Friday Night Fights: I Would Rather Watch a Crappy Print of This Cult Film Than Live Boxing Edition

A fight scene, technically speaking, from Alexis Kanner's KINGS AND DESPERATE MEN. Kanner was a solid character actor probably best known for playing the young rebel in THE PRISONER finale "Fall Out," and KINGS was clearly a labor of love for the second-time writer/producer/director/cinematographer/sound technician/editor as well as co-star with the mighty Patrick McGoohan. This one-man-band reportedly started imagining a hostage film in the late '60s, managed to pull a scenario with writer Edmund Ward, shot the film in 1977 and spent years editing it, with staggered debuts across Canada, France, the U.K. and finally the U.S. in 1989. A young Peter MacNeill [a staple of David Cronenberg's movies] and ex-Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's ex-wife Margaret co-star. It's that sort of movie.

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Dear Cinefamily,

Hi, hope all's well with you crazy kids down there. I know you're busy and all, but please track down prints of KINGS AND DESPERATE MEN and Kanner's earlier feature MAHONEY'S LAST STAND for a double feature ASAP. TIA.

best,
-- milo