The Cannon Film Guide

The Golan
Globus Trotters

The Cannon Film Guide
Volume 1: 1980 - 1984
by Austin Trunick
ISBN 9781629335803

The Cannon Film Guide
Volume II - 1985 - 1987
ISBN 9781729338880

Okay, so some of you may have been asking yourselves why I haven’t been posting any book reviews for over a month. Well, here’s the answer. A very good friend bought me the first two volumes of Austin Trunicks’s outstanding books collectively titled, The Canon Film Guide and between the two volumes, it weighs in at around 1500 pages. I say first two because, as is heavily trailered within the writing, there is a third volume on the way covering the period when both Canon and the relationship of the two owners covered in this period, Golan and Globus from Israel, fell apart completely.

Now, back in the 1980s, Golan and Globus and their version of Canon Films was a watchword between me and one of my best friends for... a complete lack of quality and misdirected enthusiasm. My friend, in particular, loved the Chares Bronson films churned out by Canon but would also extoll the ridiculousness of the studio heads at every opportunity. Truth is, a lot of their product was totally terrible and ill conceived but, everyone always had a few Canon films they loved (for whatever reason) although, as I found out when reading the first of these volumes, one man’s great movie is another man’s poisoned popcorn.

Okay, so the book gives a little background into both Canon before Golan and Globus bought it out and invaded Hollywood... and also their history of making successful films in their own country, pre-Canon. Then, after some background stuff, we get onto the main meat of the two volumes which consists of a chapter devoted to every production in the years stated on the cover, in mostly chronological order (although in some sections, where a bunch of sequels were also made, they are all covered in the same chapter), followed by, in many cases, interviews with some of the key players from the movie in question, be it actor, actress, producer, stuntman, director... whatever.

And this was all well and good because I knew virtually nothing about the majority of Canon movies and have, it turns out, seen very few. While this book didn’t give me the usual long list of films to seek out... it did give me a desire to seek out both Ninja movies and possibly some Chuck Norris movies at some point so... the writer certainly did his job.

Within the pages you will find amazing stories behind the scenes of films which, perhaps, should never have gotten into production in the first place and, because of my relative unfamiliarity with the subject, I didn’t know a lot of these. For example, you’ll find out which Canon actor left acting to find religion and act out parts of the New Testament for church congregations. You’ll find out which Hong Kong filmmaker managed to direct 49 movies with the word Ninja in their titles between 1982 and 1993. There’s the story of how a drunken Robert Mitchum hijacked his own premier by assaulting a photographer with a basketball. And all of this stuff was new to me.

Some of the stories are tragic and ultimately hurt the product... such as when Lou Ferringo was hoodwinked into thinking he was doing pick up scenes and reshoots for Seven Magnificent Gladiators but was actually shooting the second of his Hercules films, with nobody on set allowed to tell him lest he demand entitled renumeration.

Other stories are fascinating... such as learning that the Boogaloo Shrimp from the brilliant Breakdance movies (Breakin’ as they were known in the US) based his dancing style in homage to the stop motion animation of Ray Harryhausen (and, yes, I love the first Breakdance movie and many by Harryhausen so, this was good to know).

Then there’s the downright strange... such as the chronological ordering and shooting of Missing In Action... and why the sequel was shot first but wasn’t yet the prequel. Or the bizarre story of respected auteur director Barbet Schroeder walking into the Canon offices with a small electric saw and some Novocaine, with the intention of cutting off each of his own fingers until Golan and Globus came through with the money they’d promised to make his movie.

And there’s stuff absolutely right up my street, such as how popular character actor Michael Berryman got his first part... a role in one of the greatest movies ever made... Doc Savage - The Man Of Bronze (which isn’t a Canon movie, obviously but, it comes up in the Michael Berryman interview).

Added to all this and a wealth of movies covered is the fact that, although the author seems a little too PC in some places, it’s actually both amazingly well written and, not only that, extremely entertaining. They style of the writing is light hearted and the voice of the author talks to the reader in a way that makes it a pleasingly breezy read, while still being completely informative.

I had only three problems with the book... little niggly things which aren’t really worth mentioning perhaps but... heck, yeah, I’m going to mention them anyway (and I’m not even going to pick him up for not putting a full stop after the brackets which, you know, you really should). Well, two problems because the third one gets fixed in the second volume (I’ll get to it).

Okay, thing one is the section where he mentions one of the Black Emanuelle films. Most people know that, in order to evade the copyright, the Black Emanuelle films spelled the famous name with only one M. Here the author spells it with two, as per the original Emmanuelle Arsan novel and films. Since the spelling is a specific thing to the franchise, it’s perhaps unfortunate that it’s mis-spelled here.

Secondly, one of my all time favourite Canon movie, Bolero, starring the insanely sexy Bo Derek, is ridiculed by the writer when, actually this film should have gone down in history as one of the all time greats! Which reminds me, I need to try and source a good Blu ray of this at some point soon.

Thirdly, the section on the Breakin’ movies has no interview with Lucinda Dickey... who I absolutely adored in those movies. Hurrah, though, that Trunick managed to secure one for the very last chapter in the second volume. Which also comes with the good news that she’s writing her memoirs. I’ll be first in line.

My only other real disappointment was that another favourite Canon movie, aka Sylvester Stallone’s greatest movie Cobra, is not considered a proper Canon film, it was just distributed by them, so it doesn’t get much time in this book. I’d also liked to have known more about the pre-Golan/Globus movies too but, yeah, how thick would these already giant tomes have to be?

All in all, The Canon Film Guide Volumes 1 and 2 are an absolutely astounding read and so well written that it was never a chore to read about stuff I’d never heard of (which was a surprising amount). And the dedication of Trunick actually being able to label most of the video boxes used as illustrations with which shop that rental copy came from, shows real devotion to the subject, it has to be said. So, yeah, this one was a blistering read and I absolutely will be recommending it to people as an overview of the studios output in these years. Just brilliant and I can’t wait for part three to get a release. Fantastic work!