Yesterday's Hero

A prime piece of late 1970s' fluff starring Ian McShane as a (sort of) George Best character and Paul Nicholas as a wealthy pop star who has bought into a football club (I'm guessing this part of the film was inspired by Elton John's involvement with Watford FC). Written by renown football expert Jackie Collins, and also starring Suzanne Somers as Cloudy, the type of female character name you could only get in a film written by Jackie Collins ...with Alan Lake in all his medallion man glory, who appears to have done more lines offscreen than he gets onscreen.

Whereas most movies with Jackie Collins' name attached to them were ubiquitous during the VHS era (especially 'The Stud' and 'The Bi*ch') this one mysteriously never made it to video in the UK, but has been dusted off a few times recently by Talking Pictures TV.

YESTERDAY'S HERO is a slightly schizophrenic film; there is the engaging plot concerning the washed-up, boozy ex-professional footballer played by Ian McShane, and the "pop stars" plot concerning Adam Faith and THREE'S COMPANY's Suzanne Somers.

Both Faith and Somers are adequate actors, but their awful pop music performances are laughable and interminable. Somers must have had some influence in the production, as no sane filmmaker would have featured her endless, insipid stage performances which fill so much screen time. Somers prances and twists around embarrassingly while singing stupid songs, and Faith does his usual ho-hum pretty boy stuff. Fast-forward through their songs unless you are die-hard fans, and you will actually have a nice little character study which is fit for more than one viewing.

McShane portrays the soccer player character with his usual capable aplomb, giving the character a dark pathos and haggard appeal. A film made today, especially in the US, would have cast someone fit and beautiful in the role. It is satisfying to see McShane's scrawny build and tired, convincingly hung-over face in the role, as he truly seems to inhabit the character in the film.

Trivia for McShane fans: Ian McShane's father, Harry, played for Manchester United and other professional teams during the 1950's and 60's. Ian flirted with becoming a soccer player as a youngster but today his fans are happy he wasn't good enough to make the grade.

This is one of those upbeat 70s movies about an alcoholic football player who's career is on the skids, but for some unfathomable reason he is given a second bite of the cherry.

This has to be one of the least known UK football movies and based on my viewing it's easy to see why. Simply put there is more disco than football. And I mean there's a lot of it. And it's not even good disco, it's very bad disco. It's the worst kind of disco imaginable. The reason there is so much bad music is that the owner of the team just happens to be a singer. So we have to endure disco when he sings.....but also during any of the football scenes. So it's a double disco endurance test.

The cast are basically a who's who of every bad male 1970s UK TV actor around. They look so out of place in a movie. Even McShane seems disinterested.

Fans of football movies look away, it may serve as a snapshot of the worst UK fashion and music scenes of the 70s, but that's basically it.

Maybe because it was written by a famous female author much of the so called action is centred around the protagonists love life, but even that aspect is pretty flat.

Maybe watch it to say you have seen it but you have been warned, it's a bit like being stuck at a wedding dance and the DJ only has obscure disco tracks he enjoys but nobody else does, and every now and then you have to listen to an old drunk tell you about how they could have been a great footballer. Head for the exit!

British-Australian co-production has former football (soccer) star Ian McShane, grizzled, out-of-shape and boozing, offered a comeback opportunity; he gets support from football club chairman Paul Nicholas and his girlfriend, pop singer Suzanne Somers, who once had a fling with McShane during his glory years. Would-be feel-good drama (written by Jackie Collins, of all people!) with schizophrenic ingredients, such as the overlong disco numbers which come butting into the narrative like television commercials. A decent actor, McShane gives the picture whatever interest it has; there is no energy, and the plot comes to a foregone conclusion. Somers, wearing clothes "from her closet", seems to have been beamed in from an entirely different program (as if two TV stations got jammed together). A dogged underachiever, one that went unreleased in the States despite Suzanne's popularity at the time from "Three's Company". *1/2 from ****

One of those films so utterly banal and predictable as to be almost enjoyable on that account alone, the soccer world of Yesterday's Hero seems now nearly as distant as that of the superior Arsenal Stadium Mystery of forty years earlier. A time when virtually all weekend games kicked off at 15.00 on a Saturday, muddy pitches on some grounds from early winter on, teams rather than 'squads' and when you could pronounce all the players' names. A wealthy owner signing a player over the head of the manager would also look absurd back then, but now seems commonplace, so in that regard the film is prescient.

Not a big fan of Ian McShane but he's excellent here, giving the only really convincing performance and blends in well with the footage from the Forest/Southampton League cup final. (To me he has a passing resemblance to the superb England goalkeeper of the era, Peter Shilton.) Neither Adam Faith nor Paul Nicholas were great actors to say the least, the latter also turning up in another Jackie Collins' epic The World Is Full Of Married Men, released shortly prior to this. So for fans of Ms Collins and Mr Nicholas, 1979 was their year.