The Rainbow Boys (1973)

The Rainbow Boys (Canada, 1973) 90 min color DIR-SCR: Gerald Potterton. PROD: Anthony Robinow. MUSIC: Howard Blake. DOP: Robert Saad. CAST: Donald Pleasence, Kate Reid, Don Calfa. (Potterton Productions)

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Like too many Canadian films, The Rainbow Boys quickly disappeared from theatres in its initial run, and would be fated as TV filler for stations honouring CanCon requirements. (Case in point- my first viewing of the film was the 8 o’clock movie on City TV. Those were the days, when Moses Znaimer positioned himself against prime time network programming with flicks like these.) This was granted a brief home video release on VHS (retitled as The Rainbow Gang, which actually makes more sense), and has never made the jump to DVD, Blu-ray or digital platforms. Well, one hopes that this will change, now that it has been restored. For two weeks, The Rainbow Boys, a zany comedy with an assortment of oddballs who go prospecting in the mountains, was available to stream from Vancouver’s Cinematheque, in conjunction with Zellco Entertainment, in a beautiful restoration, presented in its original widescreen format, so viewers (re)see the British Columbia mountains in all their splendour.

The Rainbow Boys was the first feature for writer-director Gerald Potterton, whose previous career had a long resume of animation for NFB and television. He is also well-known for the perennial favourite NFB live-action comedy short, The Railrodder, featuring Buster Keaton travelling through Canada in a railway track speeder. While shooting that film in Lytton B.C., he was so taken by the village, adjacent to the mountains, where two rivers and the CN and CP conjoin, that he had planned to return some day to make a movie. The resultant film, The Rainbow Boys, is a daffy fable with the lofty crackpot Logan (Donald Pleasence) seeking a rumoured stash of gold in them thar hills, bringing along his would-be soulmate Gladys (Kate Reid) and a hippie named Mazella (Don Calfa) whose motorbike is their sole means of transportation to this alleged motherlode. One could call this a feature-length cousin to The Railrodder, as this trio also zips along the countryside in an interesting contraption, but also their vignettes are often put in relief with the stunning backgrounds. And yet, Potterton’s direction is often simple and unfussy; he knows he’s got some real winners acting out his screenplay, as scenes often play in single takes to let his performers do their thing.

Don Calfa’s motorbike could be inspired by Keaton’s rail car! Like a silent movie sight gag, he seems to pull everything from the hatch at the back of it. Because this vehicle is such a diverting thing, it could be the unofficial fourth member of this crusade. So much it is a character of its own, that when it leaves the movie (without giving anything away) we’re as shocked as though we’ve witnessed the passing of a real person.

Some viewers may lose patience with this leisurely adventure; indeed, one-third of the movie is already over before they head on the motorbike for the hills! With any good road trip though, it’s more about the journey than the arrival. And here, it’s more about the hard-won camaraderie between these three. They’re always on each other’s nerves (well, more accurately, Calfa acts as referee), yet one senses that these people need each other in life. Each scene in their quest for gold results in some misadventure, usually because of Logan. The others withstand his ineptitude… to a point.

Today, Don Calfa is probably known best for his role in 1985’s Return of the Living Dead. But at the time of The Rainbow Boys, he had just made three films with Robert Downey. It isn’t a stretch to think his New York hippie character blew in from Downey’s crazy world. And yet, with his deep-set eyes, and “aw shucks” puppy dog expression, this stranger seems right at home in a strange land. In her delightfully caustic aplomb, Kate Reid’s constant eye-rolling over Pleasence’s crazy dreams do however suggest she has a soft spot for the old coot. Her performance may well remind you of her work as Grace in Atlantic City, in another role of a woman who sees through her man’s lofty ambitions. Her similarly caustic aplomb vented at Burt Lancaster’s Lou Pascal also conceals an attraction. Towards the end, I wondered if she eventually ditched Logan and moved to the boardwalk. And as the lofty Logan, Donald Pleasence is simply great. The prolific English actor had just completed another Canadian film- offering a fine dramatic turn as the family patriarch in William Fruet’s Wedding in White. Here, the versatile actor shows his underused flair for comedy as the unwashed, well-meaning but perpetual screw-up Logan, who curses the world for his misfortune, and always has some monologue about his father’s wartime stories. (Perhaps he is always trying to live up to reputations of ghosts?)

As funny as this film is, one wishes that it didn’t fit so well with Canada’s cycle of “loser” movies in vogue at the time, where nobody ever finds their eventual reward. Although the fate of our trio remains ambiguous, it does end with a howler of a visual punchline.

UPDATE! The Rainbow Boys is now available on Blu-ray, from the amazing Canadian International Pictures.