Mother Lode (1982)

Charlton Heston's Mother Lode is one of those neat flicks that not only is filmed in my hometown of Vancouver (like every movie ever) and the surrounding British Columbia region, but is also set there as well. It's an entertaining, if slight little adventure story that's perfect to put on for a rainy afternoon on the iPad. Heston, in addition to both writing and directing, plays two roles here, but it's a bit of a sly trick saying that because he mostly appears as one, and only briefly as the other, but no matter, the old pro works his butt off to steal every scene. He plays loner mountain man Silas McGee, an eccentric prospector whose stairs don't quite reach the attic, living alone in the wilderness looking for that perfect gold strike. The excellent Nick Mancuso, in a role originally meant for James Brolin, is Jean Dupre, a cocky bush pilot who heads McGee's way with his high strung girlfriend (Kim Basinger), looking for a fellow pilot who got lost and a little of the gold stuff for himself while he's at it. As soon as they run into McGee it's clear the old dog is crazy as shit and not to be trusted, creating a nice atmosphere of isolated paranoia and mystery as the man's true intentions come to dark light. Mancuso is always terrifically intense and so great at subtle comic moments, this is one of his great early roles and not to be missed for any fan. Poor Basinger suffered a miscarriage while production was underway and as such seems understandably distracted, but she's a trooper and carries her end well. Heston either does a brilliant Scottish accent, a slipshod one or a bit of both, it's hard to tell with his rapid fire banter and eloquent, robust verbosity. He's electric though, and freaky as all hell as the type of dodgy fellow you better pray you don't run into out there. The action is pretty run of the mill and the film loses the tautness a thriller like this should have in parts, but it's solid enough to not change the channel. For B.C. residents it's an absolute treat though, especially as Mancuso's rickety float plane arcs up over the Vancouver harbour towards the Cassiar mountains and we get to see what our city looked like back in the 80's. Cool stuff.

Although Charlton Heston does a fine job directing and starring in a project that his son Fraser created I think that this was a film Robert Mitchum should have done. With Mitchum's superb ear for accents and mimicry of same I'm sure the crazy Scotsman that Heston played would have really been special. I'm sure Heston had to work hard to get the right inflection.Nick Mancuso and Kim Bassinger are a pair of 20 somethings who go to some wild rural country in northern British Columbia looking for a geologist friend who went missing. Mancuso of course is also thinking of the gold he was looking for, in fact he's hoping to discover a legendary Mother Lode. Bassinger ain't immune to gold fever either.When the rickety plane the two are in makes a forced landing, they meet both a kindly John Marley and later Charlton Heston, a crazed Scotsman prospector who will do whatever it takes to keep outsiders out and if they get in, see they don't get out. Heston who is usually gaunt and serious playing historical figures gets a real good chance to bug out like crazy playing one of two villains in his career that I've noted.Director Heston really took the brakes off on this one. I've never seen Charlton Heston chew scenery before. But here he feasts on it like a steak dinner at Peter Luger's.For a different Heston, his fans might want to see Mother Lode.

Dull, dingy and irritating. An incredibly weak script is at the root of this films problems. It really seemed to drag on interminably as various characters pursue each other through barely visible scenes up and down mine shafts. Some nice scenery, shame about the film.

I rented this movie on video in 1984. It instantly captivated me that I wanted to watch it again, but on returning to the store to rent it I found that they had sold it on. I remember this movie as a classic, the title didn't do enough to sell the film which in my opinion should have been listed with the best sellers. The first class acting of Charlton Heston made this one of the few movies on my, to see again list. To those who have not yet seen it, It's a must.