Singer Bertie Higgins makes action movie in Tarpon Springs

A retro-style thriller, "Through the Eye," starring Tom Sizemore and produced by Higgins, will have its Florida premiere Wednesday in Palm Harbor.

Singer/songwriter Bertie Higgins, who gave us the 1981 hit "Key Largo," is bringing his latest feature film, a thriller filmed here last year, to Palm Harbor this week.

Bertie Higgins, right, produced and his son, Julian, directed the action-thriller ''Through the Eye,'' debuting in Palm Harbor Wednesday

Higgins, who still sings about "sailing away …. with Bogie and Bacall," also is an independent film producer.
His retro 1970s style thriller "Through the Eye," co-starring Tom Sizemore, will have its Florida premiere Wednesday and Thursday nights at the Muvico 10 in Palm Harbor.

"It was filmed in and around Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor and New Port Richey last fall," says Higgins, who now lives in Burbank, Calif.

Higgins says the film premiered in Pasadena last month in a festival where it was nominated for eight awards and took home best director which pleases him because his son Julian directed the film.

"This is his third feature and I'm proud of him," Higgins says. Both father and son are graduates of Tarpon Springs High School.

Higgins and his son made "Poker Run," a biker action film released in 2009. They also produced a horror film "The Wrath."

"One of the most interesting aspects of the "Eye" film is many of the crew are young men and women from the immediate Tampa Bay area and the majority of them now live in the Hollywood area," Higgins says.
For example, the film's cinematographer Aaron Moorhead and co-editor Vincent Talenti also are Tarpon Springs natives, and established filmmakers in local Tampa Bay film making community. Both have relocated to Los Angeles.

Higgins also has a role in the film as a boat captain and friend of the movie's hero, a disgraced former cop played by Robert Thorne.

"My son won his first award as a director in the Sol Peska Film Festival, a Tampa Bay festival, when he was only 17," he adds.

Julian Higgins, 27, used to work at the Muvico in Palm Harbor when he was a teen. "I was sweeping up popcorn there when I was 16 and now my film will be on the screen," he says.

Set in 1976, "Through the Eye" tells the story of Jack Hooks (Thorne), a former cop set up by a corrupt partner Frank Rossi (Sizemore) and sent to jail for a drug crime he didn't commit.

Sizemore has a long list of film and TV credits including "Saving Private Ryan," "Black Hawk Down" and "Natural Born Killers."

Thorne's character gets out of prison in an early release deal offered by the DEA and is sent on a do-or-die mission into the "Eye" of the drug smuggling world with his boat captain confidant Mike Tragos (Higgins).
To view a trailer, visit this link: http://www.throughtheeyemovie.com
Higgins says the Wednesday premiere, at Muvico Palm Harbor 10, 37912 U.S. Highway 19 N., Palm Harbor, is free to the public.

The event will include displays of costumes, vehicles and weapons used in the film and a Q&A with the filmmakers following the screening. There's also an after-party at Dockside Sports Bar and Grill at the Lake Tarpon Resort, 37611 US Highway 19 N., where some movie scenes were filmed.

The Thursday night screening charges admission with the majority of the proceeds going to local charities.
The 66-year-old continues to create music (he has recorded nine albums) and in addition to "Key Largo," a tribute the Humphrey Bogart film of the same name, he had success with songs "Casablanca" and "Just Another Day in Paradise."

Higgins and his Band of Pirates Band tour the world and played a concert in Clearwater this past weekend.