Worth Watching?

I couldn't believe my eyes. On one of the premium high-def channels that I subscribe to, I saw a movie about to be shown that costarred someone who'd once been part of my celebrity radar because of her participation in a series I was obsessed with back in the mid-'80s. I figured surely the movie (really more of a straight-to-video sort of affair) would be atrocious, but curiosity got the better of me. Imagine my surprise when the headlining star (who I'd steadfastly avoided at all costs for years) turned out to be one good looking man!

Not only that, but the "actor" gave a startlingly appealing perfor- mance for the most part; one completely at odds with the persona that had heretofore been put before the public. And, as ought to be the case with anyone who sports a nice physique, he was frequently shirtless in the movie. Does his face happen to ring a bell at all? I doubt it will be much more of a clue if I tell you that the movie was called Midnight Heat and was released in 1996.

This one might do it, though it's possible that even still there will be some doubt as to who the leading man of this movie was.

The blond, good-looking hunk with the attractive hair and chiseled body was that belonging to none other than flamboyant, controversial, often-outrageous college and (briefly) NFL football linebacker Brian Bosworth (known during his heyday as "The Boz!")

I couldn't believe that the man I was watching in the movie was the same outspoken, polarizing, ultimately stymied (by injury) persona who briefly became a national sensation in the world of sports.

Now I'm not going to sit here and say that Brian Bosworth was an incredible actor in Midnight Heat (!) - and it remains the only movie of his I've ever seen - but he was very handsome in it and also quite amiable and appealing. He even put forth a certain level of vulnerability and lack of physical acumen.

The plot of the movie bears some resem- blance to Tom Berenger's Shattered, which came out in 1991.  In that one, the leading man was severely injured in a car accident, its shattered windshield destroying his face and giving him amnesia. In Heat, Bosworth is a banker (looking positively adorable in his suspenders and spectacles) who suffers a bomb explosion and is left with amnesia (along with a sultry wife and a huge mansion.)

Helping him out (and the key reason I DVR-ed this movie in the first place) is a spunky barmaid played by Claire Yarlett. Yarlett was Charlton Heston and Stephanie Beacham's daughter Bliss on The Colbys, a glitzy, well-heeled, but campy and often silly show I lived for from 1985-1987.

Her character on The Colbys was American, though Yarlett was English (!), a common occurance on the show. (She's shown here with big sister Tracy Scoggins and in the inset with her forbidden boyfriend Charles Van Eman, nephew of her father's worst enemy.)

Yarlett might have been granted a more significant career boost following the demise of The Colbys had her next project actually occurred. Aaron Spelling (who produced The Colbys along with many other hit shows of the 1970s and '80s) decided to relaunch Charlie's Angels, which had ceased airing in 1981. A "nationwide search" was held for just the right (four, this time) ladies to portray the daring detectives of "Angels '88." He didn't have to look far for Yarlett, but the other gals were Tea Leoni (!), Sandra Canning and Karen Kopins. Leoni went on to a pretty considerable career while Canning headed to Days of Our Lives and Kopins to Dallas before eventually exiting the business. The project never got past the stages of the big announcement... Yarlett did continue to act, but receded from the screen around 2009.

For his part, Bosworth still acts today, with a franchise of motorcycle-centered sci-fi movies called Revelation Road, while also attempting to branch out into projects outside the action-adventure category that he was inherently steered towards as an ex-football player.

Anyway, I couldn't resist sharing the young Nick Nolte-ish goodness of "The Boz" with you in case you ever want to keep an eye out for this surprisingly captivating low-budget movie. If you do watch it, I hope you felt it was (Bos)worth the time!  ;-)

***Update*** I came upon this shot of Boz in the shower room and thought that this would be the perfect place to share it (and declare "the end" of this post), so here goes...!