Edition:
March 17, 2006
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The Friday Flyer Assistant Editor
If viewers were less than enthralled by some of the winners at this year’s Academy Awards, there’s one good thing that can be said about the movie industry – life goes on and there are new stories written and new movies made all the time.
One movie premiering on the Hallmark Channel next week, March 25, is written by Michael Lach, son of Canyon Lakers Ron and Pam Lach, and is the sort of feel-good movie for which Hallmark is famous. Not that the term “feel good” should lull anyone into thinking Michael’s story lacks grit or is out of touch with reality.
“Our House,” the story of a rich matron and a vagrant woman who saves her life after she tries to commit suicide, was taken from Michael’s own life experiences befriending the homeless in his former neighborhood of Santa Monica.
“Michael is one of the most caring and generous persons I know,” says Pam. “He is always helping out the homeless, providing for kids who can’t afford to attend summer camp, buying gifts for kids at Christmas who normally would not get a gift, paying some stranger’s electric bill, giving someone a place to live . . . And he has been like that since he was a child.” In other words, when he writes about homeless people and rich people it’s because he knows the struggles and heartaches of both.
“Our House” stars five-time Emmy winner Doris Roberts (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) as Ruth Galloway, Judy Reyes as Billy and Ellen Geer as Rose.
According to the Hallmarkchannel.com, “Ruth Galloway, a rich widow with nothing left to live for, tries to kill herself after the death of her husband. Billy, a homeless woman, saves her from a pill overdose. Ruth is intrigued by Billy, whose life is vastly different from her own. Although Billy is at first resistant to accepting aid, she eventually opens up and the two soon share the same cause: Ruth is inspired to open the doors to her palatial Beverly Hills home to other street people, to the dismay of Ruth’s daughter and neighbors. In the process, Ruth comes to learn that many of the homeless are regular people who merely have fallen on hard times or endured crippling personal tragedies, while Billy gets a second chance to lead a productive life.”
Joining their son, Ron and Pam had the opportunity to be on location during some of the filming of “Our House” and met Director Mark Griffiths as well as the cast. Filming took place at a rented mansion in Sherwood, a suburb of West LA, which served as the home of character Ruth Galloway.
They found everyone involved in the movie to be quite nice, including leading lady Doris Roberts, with whom Pam took a few minutes to converse. She learned the story her son had written was profoundly important to Roberts and the theme of helping the hopeless was akin to the writings of Roberts’ late husband William Goyen.
According to Pam, Michael was pleased with the way the producers and director handled his screenplay, even keeping the same title and character names. “Once you sell a screenplay, it’s the director’s right to change it however he wants,” says Pam. “We got to see a preview taping of the movie and it was pretty close to the way Michael wrote it.”
Ron says he has read several other stories his son has written and thinks they are even better than “Our House.” But without a great deal of formal training and the connections essential to making it big in Hollywood, Michael has had to bide his time over the past 11 years he’s been writing screenplays and make his primary living in other areas, specifically real estate. Eventually he would like to produce and direct movies.
He and his wife Tanya and children Kendall, 4, and Dylan, almost 2, live in Los Angeles, though they spent seven months living at the Lachs’ home in Canyon Lake while their house was being remodeled. He learned and wrote extensively about the life of Mary Van Dyke, daughter of Pastor Pete and Pat Van Dyke of Canyon Lake Community Church. Though others had sought to tell the young woman’s amazing story, Michael was the one entrusted with that right.
He has written a few other screenplays that have been turned into movies, especially children’s movies. He has also done a number of re-writes. But whether or not his work ends up on television or the silver screen, he will continue writing, just as he has done since he was in junior high school when his teachers often refused to interrupt his unusually talented creative process to correct spelling and punctuation errors.
For now, standing in front of an advertisement for “Our House,” he proudly exults to his parents, “It only took 11 years – but I got a billboard.”
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