Thursday 26 January 2023

UN CURÉ DE CHOC (ORTF, 1974)

The new priest of a small French town doubles as an amateur sleuth.

Un curé de choc is a French 26 x 13-minute black and white detective series produced in 1973 by pubcaster ORTF (Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française) and shown daily on its Première chaîne from July to August 1974. In January 1975, the 1st channel was renamed TF1 after ORTF was dismantled and switched to colour (1). Un curé de choc was created and written by playwright, actor and director Robert Thomas. Thomas met fame in 1960 with his murder mystery play Piège pour un homme seul, which was translated in 15 languages and almost became a film by Alfred Hitchcock for 20th Century Fox (2). His first play, Huit femmes (1958, revised in 1961), was adapted several times, including as the 2002 movie by director/scriptwriter François Ozon.

For television, Robert Thomas penned episodes of L'inspecteur Leclerc enquête (1962) and Les cinq dernières minutes (in 1967). He had the idea of the series Les enquêteurs associés (1970). Un curé de choc undoubtedly draws its inspiration from Father Brown, the creation of English author G.K. Chesterton. This amateur detective priest appeared in 53 short stories published from 1910 to 1936 and in numerous cinema, radio and TV adaptations (3). Abbot Daniel is a young priest who arrives in Châtillon-Coligny, a small town in the centre of France, to succeed Father Maximin. When the old man tells him that he has been robbed during the night, Daniel decides to investigate alongside the local gendarmerie. "Le curé de choc" (the character is credited as such) is played by the enthusiastic Jean Sagols. Philippe Arnal, who directed the whole series, noticed the actor as a priest in the TV movie Monsieur Émilien est mort (1973) and gave him the role.

Robert Thomas wrote the 26 episodes of Un curé de choc, where he also plays "Le gendarme" (4). His motorcycle riding abbot sleuth investigates (sometimes in disguise) on cases concerning the denizens of Châtillon-Coligny and its visitors like a missing husband, a vanishing groom, a woman strangled, a former inmate framed for murder or poisoned cats. In an episode, Abbot Daniel assists the police who wants him to crack a code related to drug trafficking. The regular cast includes Florence Blot (Mlle Bergomet), Raymond Jourdan (The mayor), Patrice Gérard (The postman), Gabrielle Doulcet (La mère Poucette), etc. The guest cast is composed of familiar faces from the era: Fernand Sardou (father of singer Michel Sardou), Martine Sarcey, Muriel Baptiste, Claude Rollet, Marc Lamole (La Brigade des maléfices), Pascale Petit, Raymond Bussières, Michel Le Royer, Annette Poivre (wife of Raymond Bussières), Philippe Castelli, Denise Grey, Mary Marquet, Christian Alers (5), Sylvie Joly, Pierre Doris, Jean-Marie Proslier or Anne-Marie Carrière. Actress and comedian Chantal Ladesou, well-known since, appears in a small part.

Devised by a specialist of the genre, Un curé de choc had all to be at least an enjoyable detective drama (even car stunts and a shootout). Regrettably, its episodes range from barely watchable to terrible. The plot is rushed into a 13-minute format instead of two-part stories or 26 minutes. Worse, mystery is often neglected for comedy a la Don Camillo (the films with Fernandel). Years later Terence Hill played a motocycle riding Don Camillo for a film and Don Matteo, Italy's answer to Father Brown, for television. The series soundtrack is actually library music (6) and the main title theme is Father O'Reilly by composer, guitarist, arranger and conductor Sylvano Santorio (under the pseudonym of Ike Matthews). Alain Poinsot is the sound illustrator. Maurice Tournier is the head of production. Video editing by James Bridge. Louis Miaille is the director of photography. Main title design and animation by Jean-Pierre Sornin.

« Les voies de Dieu sont impénétrables. » In the 1982 erotic comedy movie Mon curé chez les nudistes, directed and written by Robert Thomas, Paul Préboist plays a priest named Father Daniel. The following year, Thomas did Mon curé chez les Thaïlandaises with Maurice Risch as Father Maximin. There was an Abbé Maximin in the play Piège pour un homme seul so call that the "Thomasverse". Jean Sagols became a director and helmed a string of hit miniseries known as the "Sagas de l'été" (Le vent des moissons, Orages d'été...) for TF1. Un curé de choc is available in France on Madelen, the SVOD platform of INA.

(1) In France, colour arrived first on the Deuxième chaîne of ORTF in 1967.   
(2) Piège pour un homme seul was adapted for television as One of My Wives is Missing (1976) and Vanishing Act (1986), among others.
(3) The most recent adaptation is the BBC TV series Father Brown, starring Mark Williams. It exists since 2013.
(4) As such in the credits and called "Eugène" in Episode 18. Oddly, there's a "Eugène Martinez as Le gendarme" in the end credits of some episodes. Is Eugène Martinez the name of the character played by Robert Thomas or/and an actor? Un curé de choc is the only IMDb credit of Martinez.
(5) Christian Alers starred in Piège pour un homme seul on stage.
(6) You can hear a bit of the soundtrack of My name is Nobody by Ennio Morricone in an episode.

Tuesday 17 January 2023

ICE BLUES: A DONALD STRACHEY MYSTERY (2008, HERE TV)

Donald Strachey is the quintessential private eye, a worthy heir to Philip Marlowe, but with a difference... He's gay. Ice Blues (2008) is the last of four excellent made-for-TV movies based on a literary series.

Donald Strachey was created by American journalist and author Richard Lipez, who died in March 2022. He was openly gay and wrote 16 Donald Strachey Mystery novels (published between 1981 and 2019) under the nom de plume Richard Stevenson. A posthumous 17th book will be published this year (1). Strachey lives in Albany, N.Y. with his longtime partner Timothy "Timmy" Callahan, the assistant to a New York state senator, and his cases often concern the local gay community. From 2005 to 2008, U.S. premium LGBTQ (2) channel Here TV shown four films shot in Canada and starring Chad Allen (Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman) as Donald Strachey and Sebastian Spence (First Wave) as Timothy Callahan: Third Man Out (2005), Shock to the System (2006), On the Other Hand, Death (2008) and Ice Blues (2008). The last two were filmed back-to-back but Ice Blues is actually the third movie. All were helmed by director Ron Oliver (Queer as Folk, Psi Factor), who brought a substantial dose of his creativity to the TV versions of Richard Stevenson's books (3).
 
Ice Blues is based on the third novel (published in 1986) and was written by Ron McGee. A lawyer gives Timmy 3 million dollars in untraceable Eurobonds for a youth project but he's found dead in Donald's battered car and someone wants the money back. The name of the victim is familiar to Detective Bailey, who faces a ghost of his past. Strachey must protect Timothy from a trio of nasty adversaries composed of the sinister Frank Zaillian, his henchman Somerville and the unscrupulous attorney Brian Lenigan. Ice Blues has some effective action scenes, great comedy moments and excellent dialogues. Chad Allen returns as Strachey with talent, class and a bit of self-derision. The chemistry between the gay actor (outed by a tabloid in 1996) and Sebastian Spence, who's straight and plays his role with ease, is essential to these adaptations where mystery and a film noir atmosphere are combined with romance. This romantic aspect is influenced by the Thin Man movies (1934-1947) and their husband/wife sleuth duo Nick and Nora Charles (4).
 
Another pleasant element of the Donald Strachey Mysteries is the presence of the irresistible Nelson Wong as the enthusiastic and irreverent Kenny Kwon. The role was a bit part in Third Man Out but Kenny returned in Shock to the System to be Donald's secretary ("office manager") and now he's training to be a private detective. Since the last Donald Strachey film, Nelson Wong played characters named "Kenny Kwon" in a long list of Hallmark TV movies directed by Ron Oliver. Fans of both Hallmark Channel and Wong call these participations "the Kennyverse". Daryl Shuttleworth, who plays Albany Police Detective Bub Bailey shows a different side of his role in Ice Blues. P. Lynn Johnson, who  played Timmy's boss in Third Man Out, is back but here the senator is called Lauren Platt instead of Dianne Glassman. Also with Brittney Wilson (Lilah), Sebastien Roberts (Frank Zaillian), Sherry Miller (Queer as Folk, E.N.G.) as Joan Lenigan, Myron Natwick (Brian Lenigan), Adrian Holmes (Philip Banks in Bel-Air) as Somerville, Gordon Tipple (Doctor Who: The Movie) as Arnie Targeson, Spencer Maybee (Eric Lenigan), etc.

Produced by Shavick Entertainment with Here!. Exec produced by Barry Krost and Brad Danks. Produced by Paul Colichman, Stephen P. Jarchow and James Shavick. Philip Webb is the supervising producer. Music by Peter Allen. Cinematography by C. Kim Miles, CSC. Editing by Tony Dean Smith. Production designed by Rick Whitfield. Costumes designed by Karen Munnis with Katie Quinn. The superb title sequence was designed by Krista Lomax. Filmed with the participation of The Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit and the  Province of British Columbia Film Incentive BC. Chad Allen retired from acting (and production) in 2015 to become a psychologist. The versatile Ron Oliver is celebrated today as the king of Christmas movies. The Donald Strachey Mysteries are one of the most important contributions to the P.I. genre on television.

(1) From ReQueered Tales (https://requeeredtales.com/).
(2) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning.
(3) (4) See Bonnie Jean Mah's excellent documentary Martinis & Murder: Inside the Donald Strachey Mysteries (2009).