As I write this (June 1) my lovely wife Barb and I are celebrating our 58th wedding anniversary. We spent the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) in Des Moines, our first out-of-town overnight in a while. The occasion was the Iowa Motion Picture Association’s Film Festival and Awards.

Barb and me at the Fleur Cinema, Des Moines, screening of CAP CITY for the Iowa Motion Picture Awards.

I’ve done well in the past at this event, and this time was no exception. The film I wrote and co-produced, Mickey Spillane’s Cap City, was nominated for, and received, two awards: Best Screen Play and Best Live Action Entertainment (over 60 minutes). As it’s an Iowa event, the awards went to me, but the co-winner is actually David Wexler, the talented director, co-producer and co-star in the film.

Barb and me at the Cap City screening with Iowa Motion Picture Association president James Brockhohn (who acted in many films, including several Cohen Bros productions.

I’ve told the story here before, but – briefly – this is a project that goes back several years, and had been intended to be a film with a million-dollar or so budget – a low-budget indie, not a micro-budget affair. David worked hard to get funding, and we almost had it numerous times. Along the way, I revised my screenplay (changing the male cop to a Ms. Tree-like female one) because of interest from several female stars, and we again came very, very close.

Finally David said he reluctantly would set it aside, and I – who had just shot Blue Christmas for $8000 on one set – offered to rewrite the screenplay so that all the action took place at the crime scene. Where before my detective went all around Cap City (short for Capitol City) talking to suspects, I brought all the suspects to be interrogated at the hotel suite where the mayor had been murdered after a wild party.

We lost some action scenes, but it worked. David was able to put together a six-figure budget and he shot it in Brooklyn, New York, with some wonderful actors. I was supposed to be on set, but coincidentally I was shooting Death by Fruitcake in Muscatine during the same two-week period.

The screenplay that won the award was the one written by me prior to production. David tweaked it for the shoot, once he had secured the location, adjusting it accordingly (and taking co-screen credit). I would gladly do another project with this talented man. I also, as an Iowan in an Iowa film festival, took the sole producer award (for Best Live Action over 60 minutes, essentially Best Feature) though I was (with, David) one of a several.

I will report here when I know where you can see this film, which was very well-received by not only the judges but the audience at the screening at the Fleur Cinema in Des Moines.

With award for Best Screenplay (Cap City)

Barb and I celebrated our anniversary a day early with a wonderful day in Des Moines, highlighted by dinner at the Ohana Steakhouse before heading home.

But a highlight was, after some old-fashioned shopping at a thriving mall, Jordan Creek, watching the new movie Pressure.

Pressure is beautifully acted, written and directed. It is a movie about weather and weathermen (literally air pressure), at its suspense movie core; but the weather in question is whether D-Day could go on June 5, 1944 as planned. The acting is superb, in particular Andrew Scott and Brandan Fraser in Oscar-worthy performances. Writer David Haig and director Anthony Maras really deliver.

This deals with the sometimes uncomfortable collaboration between the American and British military, but also how the stakes faced by these men – making momentous decisions – were the lives of the many thousands of men who they had to send into terrible harm’s way. None of them take it lightly. The film, better than any I can think of, incorporates actual footage of the events with the dramatic depiction of the behind-the-scenes struggles – culture clashes and personality problems. This is done by adept colorization and perhaps some AI restoration.

Ultimately it is a reminder of what a sacrifice that generation made to preserve democracy. Barb’s father fought in the Battle of the Bulge. I’ve written about my father’s wartime experiences in the Pacific in USS Powderkeg. If Japan and Germany had had their way, neither Barb or I would be alive, or our son or our grandchildren.

Pressure is vivid reminder of a time when we still could be proud to be Americans.

M.A.C.