Golf Noir - BANNING (1967)

Imprint Films are lifting an encouraging number of classic titles out from ‘Disc Purgatory’ to HD and Ultra HD formats and among the latest is the quiet-cool 60s drama, Banning – available now on Blu-ray.

Having been kicked off the PGA Tour for match-fixing, former golf pro-Mike McDermott (Robert Wagner) winds up working at an exclusive country club, El Presidente, hiding under a new name from bad debts.

Banning is a film that doesn’t really amount to much, leaving the viewer wondering what the overall point of our protagonists’ journey is. What we have is rather a superficial walking tour of the green, shower rooms, the club sana where Gene Hackman wallows in drunken melancholy, and of course, the bedroom.

There is an odd harmonization of genres, drama and classic film noir, set against the backdrop of competitive and high-stakes golf, which extends to several of our principal characters, some of whom harbour a silent discontentment. While there is no open class warfare like the snobs against the slobs in Caddyshack, Banning feels more related to the 1980s comedy than its panned sequel. Overall, El Presidente is a hive for those who lie, cheat, and use one another for personal gain, which is behaviour that confronts Mike with his past dishonesty and questionable morals.

Wagner delivers a bemused performance as the titular Banning; a cold-hearted handsome devil who effortlessly manages to catch the eye of a few prominent female members, such as the apex man-eater, Angela, played by Jill St. John (the first American ‘Bond Girl’ and Wagner’s real-life wife). For a film that seems very preoccupied with the whiff of heterosexuality, Mike shows little interest in the opposite sex, in fact, there are subtle hints of homoerotic subtext, such as the strange tension Mike has with his colleague, Chris (James Farentino).

SPECIAL FEATURES

NEW Audio Commentary by film historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell (2024)
NEW A Hole in One: Robert Wagner & Jill St. John remember ‘Banning’ (2024)
NEW Members Only: Scoring ‘Banning’ – interview with author / film music historian Jon Burlingame on Quincy Jones’ score (2024)
Isolated music track of the Quincy Jones score
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English HOH Subtitles
Limited Edition Slipcase

If you’re someone who found Banning a bit “pointless”, you’ll gain a new appreciation for the drama after listening to the commentary from Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell. Thanks to the pair’s casual, conversational approach of film analysis, the track is hard to turn off and frequently adds thought-provoking detail of what’s occurring on screen. For a specific deep-dive into the movie’s score, Jon Burlingame provides a brief history lesson on Quincy Jones’ involvement and the difference between soundtrack compositions pre-and-post 1970. Perhaps most enticing is the interview featurette with stars Jill St. John and Robert Wagner who remember time appearing together in Banning fondly!

VIDEO AND AUDIO

It’s always encouraging when a Blu-ray debut comes from a new HD source, and in the case of Banning it’s a 2K scan of an interpositive, which is to quote Wikipedia, “an orange-based motion picture film with a positive image made from the edited camera negative.” The more you know⭐. Suffice it to say, it’s a very bright image with a vibrant colour pallet. Much detail and film grain has been captured by the new scan, including every speck of dirt and strand of hair. This raw quality doesn’t distract but tends to result in rough-looking pictures at times which isn’t helped by periods of audible static during the early parts of the film via the otherwise loud and clear LPCM 2.0 Mono track.

Banning may be only 102 minutes of upper-class fluff, but it’s strangely entertaining through its lack of direction and follow-through (no pun intended). It’s a hard film to assess, but I enjoyed it and would gladly watch it again for its snapshot of late 60s style and sensibilities.

BANNING
(1967, Director: Ron Winston)