shadow of a pale horse (1960)

baby boy. baby

the "is this worth watching for lawrence dane" rating: 5/5

this is the role that launched his career. the apparent controversy over its content certainly helped, but he really does give a terrific performance here considering he would've been just 22 and still new to acting. (it was filmed in january of 1960, according to the director's account, and his 23rd birthday would have been that april.) he's a bit limited by the dire straits his character finds himself in, so he's not given a lot of substantial dialogue but when he needs to deliver real emotion then BOY does he deliver. also he is just so handsome here; when you combine this with his friend gordon pinsent describing him as "the Very Tall, Dark, and Ruggedly Handsome Lawrence Z. Dane" with a tendency to be "immediately drawn to the most beautiful girl in the room" when they were working together on another 1960 production, it's easy to believe he had plenty of luck with his flirting.

the other actors are good, especially the man who plays rigger (father of the man dane's character is accused of killing). it's a stage-y production because it is meant to be a televised play, and it's interesting seeing how theatrical styles and expectations have changed since the 1960s.

the plot: in a remote australian mining town during the 1800s, a man's son is found dead. near the body is a drunken young ex-convict named jem, played by dane. the boy's father wants to hang jem right then and there, but jem is defended by his boss and the father is persuaded to hold a trial instead. in an attempt to ensure fairness, jem's boss is assigned to prosecute him and his defense is left in the hands of the dead boy's father.

spoiler alert, jem is hanged. if the viewer wasn't already dismayed by the sense of injustice suggested throughout the play, dane's performance makes it pretty upsetting. this was the crux of the controversy - the show's sponsor, General Motors, felt that the scene was too graphic and pulled its sponsorship but the CBC decided to air the show anyway. all of the reviews at the time mention this and praise the CBC for pushing through.

however, the version i got from LAC includes the sponsorship! (i also had to do some editing because it was digitized with a couple scenes out of order somehow but anyway.) given the director's description of the filming, i think the LAC version was a slightly censored re-run. that said, being able to see, what, 99% of it is enough to make me agree with the reviewers who took notice of him. david macdonald wrote for the ottawa journal that "A group of Australian outlanders hanged a young Ottawa actor on television the other night and a star was born." he went on to quote the director paul almond saying "Larry Zahab is a very powerful actor. I have great hopes for him" and editorialized that "Indications are that Mr. Almond's hope has not been misplaced." gordon bell with the calgary albertan wrote that "The debut of young Ottawa actor Larry Zahab on the national TV scene marks the opening of a potentially fine acting career." i'd like to think they were both right, even if he didn't land very many leading-man roles.

and about the director's description of the filming.... according to a lengthy anecdote in almond's book "the inheritor", dane decided to pull the mother of all pranks and pretend that a harness malfunction led to him being well and truly hanged while this was being filmed essentially LIVE. talk about good method acting i guess?? i love what this tells us about him lol. becoming an actor certainly helped him get over his shyness quickly by any rate.

this is a crucial part of his filmography and personal history and i'm so glad i could finally witness it. in order to respect the agreement i signed with the CBC/LAC and not be blacklisted as a researcher, lol, i will not be hosting this anywhere online for now. please contact me if you are interested in viewing this production.

highlight: just look at those gorgeous eyes. wish it weren't fading in from another shot but still. beautiful man.




( he's a gem as jem )