 |
| The Colours of War Matt Cohen Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1977 |
 |
| The Colors of War Matt Cohen New York: Methuen, 1977 |
Related post:
Conan - Conan the Valorous
2 hours ago
01 December 2012
The American Version: No Colours, Fewer Colors
28 November 2012
Bilingual Today, French Tomorrow and the Bigots of Yesteryear
Bilingual Today, French Tomorrow:
Trudeau's Master Plan and How It Can Be Stopped
J.V. Andrew
Richmond Hill, ON: BMG, 1977
137 pages
This review now appears, revised and rewritten, in my new book:
The Dusty Bookcase:A Journey Through Canada'sForgotten, Neglected, and Suppressed Writing
Available at the very best bookstores and through
Related posts:
25 November 2012
23 November 2012
A 19th-century Céline Dion and Her Horrible Hunchback Husband
'The Lane That Had No Turning'
The Lane That Had No Turning
and Other Tales Concerning the People of Pontiac
Gilbert Parker
New York: A.L. Burt, 1900
This review now appears, revised and rewritten, in my new book:
The Dusty Bookcase:A Journey Through Canada'sForgotten, Neglected, and Suppressed Writing
Available at the very best bookstores and through
Related post:
20 November 2012
Harlequin Blondes: Terror Struck Them Dumb
 |
| Blondes Don't Cry Merlda Mace 1949 |
 |
| The Pale Blonde of Sands Street William Chapman White 1950 |
 |
| Come Blonde, Came Murder Peter George 1953 |
 |
| A Body for a Blonde Ken McLeod 1954 |
Related post:
19 November 2012
The Kidnapping of the President Comes to Canada
Shooting didn't begin until the autumn of 1979, by which time the budget had risen by fifty percent. But even $4.5 million didn't buy much. The film features no rally in New York's Herald Square, there are no shots of a Brink's trunk racing up Broadway, nor is there a stand-off witnessed by tens of thousands in Times Square. Instead the kidnapping takes place in Toronto, with a "Bank's" truck moving at a jogger's pace from one end of Nathan Phillips Square to the other.
You can see all forty-seconds of the chase in this YouTube snippet:
I fall in line with most critics in finding Miguel Fernandes' performance strong and Hal Holbrook's steady. Canadian science fiction novelist William Shatner, fresh off the set of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, seems unusually restrained. Van Johnson and poor Ava Gardner contribute kitch as the Vice-President and his wife, but what really attracted my attention was Aubert Pallascio as "the Prime Minister"...
... a character clearly modelled on this man:
The fun continues with unknown Virginia Podesser as "the Prime Minister's wife". An old Canadian Press story reports on her trials:
Strangers in the street demand her autograph. Photographers hound her in clubs and restaurants. Stewardesses stare at her on flights.
And occasionally, some particularly aggressive fan refuses to believe her assertion that she is not Margaret Trudeau.
She's not.
Virginia Podessar [sic], a Toronto model, just looks remarkably like her.
And she did. The accompanying photograph – which captures the uncanny resemblance – comes complete with a Ripley's Believe It or Not-style caption:
 |
| The Regina Leader-Post, 15 September 1979 |
The Kidnapping of the President turned out to be Ms Podesser's only film.
Director George Mendeluk's next two movies were Doin' Time and Meatballs III.
Related post:
15 November 2012
The Kidnapping of the President for Christmas
The Kidnapping of the President
Charles Templeton
Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1974
Charles Templeton [...] will probably have some idea by mid-November whether he is launched on yet another successful career, this time as a novelist. His meticulously researched first novel, The Kidnapping of the President (McClelland and Stewart), comes out in October; within, say, 90 days from now he'll know whether he's another Arthur Hailey or just a guy who once wrote a novel.
It took at lot less than ninety days.— Robert Fulford, The Windsor Star, 6 September 1974
The Kidnapping of the President entered bestseller lists in the month of its release, then fought Richard Rohmer's Exxoneration and Frederick Forsyth's The Dogs of War to become the top novel of the gift giving season.
Its title pretty much says it all, but I'll expound a bit:
President Adam Scott looks to make gains in the 1978 mid-terms by holding a rally in New York's Herald Square, while Marxist Guatemalan terrorist Roberto Moreno and girlfriend Linda Rodriguez see an opportunity to further their cause. Disguising themselves as Brink's guards, they manage to hustle the President into an armoured truck and race toward Times Square. Linda is dropped off at the subway and, incredibly, manages to blend in with the crowd. Moreno emerges to give himself up, telling the secret service that someone somewhere (this would be Linda) holds a remote control device that can blow up the truck, the President and the ever-gathering crowd.
Hayseeds will appreciate these visual aids from first edition:
Robert Fulford described The Kidnapping of the President as a meticulously researched first novel. Therein lies its greatest flaw. The author shares a whole lot about the Constitution of the United States, its Twenty-fifth Amendment, and the construction of armoured trucks, but this only serves to slow the pace; expending three of 237 pages on presidents who died in office and their respective vice-presidents seems a needless waste.
Though The Kidnapping of the President was written with an eye on the massive American market, Canadians will find some things with which they can relate, like the upbringing of the Saskatchewan born Director of the FBI, the Vice-President's Newfoundland fishing trip and the acknowledged ingenuity of the RCMP. Templeton had a bit of fun with news anchor Robertson Kirk and, I think, Art R. Eagleson, whose chick hatchery the Secretary of Agriculture is visiting on the day of the abduction. I really don't know what to make of Gerry Regan, "Special Agent in Charge of the White House Detail", who in 1974 shared his name with the Premier of Nova Scotia.
This first edition of Templeton's first novel features three blurbs, the first of which comes courtesy of political strategist Dalton Camp. "I guess this must be the biggest caper in Canadian fiction...", writes my favourite Red Tory.
Guess so.
Camp was no literary critic, but I think he had this book pegged. Nearly four decades after it was published, The Kidnapping of the President remains the great Canadian caper novel... but that's not saying a whole lot.
Q&A:
Q: How tempting is this?
A: Not tempting at all.
Trivia (personal): Amongst those tasked with guarding the President is Secret Service agent Gil Busby. He very nearly thwarts the kidnappers' plan with his suspicions about Moreno, but is sidetracked by a collapsing barricade from which he rescues a young girl.
Good man, that Busby.
Agent Busby is only the second character with my surname that I've encountered in Canadian literature. The first, whistling Sgt Calvin Busby, is found in Earle Birney's Turvey (1949).
Object: A slim hardcover, my first edition – signed by the author – I purchased my copy in 1991 from a Montreal Salvation Army Thrift Store. Price: $2.
Related post:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)