RIP Dom De Luise

Not known for the subtlety of his performances, nor of course does it matter, Dom De Luise played a significant part in my childhood movie experiences, on the basis of performances in two films which, if I watched them today may or may not hold up to critical enquiry.

‘Cannonball Run’ (1 + 2) provided a summer’s worth of repeated video rentals for my friends and I when I was ten years old; we didn’t know who Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, never mind Jack Elam, even were. But we enjoyed fast cars and silly jokes. Dom De Luise was behind most of the latter; and the summer of 1985 wouldn’t have been the same in my house without him.