Lentorama 2014: We're Ready for Your Close-Up, Your Holiness

Day 4; Gone with the Pope

The story is pretty straightforward - four ex-cons plan to kidnap the pope and charge $1 per Catholic as ransom - and I've never heard of Lorenzo Dardado, who plays the pope (which makes sense, as it's his only film credit on IMDB). But the story of the film is interesting.

The movie was written and directed by Duke Mitchell, a singer and actor who dabbled in making indie/exploitation films (most notably 1978's The Executioner, which I've not heard of but is apparently a cult fave). In this case, he apparently wrote and shot as he could, using spare film and writing scenes on whatever he had at hand. He also traded on future profits for access to at least one shooting location.

That turned out to be a pretty bad bet for the location owner, as Mitchell died in 1981, almost 30 years before this film was released. In the intervening time all of the material for the film- negatives, rough cuts, etc. - were in a garage. The producers (including Sage Stallone, son of Sly) had to put the film together with what they had on hand (and what they didn't - they were apparently missing several reels of rough cut footage).

What reviews are out there are OK, but I suppose you have to grade on a curve for a film with this sort of production history.