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!

Electric Boogaloo - The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

Semi Golan

Electric Boogaloo - 
The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
2014  Australia/USA/Israel/UK
Directed by Mark Hartley
Seen as part of the London Film Festival on Saturday 11th October

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. It’s really unusual to find a documentary film which hasn’t got a very specific agenda being pushed through the movie. Music or a one sided kind of attitude to the selection of footage to fit in with the film makers' ideas of what he or she wants to say is usually the standard for these kinds of affairs. I’m not saying that it’s a particularly bad thing to push an idea through a study of specific angles to push you own ideas, and there’s certainly an art to that, but it’s refreshing to come across the odd one which doesn’t seem to have too much of a personal agenda and so it is with Mark Hartley’s new film Electric Boogaloo - The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films. 

The film tells the story of Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus and the meteoric rise and eventual fall of their famous Cannon company, which it seems they bought rather than started from scratch with (something I didn’t realise). I was pleased to see the first screening of this movie in this country (to my knowledge) and there was an introduction followed by a post-screening Q and A with the director which is interesting in light of the seeming lack of specific bias in the movie.

The director told us that, while the project started off as a kind of “hero” project, as he began to delve deeper and uncover more alarming professional behaviour (for want of a better term) from the dynamic duo who were mainly known for trash movies... the film took on a very different shape. That being said, I think the tone is less negative than fun and he does show many a “talking head” real life personality with conflicting reviews. I didn’t personally find the movie that negative and one of the pair’s personal assistants from that time, who happened to be an audience member but who participated a little in the Q & A, took pains to point out that, while a lot of the people who had worked with the pair in the film were quite unflattering in their comments and judgement of the two... Golan rarely, if ever, said something that negative about the people working for them.

The film starts off with a really fun filled opening credits sequence which does set the tone for the piece quite nicely and while there are many a conflicting comment on show in the film, if it could be said that the director had any kind of personal agenda on this film at all, then that would probably be to make a fun film and, given the amount of really terrible movies that got made under the Canon brand, he certainly had a lot of good, laugh inducing material to work with, it has to be said.

The film is basically just put together as talking heads intercut with clips which often support the particular agenda of the person speaking at the time but, as I said, rarely... if ever... takes sides. The talking heads include some great people too, such as Lucinda Dickey, Shabba Doo Quinones, The Boogaloo Shrimp, Franco Nero, Cassandra Peterson, Richard Chamberlain, Martine Beswick, Sybil Danning, Bo Derek, Dolph Lundgren and Alex Winter (I could go on here but it would quickly turn into a list article... and you know I rarely do those).

There are some fascinating stories on hand such as one of my personal favourite Cannon movies Breakdance (aka Breakin’ in pretty much all other countries apart from the UK) but I was very disappointed that Lucinda Dickey and her male leads really didn’t get along in real life. Which is a shame. Now I’ve always loved that first movie but never really took to the second movie, which the title of this movie obviously cribs from... Breakdance 2: Electric Boogaloo (aka Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo). That being said I was kinda pleased that the main stars of the two films also hated the second one... so that makes me feel validated somewhat. It was also good to hear Cassandra Peterson (yeah, that’s right, Elvira -Mistress Of The Dark herself) talk about her complete lack of stunt double when she was working on the King Solomon’s Mines sequel Alan Quatermain And The Lost City Of Gold. It’s not a film I’ve gotten around to seeing yet (it’s on the to watch pile, I bought them both when I found out Elvira was in one of them) but when I do I’ll definitely be watching a particular sequence with a certain amount of insight into safety issues.

There was also a lot of stuff I’d have liked to have heard more of. There were a lot of actors mentioned, for instance, who didn’t have any input into the documentary. Chuck Norris, Sylvester Stallone and Gene Hackman (for the Superman IV: The Quest For Peace debacle) spring to mind and, when somebody in the audience asked the director who he’d tried to get a hold of during the production of this film to talk about the Golan and Globus partnership, he did say that he’d contacted everyone and pretty much anyone who we don’t see speaking in this documentary declined. Which I think is a little telling?

I personally would have liked to have had a little window onto the nefarious financial practices the two are supposed to have indulged in to keep their company afloat and their productions going... but the director also answered another question fielding this in which he said that there was a lot more on this stuff in the original cut but that he's had to remove it for legal reasons. Which I think also says a lot.

However, there was some pretty great stuff in here and I loved the fact that the director spent some time on Lifeforce (which Hartley admitted to loving himself... something which I heartily approve) and was pleased that, to counter all the negative things people were saying about the two (and with good reason, from what I can understand... somebody I know was afraid this film might lionise Golam and Globus but it certainly doesn’t do that), he also included acclaimed director Franco Zeffirelli saying, whole heartedly, that Golam was the best producer he’d ever had. So that was kind of nice.

At the end of the day, while this film doesn’t penetrate quite as far as I would have liked (which is understandable given some of the comments of the director after the screening) it is one of those kinds of documentary films which makes up for it in sheer entertainment value. The audience I was with were absolutely lapping it up and there was a lot of laughter throughout the screening. According to the director the film is hopefully getting some kind of theatrical release from Metrodome next year and that, of course, will hopefully be followed by a home video version where some of the 45 minutes plus of deleted scenes from the movie might find a place in. If there is I’m hoping there’ll be a section on my other favourite Cannon movie, Cobra, somewhere in there. Either way though, if you’re interested in the history of film, then Electric Boogaloo - The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films is another one of those compelling documentaries about a small slice of our cinematic heritage that you should definitely put on your "to watch" list. Great movie.