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Paperback Hero (1972)

Director: Peter Pearson

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From Time Out Film Guide

Not at all a bad film, Pearson's portrait of a small-town Midnight Cowboy is precise and convincing. The background of the wheat and cattle town in Saskatchewan is drawn with a conscientiousness that gives the film a rare three-dimensionality; and Dillon (Dullea) is a persuasive hero/victim, a totally unsympathetic character who has swallowed the Big Country myth whole, and is increasingly puzzled to find the world around him oddly out of phase with his 'Marshal Dillon' self-image. Pearson has expertly judged the distance between Dillon in his circumscribed world and the townsfolk in their not unattractive one, never falling into the trap of caricature; his faults are a tendency towards over-explicitness, plus a certain lack of emotional directness and vitality. Visually, the film is almost too seductive, but Elizabeth Ashley is excellent as the ever-waiting girlfriend, and all the smaller parts are uniformly well filled.

Author: VG 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Peter Pearson

Producer: James Margellos, John Bassett

Cast: Keir Dullea, Elizabeth Ashley, John Beck, Dayle Haddon, Franz Russell, George R Robertson full cast

Genre(s): Comedy

Duration: 94 mins


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