DEAD EASY

Australia, 1982, 85 minutes, Colour.
Scott Burgess, Tony Barry, Sandy Gore, Rosemary Paul, Tim McKenzie?, Max Phipps.
Directed by Bert Deling.

Dead Easy is a colourful gangster thriller set in Sydney’s Kings Cross. The film uses actual locations, night sequences to some effect. It is the work of Bert Deling, maverick Australian writer-director whose films include Dalmas (1973) and Pure S (1976). There is a good Australian cast led by Scott Burgess, Tony Barry, Sandy Gore and others lead the supporting cast. (The film had practically no commercial release when made, in 1982.)

1. Satisfying Australian thriller, city of Sydney?

2. Kings Cross settings, the use of Kings Cross and day and night, the glitz, the style, the ugliness? Authentic? Musical score, songs, choreography of the clubs?

3. The title and the presumption, dead?

4. The portrait of George: background, age, experience, the streets, self-image, behaviour, dress? Alex and infatuation? The clashes with her madam? Going to jail, behaviour in jail, young and inexperienced, bravado? The ups and downs of his career at the cross? The factions and the bosses, the violence, his involvement? His friends? Being given the job of starting the club, preparations, auditions? The bit-men and the set-ups? The violence, the eruption, the danger? The chase, survival, dead easy? Alex and her place in his life, in the dangers? The young policeman, his hounding George, getting him to prison, his being let out, sacked and his helping Alex and George in the expose?

5. Alex and her work at the Cross, talent, prostitution, her relationship with the madam? Encountering George? Prison? The clash, dangers? The audition, hopes? Ups and downs, performance? The final chase and dangers?

6. The madam, her hold over the girls, hold over Alex, lesbian? Involved?

7. The world of the gangsters, the hit-men, plans, killings, set-ups, the heavies, the role of the police, buying off the police, murders?

8. The brothers and their background, owning clubs, their legal advice, deals, fronts, the clubs, the opening, the killings?

9. The senior police, on c e take, connections, their conduct, safeguarding the gangsters, exposed?

10. The young policeman and his earnestness, tough, the letter of the law, the senior police, his anger, violence, the set-ups, tracking George, prison? His being ousted, drinking, the clubs, infatuation with Alex, the decision to help, the final confrontations?

11. Tony Barry as the thug, his connections, the clash with the brothers, deaths?

12. The world of sleazy people, situations, people destroying each other? Freedom? The hold of the modern city?