Scobie Malone (film)

Scobie Malone is a 1975 Australian film based on the novel Helga's Web by Jon Cleary about detective Scobie Malone (Thompson). The film is also known as Helga's Web and Murder at the Opera House.

Synopsis

Sydney homicide detective Sergeant Scobie Malone (Jack Thompson) and his offsider (Shane Porteous) investigate the murder of Helga (Judy Morris), whose corpse is found in the basement of the Sydney Opera House. Malone had met Helga previously and discovers she was a high class prostitute who was also a mistress of the Minister for Culture (James Workman) and involved with film director Jack Savannah (Joe Martin). In flashback it is shown that Helga was blackmailing the minister and his wife (Jacqueline Knott), along with a crime boss, Mr Sin (Noel Ferrier).

Eventually it is revealed that Helga was killed while fleeing Captain Bixby (Cul Cullen). Malone becomes convinced of the guilt of the Minister, but powerful influences intervene and he gets off. The Minister resigns, citing ill health, and travels to Europe with his wife. Malone criticises his boss, Inspector Fulmer (Walter Sullivan) and is suspended for insubordination for ninety days. Fulmer later suggests he come back, but Scobie elects to stay by the pool for the full ninety days.

Scobie Malone

Scobie Malone is a fictional Sydney homicide detective created by Australian novelist Jon Cleary.

History

Named after the jockey Scobie Breasley, Malone made his first appearance in Cleary's 1966 novel The High Commissioner. Cleary says he got the idea from meeting an Australian policeman he knew walking out of Australia House in London one day. He was on six months leave but Cleary wondered what if he had come to arrest the Australian High Commissioner for murder.

Although the original novel was a best seller and turned into a film, Cleary did not originally intend to create a series around Malone. However he brought the character back later for Helga's Web (1970) as a means to explore the construction of the Sydney Opera House, then for Ransom (1973). There was a long gap before he started using the detective again, but once he did he wrote Malone novels regularly from 1987 onwards until the end of his writing career.

Cleary and his wife used to travel two months every year to research his books. However after Cleary's daughter died in 1987, his wife became ill and did not want to travel. As Cleary liked to research his books thoroughly this meant he had to write about Australia.