Three Card Monte (film)

Three Card Monte is a 1978 Canadian crime drama film directed by Les Rose and starring Richard Gabourie as Busher, a small-time con man who meets and becomes a father figure to a runaway kid named Toby (Chris Langevin).[1][2]

Three Card Monte
Directed byLes Rose
Produced byRob Iveson
Richard Gabourie
Written byRichard Gabourie
StarringRichard Gabourie
Chris Langevin
Lynne Cavannagh
Music byPaul Zaza
CinematographyHenri Fiks
Edited byRon Wisman
Production
company
Regenthall Films
Distributed byAmbassador Film Distributors
Release date
1978
Running time
93 min.
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Budget$250,000

The film was written by Gabourie.[1] It premiered at the 1978 Festival of Festivals.[3]

At the 29th Canadian Film Awards in 1978, the film garnered 11 nominations, including Best Feature Film, Best Director (Rose), Best Actor (Gabourie) and Best Supporting Actress (Lynne Cavannagh).[4] Gabourie won the award for Best Actor, as well as the Wendy Michener Award in honour of his all-around achievement as a virtual unknown who successfully wrote, coproduced and starred in his own debut film.[5]

The film was dismissed by The Globe and Mail film critic Jay Scott as being "in the respected tradition of naturalistic, manic-depressive Canadian cinema", and as "less valuable for what it is than for what it indicates that the people involved with it might be able to do under other, more agreeable circumstances."[2] Other critics were more charitable, with both Bruce Kirkland of the Toronto Star[6] and Ian Haysom of the Ottawa Journal[7] calling it a good but not perfect film.

Rose and Gabourie subsequently collaborated on the 1979 film Title Shot, which was more poorly received than Three Card Monte.[8]

References
  1. "Richard Gabourie: Electric confidence". Cinema Canada, January/February 1979.
  2. Jay Scott, "$1.95 Monte is a game bluff". The Globe and Mail, September 19, 1978.
  3. "'A boy next door' plays his cards and hopes for a winner". Toronto Star, September 10, 1978.
  4. "Four films nominated for Etrogs". The Globe and Mail, August 24, 1978.
  5. "Unseen Silent Partner sweeps film awards". The Globe and Mail, September 22, 1978.
  6. "Three of a kind". Toronto Star, September 17, 1978.
  7. "Ladies and gentlemen, the winner is..." Ottawa Journal, September 21, 1978.
  8. Jay Scott, "Title Shot misses both of its targets". The Globe and Mail, September 11, 1979.
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