Crossover (1980 film)

1980 Canadian film

Mr. Patman

UK VHS cover with the film's alternative title: Crossover

Directed by| John Guillermin
Written by| Thomas Hedley
Produced by| Bill Marshall
Henk Van der Kolk
Starring|

* James Coburn
* Kate Nelligan
* Fionnula Flanagan
* Leslie Carlson

Cinematography| John Coquillon
Edited by| Vince Hatherley & David Nicholson
Music by| Paul Hoffert

Release date

| 5 September 1980 (Toronto Film Festival)

Running time

| 97 minutes
Country| Canada
Language| English
Budget| $8 million[1]

Mr. Patman (also known as Crossover) is a 1980 Canadian film directed by John Guillermin and starring James Coburn.

## Contents

* 1 Synopsis
* 2 Cast
* 3 Production
* 4 Release
* 5 References
* 6 External links

## Synopsis[edit]

A nurse working the night shift in a psycho ward begins to lose his grip on reality.

## Cast[edit]

* James Coburn as Patman
* Kate Nelligan as Peabody
* Fionnuala Flanagan as Abadaba
* Les Carlson as Abernathy
* Candy Kane as Mrs Beckman
* Michael Kirby as Dr Turley
* Alan Mcrae as Dr Bloom
* Jan Rubes as Vrakatas
* Hugh Webster as Wolfe
* Lynne Griffin as Monica
* Tabitha Herrington as Montgomery
* Lois Maxwell

## Production[edit]

The film was based on a script by Thomas Hedley, later famous for writing Flashdance.[2]

In May 1977 James Coburn was attached to the project with John Huston as director.[3]

The film was shot in Vancouver.[4] It was part of the boom in Canadian production due to tax concessions.[5] An article later called 1980 " a year of national horror and shame" for the Canandian film industry, other efforts including Middle Aged Crazy and Circle for Two.[6] Reportedly $500,000 came from the CFDC.[7]

It was one of five films Coburn made over an 18-month period. "Something happened between the first script and the final re-write," he says of Patman. "In being made clearer, the film lost a lot of its charm and character. But the idea of a guy who works in a psychiatric ward, ultimately choosing to live in the madness there rather than the madness in the outside world, really appealed to me."[1]

Kate Nelligan was Canadian, though based in New York where she had achieved great stage success. She agreed to return home to make the movie and help the film be classified as Canadian. Nelligan later called the movie a nightmare, saying in 1983 that "The Canadian film industry is a joke, and we Canadians should be ashamed of it. We passed a silly law to keep out American film professionals, from whom we might have learned something, and to assure that every incompetent film person in Canada could have a job. What we got were horribly incompetent people in top jobs, drunk most of the time, who went to Hollywood and got completely taken in by every agent in town, and in turn screwed every dentist in Canada out of $5,000 in tax-shelter investments. The boom seems to be over now. It was such a monstrous waste of time and money. I can say all that stuff, of course, because I'm Canadian."[8]

## Release[edit]

The film was screened at the 1980 Toronto Film Festival.[9][4] Reviewing it at the festival the Globe and Mail called the film "an honorable failure, honorable because its ambitions are lofty, and a failure because the ambitions are not tied to anything cinematically coherent - if Mr. Patman were literature, it would be a haiku unconscionably puffed into a short story. As a movie, it's a fragile featurette turned into an attenuated feature. Certainly it's good to want to say something, as Mr. Patman clearly does; it's even better to have something to say."[10]

Maclean's said "just when Mr. Patman threatens to turn too heartwarming, it holds back and we respond to it without that put-upon feeling that we’re being coaxed into caring. It’s a thin line to tread but the director, John Guillermin... keeps a tight grip on the material, and the material has been shrewdly arranged, motifs and all, to tear your heart out."[11]

The film was never released theatrically in Canada.[7] It was released theatrically in Europe then re-cut and sold to television in North America.

An article in the Toronto Star from 2001 said "This notable dud was a product of Canada's notorious tax-shelter era when movies were for business write-offs rather than any creative imperative. Shot in Vancouver, it never lets the audience know where we are. A feeble echo of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, the movie had a British director (John Guillermin) and an American star (James Coburn). The screenwriter took his name off it after a dispute with producer Bill Marshall (one of the festival's founders). The movie had a gala slot at the 1980 festival, followed by a quick burial."[12]

Filmink later called it "a really terrible movie, dull and lacking in atmosphere, the first bad picture Guillermin made in over a decade."[13]

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b FESTIVAL OF FESTIVALS Coburn is happy being a 'hooker' Godfrey, Stephen. The Globe and Mail; Toronto, Ont. [Toronto, Ont]05 Sep 1980: P.17.
2. ^ His star rises higher Fetherling, Doug. The Globe and Mail; Toronto, Ont. [Toronto, Ont]14 Sep 1984: E.5.
3. ^ FILM CLIPS: Coburn: Frustrated Director' Lee, Grant. Los Angeles Times 11 May 1977: g12.
4. ^ a b Schabas, Ezra; Mansouri, Lotfi; Hamilton, Stuart; Neufeld, James; Popple, Robert; Pitman, Walter; Jonas, Holly Higgins; Labrèche-Larouche, Michelle; Morey, Carl (December 17, 2013). Dundurn Performing Arts Library Bundle — Musicians: Opening Windows / True Tales from the Mad, Mad, Mad World of Opera / Lois Marshall / John Arpin / Elmer Iseler / Jan Rubes / Music Makers / There's Music in These Walls / In Their Own Words / Emma Albani / Opera Viva / MacMillan on Music. Dundurn. ISBN 9781459724013 - via Google Books.
5. ^ Badly needed: A Canadian movie hit: [SA2 Edition] Sid Adilman Toronto Star. Toronto Star; Toronto, Ont. [Toronto, Ont]13 Jan 1990: G3.
6. ^ CANADIAN FILM IT'S THE REEL THING, EH? Since the horrors of tax-shelter days, the film industry has come into its quirky own, with distinctive tales of life on the margins PEVERE, GEOFF. The Globe and Mail; Toronto, Ont. [Toronto, Ont]18 Sep 1993: C.1.
7. ^ a b Spencer, Michael (2003). Hollywood North : creating the Canadian motion picture industry. Cantos International. p. 159.
8. ^ KATE NELLIGAN - A BROADWAY SMASH, SHE WANTS FILMS Ebert, Roger; Chicago Sun Times. Philadelphia Daily News; Philadelphia, Pa. [Philadelphia, Pa]19 Mar 1983: 13.
9. ^ Schabas, Ezra (October 31, 2007). Jan Rubes: A Man of Many Talents. Dundurn. ISBN 9781550026856 - via Google Books.
10. ^ FESTIVAL OF FESTIVALS Two tales of losers: one's a winner Scott, Jay. The Globe and Mail; Toronto, Ont. [Toronto, Ont]06 Sep 1980: E.1.
11. ^ O'Toole, Lawrence (15 September 1980). "Something to start the heart MR. PATMAN Directed by John Guillermin". Maclean's.
12. ^ Hidden gems and festival misses ; Lots of hype doesn't guarantee a hit at the Toronto film festival, where movies with little fanfare have made it big: [Ontario Edition] Knelman, Martin. Toronto Star 8 Sep 2001: J11.
13. ^ Vagg, Stephen (17 November 2020). "John Guillermin: Action Man". Filmink.

## External links[edit]

* Mr. Patman at IMDb
* Mr Patman at BFI
* Mr Patman at TCMDB
* Mr Patman at Letterbox DVD
* Crossover at Rotten Tomatoes

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by John Guillermin

* High Jinks in Society (1949)
* Torment (1950)
* Smart Alec (1951)
* Two on the Tiles (1951)
* Four Days (1951)
* Song of Paris (1952)
* Miss Robin Hood (1952)
* Operation Diplomat (1953)
* Strange Stories (1953)
* Adventure in the Hopfields (1954)
* The Crowded Day (1954)
* Thunderstorm (1956)
* Town on Trial (1957)
* The Whole Truth (1958)
* I Was Monty's Double (1958)
* Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959)
* The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960)
* Never Let Go (1960)
* Waltz of the Toreadors (1962)
* Tarzan Goes to India (1962)
* Guns at Batasi (1964)
* Rapture (1965)
* The Blue Max (1966)
* P.J. (1968)
* House of Cards (1968)
* The Bridge at Remagen (1969)
* El Condor (1970)
* Skyjacked (1972)
* Shaft in Africa (1973)
* The Towering Inferno (1974)
* King Kong (1976)
* Death on the Nile (1978)
* Crossover (1980)
* Sheena (1984)
* King Kong Lives (1986)
* The Tracker (1988)

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template