge Road, Kensington, London, England, UK

Company:

Euston Films

Trivia:

The location of Media Incorporated, the company controlled by Elliott McQueen (Barry Foster) was the penthouse suite at Alembic House, 93 Albert Embankment, London. This was the home of author Jeffrey Archer who had then recently bought it from composer John Barry.

Quotes:

Frank Chadwick: I'll give you a call first thing in the morning.
Elliott McQueen: We'd rather you called me, it's what I'm paid for.
Frank Chadwick: Oh he pays you does he? Seems like the other way round to me.
Charles Baker: Frank, please!
[slurring]
Charles Baker: I'll give you your interview...
Frank Chadwick: Yes you will.
[to McQueen]
Frank Chadwick: Earn your money, will you - make sure he's sober.

Movie Connections:

References North by Northwest (1959)

Sweet as a nut, guvnor

"Sweeney!" was one of the innumerable TV spin-offs which kept the British film business perilously afloat in the 1970s. For once this low-budget work did not spring from a sitcom but from Britain's best ever cop show, which made "Starsky and Hutch" look like "Sesame Street" with its relentless violence and raucous backchat. ("Sweeney Todd", it should be explained , is London rhyming slang for the Flying Squad, an elite detective unit of the Metropolitan Police.)

Jack Regan and his sidekick George Carter here find themselves out of their depth with a bigger budget and canvas than on the boob tube: they get "webbed up"in an international conspiracy to lower, or raise, or something, oil prices. A suave Energy Minister is too fond of the high-class "brasses" furnished by his American PR agent. He is blackmailed, with multiple-murderous consequences and mucho ketchup.

In some ways this is very much a 1970s period piece: flared trousers, two-tone grey telephones and no computers, police who drink and smoke heroically, ugly lowlifes, hideous pubs, tyre abuse, shootouts in junkyards and an overall grey, downbeat atmosphere which is a far cry from the Swinging London of Hollywood England in the previous decade. "Sweeney" was conceived at the moment of maximum crisis when OPEC was holding the industrialised nations to ransom, inflation was the highest for 60 years and trade unionists and militant socialists seemed poised to seize power in Blighty.

True, a red double-decker bus figures during one chase, but the film makes concessions to mid-Atlanticism neither in casting, nor by moderating the constant Cockney badinage ("leave it aht!", "you wot?", "shut it!", "dull it isn't" (mocking a Met recruitment slogan)) nor by glamourising its high-life scenes. Also carried over from the series is the endless friction between different law enforcers: Regan clashes not only with his superior but with the security services and Special Branch, the Met's anti-subversion arm. Typically, he cocks up the operation to snatch the PRO and bring him to justice. Regan is no superhero.

Contrary to what others have posted, I find Foster's accent and manner all too convincing, and his performance incisive. The theme of politicians being corrupted by their spin doctors remains fresh. Ian Bannen as the blackmailed MP looks and has a role not unlike Robert Vaughn's. Thaw and Waterman are the same crumpled reprobates as on the small screen, but the plot makes too little of their partnership; Regan is suspended and lone-wolfing it for much of the running time.

No doubt the best of "The Sweeney" was on TV, but this is a fair-value distillation and introduction. It makes the mockney gangster movies of Mr Madonna and his posse look pathetic. "Up yours, sunshine!"