Year: 1962
Language: English
Format: 16mm Black & White
Runtime: 28 min
Director: Gordon Sheppard
Producer: Gordon Sheppard, Richard Ballentine
Cinematographer: John Spotton, John Foster
Editor: Donald Ginsberg, Jean-Guy Chevrette
Music: Dudley Moore
: Ed McGibbon
Production Company: Inter-Video Productions

This direct cinema portrait of Hugh Hefner (made in the manner of Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroitor’s Lonely Boy) was first telecast on CBC’s Quest series under the title One Time Around. Like similar films of the period – such as the Maysles brothers’s Showman, Richard Ballentine’s Mr. Pearson and D.A. Pennebaker’s Jane – The Most is a somewhat sensational portrait of a celebrity.

Unlike subsequent direct-cinema films made for Canadian television by such filmmakers as Douglas Leiterman and Beryl Fox, The Most lacks any analysis of its subject, but does include some clever cutting that enables the audience to be titillated by and laugh at the main character simultaneously. It won the award for best short film at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

By: Peter Morris