Pop Culture Happy Hour: Three Towering Sean Connery Performances

Connery kicks off what will become a Bond-flick tradition — the pre-title sequence — in Goldfinger, 1964.

Sean Connery, not the first screen James Bond but the first one that stuck, died at the age of 90 on Friday. His time in da moviesh spanned some 45 years, but to take stock of it in manageable fashion Pop Culture Happy Hour producer Jessica Reedy asked me to choose three of his performances to discuss. I did that with my pal Glen Weldon today. I tried to pick a trio that reflected the distinct phases of Connery’s career. Which means you’ll have to wait a little longer to hear Glen and I give 1974’s Zardoz the careful dissection it deserves.

Touchable: No God, No Master, reviewed.

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Handle with Care: Cool Hand David Strathairn defuses a package bomb in No God, No Master.

Terry Green's low-budget, high-ambition Prohibition-era conspiracy thriller No God, No Master isn't quite The Untouchables, but then again, what is? I admired the movie's overreach in my review for The Dissolve.

Ray Wise is in the film, too. I met him in 2004 or 2005 when he appeared in a short film directed by a pal of mine. He very kindly indulged my request for Paul Verhoeven stories. Nice guy.