Midnight Sting [DVD]

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Filming for Diggstown took place in Montana, as well as in Los Angeles and Sacramento, California. [1] Reception [ edit ] I don’t know. I mean it’s… I’m trying to inspire you. It’s a Roots kinda thing. It’s a motivation thing.” Dern in particular is incredible here, not in an Oscar-winning sort of way — he’s been plenty capable of that throughout his career, of course — but in that B-movie villain way. He knows the movie he’s in, and doesn’t shy away from it at all. The one thing I truly remembered for the decades since I last watched this movie was the way he held his hands while watching the fights ringside, C. Montgomery Burns style: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer I've seen this movie several times over the years and it never gets old. Gossett, Platt and Dern are terrific in their respective roles, but Woods takes every scene with his white suit and smarminess. Rose and Gio dance up a storm in Strictly Come Dancing. Photograph: Guy Levy/BBC 48 Hours to Victory

James Woods versus Bruce Dern was a pretty good casting call for this picture. Both effectively convey the type of smarmy characters that one usually finds behind the scenes of boxing fixes in movies dealing with the subject. As far as con jobs go, this isn't in the same league as "The Sting", but it still has it's moments with twists and trip-ups along the way that momentarily derail, but never stop Gabriel Caine (Woods) from pulling off that final win against John Gillon's (Dern) ringer.

Shortly after Caine tells Roy what went down with Diggs, Wolf, meant to be released from prison, is found dead in a box on the sidewalk in town. Caine tells Emily that Wolf was the one who found out the truth about Diggs and Gillon, and thus was set up and sent to prison by Gillon. Wolf was to be a full partner in Caine’s plan to take Gillon down, and Emily helps in the planning from there, with Caine making sure Wolf is given a proper sendoff with a beautiful funeral. Sam Lester (played by Roger Hewlett), who is secretly given a laxative before the fight and eventually runs from the ring. A mean-spirited man named John Gillon ( Bruce Dern) owns almost all of Diggstown. He is feared by many but also respected because he is the former manager of Diggstown's pride and joy, the once-famous boxer Charles Macom Diggs, the man for whom the town is named.

It's a cast of champs in this drama with comic elements about prize fighting, involving an ex-con James Woods who ends up managing veteran prize fighter Louis Gossett Jr. And bets that he can take on 10 of the top fighters from Diggstown. Of course when you have got great actors like Woods, Gossett and Bruce Dern involved, you've find me an embarrassment of riches, but the problem is that the script has so much going on there's not enough time for real character development outside of the three main veteran actors, and the screenwriters idea of comedy is having one of the competitors dealing with flatulence while in the ring with Gossett. Oliver Platt and Heather Graham co-star, with Orestes Matacena having an important minor role as a mobster threatening Woods over the investment he made on Gossett's side. For a film that has two known titles, it saddens me that Midnight Sting or by its other name Diggstown has been forgotten by the film fan, especially those who love their boxing. For me personally, Midnight Sting (the title I know it as) is one of my most cherished films. I was not happy until I finally had it in my DVD collection where it now stands proud among my horror titles, ok it looks odd next to The Shinning and Straw Dogs, but I do not care, I love this film with a passion and by putting it up on the HCF REWIND, I hope that it catches the eye of our readers who may decide to seek it out themselves. Gillon ends the meeting with an all-hands prayer circle. “Dear Lord,” he begins. “Give us the strength and courage to tear this man limb from limb.”

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Who is it? Well, who else besides the aforementioned Hammerhead Hagan, the one man Palmer couldn’t beat 20 years ago? Hagan is younger enough than Palmer that it makes a big difference, and he’s a real fighter in shape, not some local tough guy. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Gabriel Caine (James Woods) has just been released from prison. He meets John Gillon (Bruce Dern) who owns Diggstown--a town full of boxers. He bets Caine that he can't find a man who can beat 10 Diggstown boxers in a row. Caine finds boxer Roy Palmer (Louis Gossett Jr.)--but he's 48 and might be too old to do it. Hagan pounds Palmer to the point that Caine wants to stop the fight in the corner, which Palmer won’t let him do again. The fights up to now had their little moments, but this one is the first one where we see some really cool fight cinematography and choreography; this is a smart production tactic, because it reinforces the idea that this one, compared to the others, is a sincerely dangerous fight for Roy. It’s a war between two professionals who know what they’re doing, not just Palmer doing his best to take down a series of wannabes who hope he’s gotten tired enough to fall. The majority of Michael Ritchie's early films focused on the competitiveness and ruthlessness of a then contemporary United States. Be it "Downhill Racer" (1969), "Bad News Bears" (1976), "Smile" (1975), "The Candidate" (1972) or "Semi Tough" (1977), all his films during this period are explicitly about competition, American institutions and individuals who put their personal goals (and/or profits) before a team, community or group (or vice versa). Diggstown was a box office flop, but as I said before, seemed to get a bit of a second life on cable through the rest of the 90s. Also known as Midnight Sting, it found at least a small audience, and the requests for me to add this one to the pile are enough to tell me that that small audience still thinks of this movie quite fondly.You get some training montage stuff, of course. Old Roy pulls a tractor and runs on the farm land. He sees Charles Macum Diggs sitting on his porch, and one day even goes to talk to him, or at him, as it winds up. Local Buster (John Short) is being paid by Gillon to spy on Diggs and time his runs, but Caine convinces Buster to fudge the numbers.

Caine congratulates Palmer: "What you did," he says, "couldn't be done." To which Palmer replies, "Now, you motivate me".

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Meanwhile, Caine sets up his bets with the local town owner John Gillon played by Bruce Dern with southern fried menace and local mobster and loan shark Victor Corsini acting as a silent partner on Caine's behalf. Since Fitz as played by Oliver Platt in a laughably clever pool room scene has already prepped the scam, it behooves Caine now to establish the setting with Gillon for the main event. So the aging Palmer shaves his head and gets ready to rumble. He even gets to meet the man who the town is named after while doing roadwork, the nearly brain dead Charles Macom Diggs. This scene and deaths of Emily Forrester's brother Wolf Forrester and Hambone Busby's brother Slim, give the film it's dark edges, but at its center this movie is a lighthearted exercise in One-upmanship. We end with Roy and Caine in the empty gym together, having beaten the odds. They get in a last line each, and then it’s over. Rating: 3.5/5