I've received many emails concerning this book that people seem to want to buy but are simply unable to find. Dexter by Peter MacAllister is about Montreal's West End Gang, the NDG-area Irishmen known for knocking over banks and then switching over to drug importation when the banks went low-cash. The book is written by a longtime participant and has a lot of inside stories about the hitman Jackie McLaughlin, the murder of Duney Ryan, and other tales such as an attempt to kill a rival which leads to a year of frustration and so forth. I enjoyed it and think it's worth reading so I bought a bunch of never-uncreated hardcover copies from the author and am reselling them, with all my profits going to a charity that supports an educational initiative in the Third World. Contact me for purchase queries at megaforce on the gmail.
Is it comparable to the Main, or that movie Michael Ironside was in (where they actually re-create the Maisonneuve Apt. Bombing? - I still can't remember the name, though I'm certain he was in it, IMDB has proven useless FYI).
ReplyDeleteIf so I'll take one. Actually screw it, I'll take one anyways.
Any ideas re the flick?
The WEG movie was called And Then you Die and was written by Wayne Grigsby with some consultation by Dan Burke who wrote the seminal article in Saturday Night about Duney Ryan. The director Francis Manciewicz was considered one of Canada's best and had a whole lot of racetrack ahead of him but was felled by cancer relative young a couple of years later. That film had a few iconic looking guys in it, including one craggy-faced short guy who played a traitor. The actor who plays cop McGarr also milks his role, that character comes off as a bit of a superman, suggests to me that McGarr himself had an influence in the script. Michael Ironside was not in it. Ironside played in a few Tom Berry films shot in Montreal during that period, including one that ends up an orgiastic scene at the Olympic Stadium in which he gets shot dead in a hail of bullets.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to think I fell asleep during "Mindfield" and woke up watching this And then You Die on bravo several years ago.
ReplyDeleteI remember there were several iconic scenes in the film, aside from the apt bombing. A meeting with an informant in Dorchester Square with 1000 de la Gauche absent in the background, a meeting a the Montreal Pool Room, riding the funicular to the top of the Olympic Tower, a sting at the port etc.
Where can I find the Saturday Night article, and what about this Tom Berry character?
I don't remember the apartment bombing scene too clearly. It starts with guys burying a body and one of them looks guilty as Duney says that he'd kill anybody who robbed rings and jewelry off a buried corpse. There is a scene at the Montreal Pool Room but the Olympic Stadium stuff doesn't sound right and Michael Ironside is not in the film.
ReplyDeleteTom Berry is a local Montreal movie producer who pumped out several B movies a year in Montreal for an extended period frequently using cheesy actors. I interviewed him on my TV show. Very nice guy. I believe he might be in Ottawa now, saw a bit of a movie of his from last year, about Asians in Canada I believe, meant to be wacky but it was not one of his better efforts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2qZy3HVcIY
Just started reading this book. It's pretty hard to put down!
ReplyDeleteAre u still.selling this book?
ReplyDeleteI think I've sold them all, might have one left around somewhere.
ReplyDeleteLooking for a copy also... If you have anything left. Plzzzzzz and thanks
ReplyDelete