Sunday in the Country

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Sunday in the Country
Sunday in the Country poster.jpg
U.S theatrical release poster
Directed by John Trent
Written byRobert Maxwell
John Trent
Story byDavid Main
Produced byDavid Perlmutter
Starring Ernest Borgnine
Michael J. Pollard
Hollis McLaren
Cec Linder
Louis Zorich
Cinematography Marc Champion
Edited byTony Lower
Music by Paul Hoffert
William McCauley
Production
companies
Quadrant Films
Impact Films
Canadian Film Development Corporation
Distributed by American International Pictures
Cinerama Releasing Corporation
EMI Films
Release date
  • November 22, 1974 (1974-11-22)(United States)
Running time
93 minutes
CountriesCanada
United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Sunday in the Country (also known as Blood for Blood) is a 1974 Canadian-British crime thriller film, directed by John Trent and starring Ernest Borgnine and Michael J. Pollard. [1] [2] It was written by Robert Maxwell and Trent.

Contents

Plot

Farmer Adam Smith decides to enact vigilante justice when he discovers fugitive criminal Leroy and his accomplices Dinelli and Ackerman hiding out in his barn. [3] [4]

Cast

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Savouring (while, of course, 'deploring') Borgnine's excesses, Sunday in the Country ultimately leans towards the asocial convictions of a hero cast in the role of Primal Man: not for nothing his archtypal name, and how else should we read the murder of the two policemen who have (democratically) rescued Leroy from the rigours of Adam's Law? What is left beyond the sweep of this jawbreakingly unattractive philosophy (fit even to give a Peckinpah pause) is, finally, the charisma of Borgnine himself (somewhat exaggerated in his gruff 'manliness', but eminently watchable), Hollis McLaren's ability to inject far more personal charm into an unrewarding part than one would expect, and – albeit overplayed – Michael J. Pollard's full-blooded rendering of a psychotic city-slicker, spitting and clawing all the way to the cemetery." [5]

Variety wrote: "A feature very few serious-minded critics could like, it tells the story of a grandfatherly farmer who takes vengence into his own hands. ... Ernest Borgnine is the seemingly gentle farmer who turns the tables, and Michael Pollard is a zonked-out murderer, hated by his colleagues, and for the most part left in the film to drool in large spasms of uncontrolled overacting. Newcomer Hollis McLaren, as the farmer's granddaughter who is shut up when she wants to call for the police, looks the part, but is in need of acting lessons. Giving this feature a better-than-B look is handsome camerawork of Marc Champion and for the most part cool, crisp direction from John Trent. Much of the dialog is banal and takes the place of real insight into the characters." [6]

In his 2003 book A Century of Canadian Cinema, Gerald Pratley identified the film as one of the key progenitors of the trend in 1970s Canadian cinema to cast higher-profile American stars in lead roles to improve the film's international marketability. [2]

References

  1. ↑ "The Stick Up". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 29 December 2025.
  2. 1 2 Gerald Pratley, A Century of Canadian Cinema. Lynx Images, 2003. ISBN   1-894073-21-5. p. 211.
  3. ↑ Jim Clements, "Two hours of entertainment". Hamilton Spectator , March 29, 1975.
  4. ↑ Harris Kirshenbaum, "A Sunday in the Country". Cinema Canada , 1974.
  5. ↑ "Sunday in the Country". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 42 (492): 39. 1 January 1975. ProQuest   1305836027.
  6. ↑ "Sunday in the Country". Variety . 278 (9): 20. 9 April 1975. ProQuest   1286142543.
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