The Killing of Angel Street

The Killing of Angel Street
Directed by	Donald Crombie
Produced by	Anthony Buckley
Written by	Michael Craig Cecil Holmes Evan Jones
Starring	Liz Alexander John Hargreaves
Music by	Brian May
Cinematography	Peter James
Edited by	Tim Wellburn
Release date	1 October 1981
Running time	96 minutes
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	AU $1.3 million

The Killing of Angel Street is a 1981 Australian thriller film loosely based on the BLF (Builders Labourers Federation) green bans against development in inner Sydney city waterside suburbs. It briefly touches on the real life disappearance of Juanita Nielsen, an activist against mass development in Sydney in the late 1970s. The film is directed by Donald Crombie and was shot in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The mysterious disappearance of Juanita Nielson also inspired Phillip Noyce for his 1982 film Heatwave.

The film stars Elizabeth Alexander as Jessica Simmonds, who returns home from London to discover the street she grew up in being torn down by developers for high rise developments. Her father (Alexander Archdale), a vocal opponent of the developers, is killed in a suspicious fire and Jessica takes up the cause of the local residents. She joins forces with Jeff Elliot (John Hargreaves), a union leader. As they probe further into the background of the development they unearth sinister connections between the development group and organised crime.

Antony Buckley and Donald Crombie became interested in the story while making The Irishman. The first script was written by actor Michael Craig and was called The Juanita Factor being based directly on Juanita Nielsen. Cecil Holmes then worked on further drafts. However, there was concern the script would not be able to be filmed because of legal issues. It was decided to fictionalise the script and change the character's names.

It was originally intended to cast an overseas star because of the large budget. At one stage Julie Christie was cast but UAA, who were going to finance the film, did not come up with enough money. Helen Morse was then approached; she tentatively agreed but wanted more work done on the script. Evan Jones was brought out to work on a new draft, but despite this Morse eventually declined. Buckley decided not to use UAA to raise money and did it himself.

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