Films That Matter
Stealers Wheel
A film noir with some eccentricities, The Big Steal (1949), directed by then third time film maker Don Siegel (who would go on to make such greats as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dirty Harry, and Escape from Alcatraz), plays like a long chase within a longer chase, while the meeting between gent and femme is something akin to a will they/won’t they screwball comedy. The usually laconic Lt. Duke Halliday (Robert Mitchum) is in quite the conundrum, as he has been robbed of a U.S. Army payroll totaling a whopping three hundred grand by swindler Jim Fiske (Patric Knowles). On the lam in Mexico (a rather rare noir location, also think Ride the Pink Horse and Touch of Evil), Halliday is on his trail... but the problem is, so is his superior – Captain Vincent Blake (William Bendix), who, of course, thinks it was actually the Lieutenant who ran off with the money.
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Star Pick with Riley Wheeldon
Be Happy With GilmoreHappy GilmoreAugust 28, 2013Last Tuesday, I was lucky enough to play in the Pro-Am Golf Tournament that was part of the week long festivities of the PGA Canada Tour event known as the Great Waterways Classic which was held at Upper Canada Golf Course in Morrisburg. The weather was beautiful, the course was in excellent shape, and our group teed off with pro golfer Riley Wheeldon – who, as of today, is the top moneymaker on the Canadian Tour this year. It was a superb day full of memorable moments and it did not take too long before the conversation turned to movies. It may be no surprise but Wheeldon’s favourite film of all-time is the classic 1996 golf comedy Happy Gilmore.
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The Attempt at the Perfect Heist
The KillingAugust 16, 2013We are now officially into the dog days of summer. Fall is in the air and it is time for my final film noir of the summer. Many movies have depicted the attempt at the perfect heist, but there are few that are as influential as the 1956 Stanley Kubrick motion picture The Killing. Kubrick, who is best known for later films such as The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and 2001: A Space Odyssey, both wrote the screenplay and directed this classic gem, with assistance from Jim Thompson – who helped write the dialogue (Thompson has become an iconic pulp crime fiction novelist [The Killer Inside Me] – gaining fame after his death in 1977).
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King Arthur Tale Told in All of its Glory
ExcaliburAugust 14, 2013There have been many attempts at turning the King Arthur legend into film – from bloated action tales and Cold War bewilderment (where the villains wear Soviet Union red outfits), to animated Disney classics, but the movie that best captures the true essence of the historic tale is the 1981 John Boorman (Deliverance) epic Excalibur.
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What’s in that Box?
Kiss Me DeadlyAugust 7, 2013Fans of Quentin Tarantino and his iconic crime thriller Pulp Fiction may remember the cryptic glowing briefcase with the lock that is opened by the number 666 which is held by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. This mysterious plot device was borrowed from one of the last great film noir pictures from that genre’s classical era, 1955's Kiss Me Deadly. Similarly, this gimmick was also used (but this time in the trunk of an automobile) in the Alex Cox 1984 cult classic Repo Man, starring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez.
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Ghostly Fun
Blackbeard's GhostJuly 23, 2013For almost 100 years, Disney has entertained family audiences with their amazing live-action and animated films. One of my favourites is the oft forgotten 1968 pirate tale Blackbeard’s Ghost.
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On a Hot Summer’s Night
Double IndemnityJuly 15, 2013One of my favourite genres is the short-lived film noir category, which lasted through the 1940's and petered out towards the end of the 1950's. It grew from the German expressionism period of the 1920's and was compounded by the anxiety and cynicism that came out of World War II. Named by French critics who were describing the black-and-white Hollywood crime movies of the 40's, this is a unique genre that captures a much darker, cynical and more vicious world than most other films from this period.
