3-disc Ultimate
Edition
1995
Australia
Crime
Dramatisation
Produced by
Errol Sullivan
Directed by
Michael Jenkins
Southern Star
Entertainment (ABC)
Distributed by
Reel DVD
Release date
for DVD 2nd April 2009
Reviewer: Bob Estreich
The story is told from the point of view
of “Neddy” Smith, a middle aged criminal who is facing a long prison term on
drugs charges. He is offered a deal by Detective Sergeant Roger Rogerson of the
Armed Holdup Squad, a man who has little in the way of ethics and will do
anything to get a conviction. Rogerson says he can fix Neddy’s drugs conviction
by tampering with the evidence, so Neddy reluctantly agrees to supply him with
information on what’s going on in Sydney’s criminal community. Neddy continues in
the drugs world, and does well out of it now he is under “official” police
protection. Rogerson becomes a rising star with the tipoffs that Neddy is
providing him, and is decorated as a hero.
Then Rogerson oversteps the mark. Warren Lanfranchi, a young dealer who
has also knocked off a few banks, needs Rogerson’s help. In an attempted holdup
he has tried to shoot a policeman, but his gun misfired. The police will not
tolerate this. Lanfranchi asks Neddy to square it with Rogerson, and Neddy
arranges a meeting between them. Lanfranchi will give Rogerson a $50,000 bribe
and all will be well. It is a setup. Rogerson shoots down the unarmed
Lanfranchi and tells it as a fight between a criminal and the police, adding
further to his personal glory.
Sally Anne Huckstep, Warren Lanfranchi’s
girlfriend, goes to the TV reporters with details. She worked as a prostitute
and details the bribes she has paid police and says that Warren’s death was not
a gun battle but a coldblooded execution by Rogerson. Neddy is aghast. He was
not party to the execution, but now has to perjure himself in court to cover
Rogerson. In return, however, he is given a “green light” – he can commit any
crime he likes as long as he doesn’t kill a policeman. If there is any trouble,
the police will square it for him. He is now one of the inner circle and comes
to regard the crooked cops as friends. As an added bonus he is even given some
holdup tipoffs by the police. With the police covering him and handling the
disposal of the loot Neddy is never questioned.
It works both ways, though. Following
Sally Anne Huckstep’s revelations a Royal Commission is set up to investigate
corruption in the New South Wales Police Force. Brian Alexander, a crooked
solicitor who was about to tell the Commission all he knew of corrupt cops, is
invited out for an afternoon’s fishing on Neddy’s boat. He finds it hard to
swim with an old iron stove tied to his legs. This sort of thing isn’t Neddy’s
style, even for a man as violent as him, but he is too far in now to back out.
In the early 1980s things start to go
wrong for Rogerson. A Royal Commission is starting to clean out the corrupt
cops, with the help of the Federal Police. The corrupt Police Minister is in
jail. Rogerson is moved to a quiet desk job by the Assistant Commissioner, who
is alarmed at Rogerson’s ruthlessness and developing reputation. Rogerson
starts rebuilding his power base. At this point Rogerson takes up the story.
He has been asked to do a favour and
persuade a young Drugs Squad detective, Mick Drury, to lay off a case involving
a drug dealer in Melbourne. Rogerson offers Drury a bribe and is affronted when
Drury refuses to change his evidence. Could his power in the force be waning?
Rogerson introduces a hired killer, Chris Flannery, to Neddy, thinking they
could be useful together. Neddy won’t take part in the killing of a cop, so it
is up to Flannery and Rogerson to deal with Drury themselves. Drury is shot at
his home. A friend of Rogerson’s is put in charge of the attempted murder case,
and creatively bumbles around getting nowhere. When Drury names Rogerson as
having offered him a bribe, he is threatened and a character assassination job
begins on him.
Meanwhile at the top, the Government has
appointed a new Police Commissioner. The Police Force now has such a bad name
that they must start the cleanup from the top and work down. The Commissioner
takes Rogerson’s friend off the case, and Rogerson is arrested and charged with
the bribe attempt. With his high-level protection and support disappearing, he
is suspended. He is not going to go quietly. With his connections, he organizes
half a ton of heroin to be flown into the country. He wants Neddy Smith to
distribute it. This will be his farewell – a big killing, then disappear
forever. Unfortunately the Federal Police have a tap on the phone of one of the
partners, and are well aware of the plot. One of the Commission investigators
passes the information on in exchange for a bribe.
Other problems are developing. There is a territory
war going on over drugs distribution, and “Rent-A-Kill” Flannery is losing his
cool and doing rash, stupid things that are drawing attention to him and his
associates. He could be a liability, so he is executed in another police setup.
Neddy wisely decides that even though Chris Flannery was a friend of his, it
would be best if he didn’t make waves about it.
Rogerson scores a minor victory when the
bribery case against him resulting from Drury’s allegations is dismissed, but
suffers another blow when he learns the Federal Police have him on camera
making a large cash deposit into a bank account under a false name. They have
him on tape planning the drugs import. He is also still under attack by Sally
Anne Huckstep over the death of her boyfriend. When she tapes an incriminating
conversation with some of Rogerson’s police friends and passes the tapes to the
Royal Commission, she must go. Neddy Smith arranges her death.
Rogerson is under increasing pressure.
Many of his mates are leaving the Force, and friends are distancing themselves.
The Commission is investigating him for consorting with known criminals, in
particular Neddy Smith. In a TV interview to answer some of the allegations
against him, he says the reason he has spent so much time with Smith is because
Smith is his informant. Smith is not impressed with this, and even less so
after an attempt is made on his life.
Finally, Rogerson is dismissed from the
force. Neddy Smith goes on a holdup spree, and without his police friends to
protect him, he finds his “green light” is now worth nothing. He falls apart
and descends into aggressive drunkenness. Rogerson and a number of his mates
are arrested and charged over the false bank accounts. Neddy Smith is involved
in a drunken brawl that leads to a man being knifed. He is arrested for murder.
The most horrifying thing about this drama
is that it is mostly true or based on fact. Generally hidden from the public
view and protected by their own, members of the New South Wales Police Force
were running crime rackets that eventually led to murder. Finally their actions
became so blatant that a frustrated State Government had to face up to the
problem and institute the Royal Commission, calling in the Australian Federal
Police for help. The process of cleaning up the Force took years, and its work
is still being carried on today by an independent Commission. The independent
Commission was necessary because the Government’s own Police Minister was found
to be involved.
I have gone into the plot at some length
because it shows how police were able to bend the law for so long, to the point
that they became criminals themselves. The film is important today because it
is a reminder of what can happen when Police officers feel they are above the
law.
On the Extras disk is an interesting film
on the making of Blue Murder. The producer, Errol Sullivan, says he had the
script for Blue Murder in his desk drawer for some years, “waiting for
developments”. He was obviously aware of the state of the Police Force in New
South Wales, as was his Director, Michael Jenkins. Jenkins had worked on other
corrupt police dramatizations before and knew of the major players. Sullivan,
when he went to make the film, also had Neddy Smith’s manuscript. It was this
that gave Blue Murder its underlying theme of the friendship between cop and
criminal.
In spite of this, most of the key players
were still alive and Sullivan arranged with their lawyers to publish the story
as a book first, just to “flush out any lawsuits”. Nothing resulted so the film
went into production. It is compelling viewing and a reminder that even the
people in power, the ones that you trust, are only human.
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.3
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
If you came to this page directly (and
missed our menu), click here
to go to the Synergy Magazine front page. (http://www.synergy-magazine.com)