It's been a remarkably cold winter, made more so by news Friday that Catherine O'Hara had died.
Apparently, she was seventy-one.
The result isn't terribly good, nor is it terribly bad. Deadly Companion is a prime example of Canadian film as it was at the time, cast included. Michael Sarrazin played the male lead, Susan Clark played the female lead, and then we have Kate Reid, Kenneth Welsh, Maury Chaykin, and Michael Ironside. What sets it apart is the inclusion of SCTV cast members.
At nearly two minutes, Catherine O'Hara has the longest screen time as Judith, personal assistant to prominent architect Paula West (Susan Clark). It's a straightforward role, requiring her to act as... well, a personal assistant. Nothing more.
In The Three Roads, the Paula West character is a screenwriter named Paula Pangborn. The screenwriters of Deadly Companion, Thomas Hedley (Obsession, Flashdance) and Janis Allen (Meatballs, Meatballs III), made other changes. The most important involves Sarrazin's character Michael Taylor. In the novel, he is Bret Taylor, an American naval officer whose ship is destroyed during the Second World War. In Hedley and Allen's screenplay, Michael Taylor is a Toronto Star journalist who was kidnapped in the Middle East. He witnessed a colleague being shot in the head by his captors and then had had a gun held to his own head in a faux execution.
Judge for yourself:
The IMDb rating is 4.0, which seems fair.
What is unfair is that it rates half a percent below Blue City, Hollywood's piece of crap 1986 adaptation of the Ross Macdonald novel of the same name.
There have been surprising few adaptations of Ross Macdonald novels. The best by far is Harper (1966), based on The Moving Target (1949). Written by William Goldman, it stars Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Janet Leigh, and Shelly Winters, yet still falls short of being one for the ages.
In 2015, a few months after reading The Three Roads, Warner Brothers announced that it had optioned Macdonald's 1966 novel Black Money with Ethan and Joel Coen writing and perhaps directing!
I don't know where the project stands today. What I do know is that it won't feature Catherine O'Hara.
A damn shame.
Rest in peace, Lola Heatherton. I had such a crush on you.
A query: In the closing credits, Catherine O'Hara is referred to as "Katherine O'Hara."
An error or an inside joke?
Who knew?
She was as convincing playing a pre-teen as she was an octogenarian.
Catherine O'Hara and other SCTV cast members had been on my mind of late due to an Olman's Fifty review of Kenneth Millar's The Three Roads. An early work – so early that it was written before he adopted his Ross Macdonald pseudonym – the novel had been adapted to film in 1980 as Deadly Companion.
The result isn't terribly good, nor is it terribly bad. Deadly Companion is a prime example of Canadian film as it was at the time, cast included. Michael Sarrazin played the male lead, Susan Clark played the female lead, and then we have Kate Reid, Kenneth Welsh, Maury Chaykin, and Michael Ironside. What sets it apart is the inclusion of SCTV cast members.
Not only O'Hara, Candy, Flaherty, Levy, and Thomas, but the King of Kensington!
John Candy was awarded the film's only comedic role as a cocaine pushing inmate of a sanatorium. The other SCTV talents are wasted, particularly Eugene Levy, who is afforded a single line of dialogue. Hidden behind a decorative screen in a poorly lit bar, you'll have to have a good eye and ear to catch his performance.
John Candy was awarded the film's only comedic role as a cocaine pushing inmate of a sanatorium. The other SCTV talents are wasted, particularly Eugene Levy, who is afforded a single line of dialogue. Hidden behind a decorative screen in a poorly lit bar, you'll have to have a good eye and ear to catch his performance.
At nearly two minutes, Catherine O'Hara has the longest screen time as Judith, personal assistant to prominent architect Paula West (Susan Clark). It's a straightforward role, requiring her to act as... well, a personal assistant. Nothing more.
In The Three Roads, the Paula West character is a screenwriter named Paula Pangborn. The screenwriters of Deadly Companion, Thomas Hedley (Obsession, Flashdance) and Janis Allen (Meatballs, Meatballs III), made other changes. The most important involves Sarrazin's character Michael Taylor. In the novel, he is Bret Taylor, an American naval officer whose ship is destroyed during the Second World War. In Hedley and Allen's screenplay, Michael Taylor is a Toronto Star journalist who was kidnapped in the Middle East. He witnessed a colleague being shot in the head by his captors and then had had a gun held to his own head in a faux execution.
There are other differences. I read and reviewed The Three Roads eleven years ago and would be hard pressed to identify them all. The two things that strike early on are changes in time and location: sunny post-war Los Angeles for gloomy late-seventies Toronto winter. So much white! Even the interior scenes look cold.
Judge for yourself:
The IMDb rating is 4.0, which seems fair.
What is unfair is that it rates half a percent below Blue City, Hollywood's piece of crap 1986 adaptation of the Ross Macdonald novel of the same name.
There have been surprising few adaptations of Ross Macdonald novels. The best by far is Harper (1966), based on The Moving Target (1949). Written by William Goldman, it stars Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Julie Harris, Janet Leigh, and Shelly Winters, yet still falls short of being one for the ages.
In 2015, a few months after reading The Three Roads, Warner Brothers announced that it had optioned Macdonald's 1966 novel Black Money with Ethan and Joel Coen writing and perhaps directing!
I don't know where the project stands today. What I do know is that it won't feature Catherine O'Hara.
A damn shame.
Rest in peace, Lola Heatherton. I had such a crush on you.
A query: In the closing credits, Catherine O'Hara is referred to as "Katherine O'Hara."
An error or an inside joke?
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