OK, so, we were all settled in, on our nice un-comfy couch, with a fresh DVD from our bud Tracy all queued up ... and what name do we see on the screen as the opening credits roll for this classic film?
Sorrell Booke????
Really? Sorrell Booke????
OK, John Beck didn't surprise us. Our former Mark Graison of "Dallas" and David Raymond of "Santa Barbara" had a prolific career through the '70s and '80s, and the two aforementioned favorites weren't his only forays on the soapy side, for sure. But Sorrell Booke? Our beloved J.D. Hogg of "The Dukes of Hazzard"?
Yes, indeed. With a bare (hairy) back in a sex scene, no less. (Seriously.) What's the movie, you're now dying to know? Sidney Sheldon's "The Other Side of Midnight," 1977.
Booke is Lanchon, a French businessman with a stern accent who cuts a deal in Marseilles to wed the lead character, Marie-France Pisier's Noelle Page. She's none too happy about the arrangement, and she quickly escapes him, only to fall into the arms of someone far more treacherous, Beck's Larry Douglas.
Beck is a scoundrel in this film, but he's such a straight-up scoundrel that you really have to wonder if he at all realizes he's doing anything wrong as he loves 'em and leaves 'em and generally deceives his way through the storyline as a military pilot in this World War II setting. He delivers his treachery with the ever-honest look and stance (and charm, of course) of a Mark Graison or a David Raymond. Reprehensible? Yes. Delusional? We're thinkin' so.
Though the movie was considered a flop at the box office, it gave Beck a great, meaty, leading role. And Booke? Well, we knew the guy was multitalented. This one definitely shows another one of Boss Hogg's many facets as an actor.
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