The Empty Beach

The Empty Beach is a 1985 Australian thriller film starring Bryan Brown as private investigator Cliff Hardy.

Premise
Cliff Hardy iinquires into the disappearance of a beautiful woman's wealthy husband from Bondi Beach. Based on the 1983 novel by Peter Corris of the same name.

Cast

 * Bryan Brown as Cliff Hardy
 * Anna Maria Monticelli as Anne Winter
 * Belinda Giblin as Marion Singer
 * Ray Barrett as McLean
 * John Wood as Parker
 * Peter Collingwood as Ward
 * Nick Tate as Henneberry
 * Kerry Mack as Hildegard
 * Joss McWilliam as Tal
 * Sally Cooper as Sandy Modesto
 * Rhys McConnochie as Garth Green
 * Steve Rackman as Rex
 * Robert Alexander as Bob
 * Bob Barrett as Johnno
 * Christopher Lewis as Aldo
 * Steve J. Spears as Manny
 * Kerry Dwyer as Mary Mahoud
 * Dean Nottle as Mercer
 * Robert Noble as Pinball Manager
 * Simone Taylor as Sharon
 * Harry Lawrence as Leon
 * Alexander Hay as Edgar Montefiore
 * Philomena Loneragan as Peggy
 * Peggy Wallach as Rose
 * Brian Anderson as Clyde
 * Deborah Kennedy as Newspaper Librarian
 * Robert Shannon as Detective
 * John Godden as Detective's Victim
 * Rebecca Smart as Little Girl
 * Aaron Smart as Little Boy
 * Kelly Dingwall as Head Punk
 * Barry Leane as John Singer
 * Phillip Ross as Bill Winter
 * Katherine Summers as Journalist

Production
In the early 1980s Bryan Brown was attached to star as Cliff Hardy in an adaptation of an earlier Corris novel, White Meat. This was to be adapted by Corris, directed by Stephen Wallace and produced by Richard Mason. However no film eventuated. Then John Edwards and Tim Read acquired the rights to the series and approached Brown again. He had played the character in a 1980 Albie Thoms feature film Palm Beach phrior to the filming and release of The Empty Beach.

To coincide with the film release the film's title song was released as a single that summer of 1985 by Marc Hunter (of Dragon) with backing vocals featured from Canadian-Australian based singer Wendy Matthews. Music video of the single also had some moderate TV airplay which features both Marc Hunter and Wendy Matthews.

Corris wrote the first few drafts and was unhappy with the final adaptation, although he liked Bryan Brown's performance.

Release
The film performed poorly at the box office in Australia although it sold widely around the world. There were plans for Brown to appear in further Hardy adventures but this did not eventuate. Ten network first screened the feature film at 8.30pm in early October 1986 on a Wednesday night with a repeat screening again in early 1990s at a much later time-slot and has not screened commercially since. The Empty Beach is also awaiting a dvd or blu-Ray release.