1/17/2024 0 Comments Mother load movie![]() “This country is no place for a Bonnie Lass like you.” Mancuso isn’t buying it and Heston is wary of just what the young couple are looking for. He’ll verbally spar with Mancuso talking of little gold left but enough silver to make a meager living. That’s what you get from an effective Heston who threatens one moment before going soft on the couple and talking of the years of struggle battling the mine that runs beneath “his” mountain. Think of Bogie still alive and protecting his Sierra Madre mine after thirty years. The duo will meet a heavily bearded Chuck Heston sporting a Scottish accent shortly thereafter. Insert the actors swimming to shore and it won’t be long before they hear the sound of bagpipes coming from higher up a cliff face. Thankfully no one was hurt but the footage is so impressive it was inserted into the film with a quick rewrite from Fraser Heston. It actually crashes and cartwheels landing upside down and sinking. The filmmakers happened upon a stroke of luck when filming the pontoon plane approaching a secluded lake that will serve as the backdrop for the majority of the film. He’ll serve as the character who warns of going any further up river looking for gold. Mancuso’s plane isn’t exactly reliable and an emergency landing brings the pair into contact with crusty John Marley. It’s the plane trek inland that allows Heston to strap a camera to the plane’s pontoon as it journeys over some glorious looking lakes and forested areas of our west coast province. Cut to a rebellious Mancuso walking off his job and in quick order, meets up with Kim and they’re off to track his pal and her boyfriend who seems to have gone missing while hunting for gold in the forested mountains of B.C. With a hint of what is to come a barely breathing man is pulled from the rubble of a collapsed mine only to have a pick axe planted firmly in his chest. “You stay the hell out of my mine, Laddie!” Interestingly, it’s Joe who doubled for Heston in the now famous chariot race in Ben-Hur while dad, Yakima, worked the second unit for director Willy Wyler. Mother Lode is a beautiful looking film written and produced by Chuck’s son Fraser with second unit work done by Joe Canutt, son of famed stuntman Yakima. ![]() Raised in Canada, the Italian born Mancuso has long been associated with this country’s acting community which includes appearing at the world famous Stratford Festival here in Ontario, just twenty minutes from my doorstep. ![]() Which brings me to this Charlton Heston directed feature made in the interior of British Columbia that also sees the iconic actor taking the lead opposite a young Kim Basinger and Nick Mancuso. I believe this is the fourth year that the ladies have donated their time and energies to all things Canadian besides ordering up a large double double of Tim Horton’s coffee. Thanks to a couple of movie crazed bloggers living in Canada, Kristina of Speakeasy and Ruth of Silver Screenings, there exists the O’Canada Blogathon which celebrates all sorts of film related topics that have to do with the country I’m proud to call home. ![]()
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