Dave spotlights director David Wellington’s ace psychodrama and bemoans its present-day obscurity.

Unless you were Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg or Pierre David, then getting a Canadian production out into the big wide world was a challenging part of the sales process in the early 1990s. It was certainly the case for Shane Kinnear, the sales coordinator for the Ontario Film Development Corporation, who, in mid-May ’93, found himself in Cannes with the tough task of selling the strikingly titled I LOVE A MAN IN UNIFORM.

An intense character study, early comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver (1976) drew a weary eye-roll, but the film’s premiere during a drab Directors’ Fortnight was enough to kickstart a bit of momentum. A few days later, The Toronto Star reported that director David Wellington had been seen “huddling with Universal’s acquisitions ace, Zanne Devine; among several U.S bird-dogs who were eager to snap the film up.” [1]

It was certainly an unexpected twist in the career of the Toronto-based Wellington.

After reworking the script on the immensely forgettable Zombie Nightmare (1987) for producer Jack Bravman, the legendary American exploitation king rewarded Wellington with his debut directing gig, calling the shots on the quirky Wings Hauser vehicle The Carpenter (1988). While hardly warranting a place at the top table of great Canadian horror movies, The Carpenter was enough to bag the then twenty-five year old a few more homegrown helming assignments which dovetailed with a side hustle lensing commercials.

There’s plenty to admire in the fruitful consistency of Wellington’s early years, but there’s precious little indication that he had a powerhouse sleeper like I Love a Man in Uniform in him.

Centring around the life of bashful but aspiring actor Henry (played with simmering menace by Tom McCamus), the mundanity of his day job as a bank clerk gives way to a once in a lifetime opportunity when the wannabe thesp books the role of a policeman on a lurid cop show. Accessorised with a uniform, nightstick, and the character name of ‘Flanagan’, Henry takes method acting to a new level by buying a police radio and showing up at crime scenes. Inevitably, reality blurs into an escalating brand of fiction for the disturbed thirty-something – and when he’s befriended by an actual cop, Frank (the brilliant Kevin Tighe), things spiral to a shattering conclusion…

McCamus’ bold turn is the foundation of I Love a Man in Uniform. A member of Toronto’s theatrical community and an eight year veteran of the Shaw theatre, his board-treading background is a valuable asset in the formation of such a nuanced character. His Bickle-esque mirror monologues are on the nose, but, ultimately, Henry proves a very different beast. At odds with his dying father (David Hemblen), with whom he’s fostered a fractious relationship, and berated by his boss for persisting with an acting career, Henry craves acceptance from his peers. Awkwardly stumbling over a burgeoning friendship with co-star Charlie (Brigitte Bako), it’s Tighe’s bent lawman who finally gives him the attention he pines for.

Though perhaps slightly underused, Tighe is mesmeric. From a killer diatribe in a diner to a sneering takedown of a dealer – all underline the quality he brings to the picture. Tighe’s presence highlights Wellington’s intuitive sense of pace too as he appears at the precise moment I Love a Man in Uniform needs a shift in tempo in order to land the punch it builds towards.

Shot in and around Toronto across May 1992, Wellington’s familiarity with his hometown is echoed on the screen with some great location work and a bunch of well-shot night sequences by David Franco (Silent Trigger (1996)). In the wake of its success at Cannes, Wellington took I Love a Man in Uniform to festivals in Valladolid, Stockholm, Moscow, and, of course, Toronto before it received a brief theatrical run in the summer of ’94. A few theatres even got into the spirit of the piece with the Nuart on Santa Monica Boulevard promising free entry to patrons who came dressed as a police officer. A-Pix eventually acquired the film for North American home video and dropped it into stores a few days shy of Halloween. The company even kept hold of it for its first generation DVD release in 2000.

U.K. critics received I Love a Man in Uniform with a greater degree of reverence than their stateside ilk, with Jonathan Romney of The Guardian declaring it “a genre bender with a difference” [2]. Hamish McAlpine’s Tartan picked the film up for distribution and even gave it a lengthy stint in British arthouse cinemas beginning late spring ’95.

Fittingly, I Love a Man in Uniform often unspooled on the same bill as Atom Egoyan’s Exotica (1994).

Canada ● 1993 ● Drama, Thriller ● 94mins

Tom McCamus, Brigitte Bako, Kevin Tighe ● Dir. David Wellington ● Wri. David Wellington, Walter Donohue

[1] Cannes Loves our Man in a Uniform by Craig MacInnes, The Toronto Star, 23rd May 1993.
[2] Wellington Puts Boot into Uniform by Jonathan Romney, The Guardian, 9th March 1995.