User Reviews

A couple named Sean (Nick Mancuso) and Andrea (Kim Basinger) travel into of British Columbia looking for their friend George. Then their aircraft crashes and they are helped by a fisherman (John Marley). Later on, they find a Scottish miner named McGee (Charlton Heston)who is searching a mother lode , a chamber full of gold .

The film is packed with suspense intensified by greed, thrills, good performances and marvelous landscapes. It is a bit slow-moving and a little boring because is mostly set into caverns and only a trio of characters . Tour-de-force playing by Charlton Heston as a dual role as twin brothers who live in isolation during decades searching the lost gold and emerging a violent conflict among them. The picture is a familiar venture with Charlton Heston as starring, his son Frazer Clarke Heston as screenwriter and even his daughter Lydia Clarke Heston as still photographer. It is filmed entirely on location in British Columbia with nice cinematography by Richard Leiterman, though is urgent a remastering. The movie is produced by Peter Snell, Charlton Heston's usual producer who financed the three films he directed as ¨ A man for all seasons¨ and ¨Marco Antonio y Cleopatra. Furthermore, he produced him the motion pictures who directed his son, Frazer Clarke Heston and starred Heston as ¨ Island of treasure¨and ¨The crucifix of blood¨. Nevertheless, ¨Mother lode¨is the worst film directed by Heston. Rating : average but entertaining. See this flick if only to enjoy the lush backdrop of British Columbia. It is only for Charlton Heston Heston fans.

Decent wilderness adventure with the legendary Charlton Heston directing himself in a tale of two young people, Jean (Nick Mancuso) and Andrea (Kim Basinger) flying to Northern British Columbia. They do it ostensibly to look for a colleague / friend who'd come there and disappeared, but the lure of a potential windfall in gold proves too strong to resist. Unfortunately for them, already residing in the area is grizzled old Scottish miner Silas McGee (Heston), who's not as friendly as he initially seems to be. Heston, directing from a screenplay by his son Fraser (Fraser was also the producer), does a capable job of drawing us into this story with good acting and well orchestrated thrills; the second unit direction was the work of Joe Canutt, son of another legend, Yakima Canutt, so there are two second generation filmmakers filling out important roles here. The film is well shot (by Richard Leiterman) in claustrophobic settings and paced well. Mainly, it's worth seeing for Heston's fine performance (there's a major twist regarding his character, but you won't hear it from me) as he completely immerses himself in the character and does a good job with the accent to boot. Basinger looks great as usual and she and Mancuso are both quite capable. John Marley is Elijha, the forest dweller who lends some much needed assistance and he's just a delight. This is quite well made technically, with some breathtaking aerial photography and lots of gorgeous rural scenery. Ken Wannbergs' music likewise adds to the overall enjoyment. It's too bad that this little film is not that well known nowadays, but it is on DVD now so more people can discover it for themselves. Not that it's anything truly *great*, necessarily, but it's tense and gripping stuff and entertaining all the way. Seven out of 10.

MOTHER LODE is an all but forgotten tale of survival in the wilderness and the hunt for a golden treasure. I'd never heard of it before I saw it was on TV so I thought I'd give it a go; I quite like Charlton Heston when he's at his most bombastic so I thought I'd see what he was like here.

The good news is that Heston is the best thing in the film and his larger than life portrayal of a mountain man is hugely entertaining. It's a shame that the rest of the film can't match, really, as MOTHER LODE is saddled with a slow-moving plot and some rather unlikeable protagonists. Nick Mancuso and Kim Basinger play characters who seem self-centred and indeed rather selfish and I couldn't warm to them despite their various misadventures. Basinger's screaming soon becomes annoying, too.

What MOTHER LODE does have going for it is some stunning outdoor location photography of the British Columbian wilds. A lot of the aerial shots are simply breathtaking and truly bring to life this rather neglected part of the world (at least neglected when it comes to cinema). It's certainly an amiable enough watch overall, containing a little of that early '80s spirit of adventure that infused the likes of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, although this is much darker and more realistic, and not as entertaining. But it'll do.

Though this review is written 18 years after the fact, this film remains among the top of my all time favorites. Introducing the great wilderness in the manner portrayed within the story was breath-taking and this introduction was significant in eventual Canadian and Alaskan adventures. When films can have such an impact on a person, they cannot help but remain close to the heart. The story was fun & exciting and very well played, yet, hats are off to the big screen impact this film portrayed of the Canadian Wilderness.

Like the title says, you've probably never heard of this under-marketed suspense thriller with Kim Basinger (long before Vicki Vale), Nick Mancuso, and Charlton Heston. It sets up its premise quickly, with a search for a missing man that turns into a tense quest for gold in a played-out gold mine. Nothing terribly thought-provoking; it's not War and Peace, but it's a fun, claustrophobic little thriller with a plot-twist that maybe isn't the most original in the world, but the cinematography is well done and might have you jumping at shadows by the end.

A very long movie that fails to unwind sensibly. This movie has a very strange ending which doesn't fit right except to say that killing people is ok lol. That seems to be the movies take away point. Oh yeah, and that greed is something we laugh at. Haha, greed. It is an odd movie but that doesn't necessarily make it good and despite its reasonable production costs. This movie is a bit different. I couldn't stop laughing when that guy feel down the hole (pause) and you could tell he was crouching in the water. Being a long movie I guess that just made it more prone to dodgy scenes like this. Good for a B movie although it can easily knock you out.

Dull, dingy and irritating. An incredibly weak script is at the root of this films problems. It really seemed to drag on interminably as various characters pursue each other through barely visible scenes up and down mine shafts. Some nice scenery, shame about the film.

If you hate tight, confined spaces and they make you very uncomfortable, then perhaps "Mother Lode" is a film you'd best skip. Now, I am not saying the film is bad...but the later portions are tough because they take place in tiny, tumbling caves.

When the story begins, a dopey guy sells his house and convinces his girlfriend to come with him into the wilderness of British Columbia. Why? Well, he believes that there's gold to be discovered there and he'll get rich. The problem is that getting to this location is a serious problem...and they almost get killed in the process. Once there, they meet up with a crazed prospector (Charlton Heston)...a man who's been digging for gold for nearly 30 years. What's next? Well, a whole lotta danger and suprises.

I'll admit that the film is a bit slow and Heston's performance is a bit out there....but the story improves a lot as the film progresses and the story is quite original.

The unplanned crashing of a pontoon plane is most definitely the high point of this pointless movie. There really is a lot to dislike here. Once the gorgeous opening flying sequence ends, a dark and tedious movie begins. All the characters are unlikable, except John Marley, and all he seems to do is pop up out of nowhere for no particular reason. Charleton Heston's Scottish accent is nothing but a damn annoyance, while Kim Basinger's acting is another damn annoyance. The story, what little there is, reminds me of cartoon characters chasing each other around a dimly lit mine. There is the usual crisis of the minute, and the entire film is so totally unrealistic and unbelievable, that it becomes a meaningless viewing experience. - MERK

Although Charlton Heston does a fine job directing and starring in a project that his son Fraser created I think that this was a film Robert Mitchum should have done. With Mitchum's superb ear for accents and mimicry of same I'm sure the crazy Scotsman that Heston played would have really been special. I'm sure Heston had to work hard to get the right inflection.

Nick Mancuso and Kim Bassinger are a pair of 20 somethings who go to some wild rural country in northern British Columbia looking for a geologist friend who went missing. Mancuso of course is also thinking of the gold he was looking for, in fact he's hoping to discover a legendary Mother Lode. Bassinger ain't immune to gold fever either.

When the rickety plane the two are in makes a forced landing, they meet both a kindly John Marley and later Charlton Heston, a crazed Scotsman prospector who will do whatever it takes to keep outsiders out and if they get in, see they don't get out. Heston who is usually gaunt and serious playing historical figures gets a real good chance to bug out like crazy playing one of two villains in his career that I've noted.

Director Heston really took the brakes off on this one. I've never seen Charlton Heston chew scenery before. But here he feasts on it like a steak dinner at Peter Luger's.

For a different Heston, his fans might want to see Mother Lode.

In 1982, Charlton Heston was doing the rounds with the press for his new film, "Mother Lode." My brother took me up to the radio station where he worked without telling me, and I got the surprise of meeting the actor as he was coming out of the broadcast room. Me being me, I had no idea what to say to him, so I limited myself to "Nice to meet you." He smiled, shook my hand, returned the pleasantry and left for his next appointment. I got an autographed movie poster, and a very short story, out of the deal.

As an adult, I've looked for the movie so I could see what it was all about. Blockbuster never had it, Netflix didn't, neither did Amazon Prime. I finally found it - let us not worry about where - and I watched it.

According to IMDB, this was Heston's last directorial effort, and I can see why. In defense of the work, I can say it's not the worst thing I've ever watched. It's fun watching Heston chew scenery like there's no tomorrow, but the writing is awful, and the sound mixing, ADR, and foley sound like they were recorded on the built-in mic of a Realistic portable cassette. They are, bluntly, the worst I've ever heard, even by the standards of the time. So little compression, oh so much clipping.

No animals were harmed in the watching of this motion picture. None derived any benefit, either.

I remember seeing this movie when it first came out. The opening scene scared the heck out of me. Seeing it so many years later, it still holds my attention.

As is stated already, the cinematography was well done and the acting (particularly by Heston) is first-rate. I thought the director did a very good job of creating an atmosphere that scares as well as intrigues. The story is a good one, the sort that you hear around the camp fire.

And yes, I agree that this should be on DVD. I'd buy it in a second.

A well made movie that stands the test of time.

This is one of those movies which coolly stands alone, and that's a cool admiring, impressive quality. Gold and greed are hard lessons learnt, in this sort of semi thriller, where cool dude actor, Mancuso goes in search of his friend who hasn't returned, from the lakes and alpines of British Columbia, in his not so trusty sea plane. He he pulls some cool hotshot maneuvers in the film's starting, even though it isn't Mancuso doing them. Mancuso is a great, lesser know actor, and I'm a fan of his work. Basinger, who does lack here, in one her early roles, the wife, of the missing friend, tags along, where a dangerous adventure begins. As to Mancuso's real intentions later on, it's kind of murky. Heston, as the baddie, of course rules the film, cause he's well, Charlton Heston, in a splendid evil performance, as a bearded Irish hermit/golddigger, who proudly mutters these writings, and the movie title repeatedly, if to reiterate, the importance of those two, heavily uttered words, . He has a brother who looks very much like, well, Charlton Heston. There are some dead patches in the film, and as to suspense or surprise, there's not much there, but great characters, utilized by some solid acting forces, and some nice sea plane flying, lift it, better than Mancuso's wonky piloted transport. Good, if you want an adventure, and the final shot, is a wonderfully awaited sight. A good night watch. Heston, one mean mother.

Why didn't someone ever tell Charlton Heston to stivk to playing great Gung Ho American lumps. He was so good at that. But then, he didn't really have to act.

This attempt at Caledonia represents a no low in a career littered with miscastings.

Exactly what kind of Scots accent is he trying to effect here?

Scotland contains as rich a variety of brogues as can be found anywhere in the English speaking world. From soft border tones, tough Clydeside, to gorgeous Highland gaellic.

Just curling your lip and saying laddie and lass every few phrases doesn't do it.

A farcical piece of junk.

A great movie, my wife and I's favorite since we first saw it in 1982. We liked the name and the character Ian MacGee so much that we named our first son Ian, who is now 19. Of course, I am of Scottish decent, so I loved the character's accent, and the bagpipes. This movie could have easily have had a sequel, such as going back for the gold through a mountain crevasse. One of Mr Heston's finest performances. My first introduction to Kim Bassinger, and she remains as my favorite blonde bombshell actress. We are also biting at the bit to get it on DVD. Hey, Mr. Heston, if you ever read this, please get this movie on a DVD, it will sell like crazy!!! Love it, love it, love it.

I had seen this movie years ago and wanted to watch but never had a chance. I must say it is indeed quite different than i imagined it to be. I thought it might perhaps be a western. Boy was I wrong. It seems to be in a mystical, almost medieval place created by Heston's character, Silas McGee. Kim Basinger is okay but her part really isn't anything to write home about. Charlton Heston is great, as is John Marley, and this movie could have been great too, except that it focuses on Mancuso, who stinks it up royally. In almost every scene he is in, which is almost every scene in the movie, he comes off like a smart ass punk kid, sort of a juvenile Chevy Chase. I don't understand why they made his role like that, but for me it detracted from things greatly. And it made for weird chemistry with Basinger. Poor girl. The movie was filmed in British Columbia. Some of the forest scenes reminded me of the movie Thale, which was filmed in Norway. All the pieces to a great movie are here, but it stumbles a bit in places and doesn't deliver a complete package, add in the Mancuso factor, and it comes up as a near miss. But they were onto something with Heston. I wouldn't say Basinger was totally wasted, but again, too much Mancuso and not enough Kim.

Just saw this movie on DVD. It was packaged with the Robert Redford classic Jeremiah Johnson, so why not give it a shot? I'm only writing a review, because I saw some other reviews that were positive, and I wanted to set the record straight (not that anybody cares what I have to say, nor do they care about this forgotten film which should stay forgotten). This movie is very dumb, even for its time. The first 5 minutes were interesting. Then it became weak, but classic. Then it became just plain weak. At first, I thought it was a poor man's Romancing the Stone, but it's worse than that. When I rate a movie 1-10, I would say that a 10 is a movie like The Godfather, while a 1 is a scratchy student film that shouldn't leave the classroom. Anything 5 or below is bad filmmaking. Maybe I'm being generous with this 5 out of 10 rating.

"Mother Lode" was one of only two feature films to have been directed by Charlton Heston, the other being his version of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra". He also directed a made-for-television version of Robert Bolt's "A Man for All Seasons", and it was an open secret in Hollywood that he had directed the final scenes of Sam Peckinpah's "Major Dundee" when Peckinpah was too incapacitated through drink to continue. "Mother Lode" was a collaboration between Heston and his son Fraser, who acted as both scriptwriter and producer. Two years earlier, Heston had acted in "The Mountain Men", for which Fraser had also written the script.

Gene Dupre and his girlfriend Andrea Spalding head for northern British Columbia in an amphibious plane. They are searching for Dupre's friend George Patterson, who disappeared in the area while prospecting for gold. Patterson believed (a belief shared by Dupre) that a rich "mother lode"- a principal vein of gold ore- is located somewhere in the area. On arriving in the area, they become involved with another prospector, a Scotsman named Silas McGee, who with his brother Ian has been looking for the "mother lode" for many years and has opened up a mine. They soon realise, however, that Silas is not as friendly as he seems at first sight.

Apart from the photography of the Canadian wilderness, the most striking thing about the film is the scene where Dupre, attempting a water landing, manages to crash his plane, although both he and Andrea survive unhurt. This scene, however, was not in the original script. The crashing of the plane was a genuine accident, but after it happened Heston decided to incorporate the footage into the film and rewrite the script accordingly. In fact, he had no alternative, because there was insufficient money on the budget to acquire another aircraft to reshoot the scene.

And when the best thing about your film is a fortuitous accident, you know you've got problems. Heston's "Antony and Cleopatra" is an excellent film, and his "A Man for All Seasons" a reasonably good one (if overshadowed by the Fred Zinnemann/Paul Scofield version of the same story), but his directorial touch seems to have deserted him with "Mother Lode".

To begin with, the acting is not of a high standard. Heston wrote in his autobiography that he had problems with his leading couple, Nick Mancuso and a young, pre-stardom Kim Basinger, who took a strong dislike to one another and had difficulty working together. There is certainly very little chemistry between them, but this does not matter as much as it might have done in other circumstances. The film is an adventure story, not a love story, so the emphasis is on the search for the gold, not the development of the romance between Gene and Andrea. Heston's own performance as Silas is not his best. I will leave comments on the accuracy of his Scottish accent to the Scots, but to me it always seemed a distraction.

The film is also badly directed. The storyline is never easy to follow, and we cannot always keep track of which characters are still alive and which are dead, and who has been killed by whom. A lot of the problem is due to the fact that we cannot always hear or see clearly what is going on. Too much dialogue was obscured by background noise, such as the noise of the plane's engine, and too many scenes were almost impossible to follow because they were shot in near total darkness, especially those in the mine.

Working as a father/son team does not always seem to have been beneficial for the Hestons. "The Mountain Men" was a mediocre film, but "Mother Lode" is a downright bad one. When I reviewed that reactionary, bigoted Western "Arrowhead", a film from much earlier in Heston's career, I said that it was the prime candidate for the title of his worst-ever film. Having now seen "Mother Lode", it has at least one rival for that unwanted title. 3/10.

The flight sequences and cinematography are superb, and the story is excellent. This may be Charlton Heston's only role where is doesn't play excessive melodrama. It was Kim Basinger's first big role before her starmaking role in the Natural.

It NEEDS to be on DVD.

Not only do the daylight scenes in this movie visually stun the viewer, but the dark cloak of night or being underground chill to the bone! The dark look of the film is all the more compelling when terror explodes out of the darkness to grip the viewer by the throat, eliciting screams! "Stay the hell outta my mine, laddie!" Why don't they listen . . . ???!!!

This movie was incredible. The drama was taut, the frights were well developed and the story was compelling. This movie was a perfect vehicle for Charlton Heston who scared the crap out of me in this film. The script was ideal for him and his style and he was completely believable in this role(s).

Strongly recommended!

This is a great independent movie the plot was good, and so was the photography. It was too bad that this movie did not have the advertising and promotional backing for more exposure and running length time. Because if it had, this movie would have done better and would be better known that it is! This movie should have gotten more exposure than it did at the time of release!

Charlton Heston's Mother Lode is one of those neat flicks that not only is filmed in my hometown of Vancouver (like every movie ever) and the surrounding British Columbia region, but is also set there as well. It's an entertaining, if slight little adventure story that's perfect to put on for a rainy afternoon on the iPad. Heston, in addition to both writing and directing, plays two roles here, but it's a bit of a sly trick saying that because he mostly appears as one, and only briefly as the other, but no matter, the old pro works his butt off to steal every scene. He plays loner mountain man Silas McGee, an eccentric prospector whose stairs don't quite reach the attic, living alone in the wilderness looking for that perfect gold strike. The excellent Nick Mancuso, in a role originally meant for James Brolin, is Jean Dupre, a cocky bush pilot who heads McGee's way with his high strung girlfriend (Kim Basinger), looking for a fellow pilot who got lost and a little of the gold stuff for himself while he's at it. As soon as they run into McGee it's clear the old dog is crazy as shit and not to be trusted, creating a nice atmosphere of isolated paranoia and mystery as the man's true intentions come to dark light. Mancuso is always terrifically intense and so great at subtle comic moments, this is one of his great early roles and not to be missed for any fan. Poor Basinger suffered a miscarriage while production was underway and as such seems understandably distracted, but she's a trooper and carries her end well. Heston either does a brilliant Scottish accent, a slipshod one or a bit of both, it's hard to tell with his rapid fire banter and eloquent, robust verbosity. He's electric though, and freaky as all hell as the type of dodgy fellow you better pray you don't run into out there. The action is pretty run of the mill and the film loses the tautness a thriller like this should have in parts, but it's solid enough to not change the channel. For B.C. residents it's an absolute treat though, especially as Mancuso's rickety float plane arcs up over the Vancouver harbour towards the Cassiar mountains and we get to see what our city looked like back in the 80's. Cool stuff.

I rented this movie on video in 1984. It instantly captivated me that I wanted to watch it again, but on returning to the store to rent it I found that they had sold it on. I remember this movie as a classic, the title didn't do enough to sell the film which in my opinion should have been listed with the best sellers. The first class acting of Charlton Heston made this one of the few movies on my, to see again list. To those who have not yet seen it, It's a must.