Dr. McCoy and The Dead

I noticed, in the credits to Canon City, the venerable, iconic, DeForest Kelley -- best known as Dr. McCoy of Star Trek fame. Yes, before Star Trek, Kelley had a career, and appeared in a number of B noirs, and westerns. His first film was Fear in the Night (1947), a noir which starred Kelley and was based on the Cornell Woolrich story "Nightmare".

Fear in the Night appears to be available on DVD by Synergy Entertainment as part of the Synergy Archive Series. On visiting their website (http://synergyent.com/), I noticed some very neat stuff, and some stuff which maybe it would be better if time were to forget.

Canon City, however, appears to be unavailable on DVD -- but you had the opportunity to see it at the Roxie (see previous posting). This series continues until next week, so I highly recommend checking it out.

Maybe DeForest Kelley sticks to the brain because another Star Trek movie has hit the summer blockbuster screen. That's a bad thing, right? Well, maybe not. I've seen it twice already and it brings another Star Trek icon to the screen -- Leonard Nimoy (who appears in the new film). To the best of my knowledge, Nimoy has not played a role in noir.

Speaking of things that are not available on DVD, John Huston's last film, and a brilliant film it is, The Dead (1987) is not in print. It is based on the final story of James Joyce's "Dubliners". In the film, Huston's daughter, Anjelica, plays Mrs. Conroy. This brings the Huston cycle full circle, as The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) let John Huston direct his father, Walter Huston. And speaking of The Dead, Christopher Walken once played the lead role of Gabriel Conroy, in an off-broadway production, which I was fortunate enough to see.

Getting back to Cañon City, Cañon City is not just a movie -- it's also a town in Colorado. And maybe if you aren't going to be attending the Arthur Lyon's Film Festival in Palm Springs (also mentioned in a previous post), you may wish to attend "Western Heritage Days" (May 29th - May 31st) in (you guessed it) Cañon City, Colorado. See http://www.canoncity.com/index.php for more info.