Screen Icon O'hara Takes A `Cab To Canada'

It's been a long ride for Maureen O'Hara, and she's about to take another one.

One of the screen's most legendary actresses makes a now-rare appearance Sunday in "Cab to Canada," an engaging new CBS movie at 9 p.m. on KIRO-TV. Based on a true story, the tale casts O'Hara as a demanding senior citizen who takes a taxi to a friend's funeral, then retains the driver (Jason Beghe, of the series "To Have & to Hold") and directs him to various places she's compelled to visit.

That takes him way off his usual beat, since she wants to go from Southern California all the way to Vancouver, B.C. The travelers don't get along at first, but the 3,100-mile trip ultimately teaches the chauffeur a lot, especially about his often-neglected girlfriend ("JAG" regular Catherine Bell). Featuring Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and young Haley Joel Osment, the film was executive-produced by Beth Polson, who hired O'Hara once before.

"A few years ago," the veteran performer recalls, "Beth had a script called `The Christmas Box.' I was in Ireland on my yearly summer holiday, but it arrived and I read it. I picked up the telephone, called my attorney and said, `Please tell Miss Polson `yes.' When we finished that film - which has been wonderfully successful every time it's been shown - she said, `I'm going to find another story for you.' She called one day and told me, `I have it.' "

Since O'Hara works infrequently, Polson says it's a challenge to find material of the necessary caliber. "Working with the likes of Maureen O'Hara is the best experience a producer can have," she maintains. "I had read a newspaper story about a Pasadena, Calif., woman who took a cab to the beach, then told the driver, `Go north.' Seven thousand dollars later, they were in Canada, and that became the nugget of our story.

"I thought it provided a good opportunity to work with Maureen again," Polson continues, "because this was a woman who had great wit and joie de vivre, and she also had a lot of heart. We tried to encompass all of that in the character we tailored to Maureen. It's not that easy to entice her to work again, so I've been fortunate that she's loved the scripts I've sent her."

Despite the various locales represented by "Cab to Canada," Polson admits the movie was filmed largely in Los Angeles. "I am living testimony to the fact that you cannot do a `road' picture on a TV-movie budget," she says. "Only if you have the stamina of Maureen O'Hara can you get it done at all. In the beginning, I kept worrying about her because it was such a hard schedule. By the third day, I was more worried about me than about her. She was doing fine."

Actually, O'Hara allows, "There were days when I could hardly get out of the cab. I had to lift my legs out, I was so tired from sitting in one position all the time. Jason was always cracking jokes up front, so we'd gossip and tell jokes and have a good time."

The still-striking O'Hara did her first role in nearly 20 years when she played John Candy's mother in the 1991 comedy "Only the Lonely." She concedes that to get her back to work, "It takes an awfully good part. I admit I'm very proud, so I would never do just a small bit in something. This may sound terrible, but it's true: I've been No. 1 all my life, and I would never be happy as No. 2, so why make myself miserable?

Despite her years away from the cameras, O'Hara insists, "An actor is always prepared. We're born hams and we remain hams all their lives, so we're always ready to work. With everything we do, it's a performance. Even getting on an airplane."