Taken at face value, Walking Tall is a great drive-in movie. The film moves along quickly, using every trick in the book to make you root for the hero. The action scenes are explosive, even if the viewer does have to ignore boom mikes, shirt changes, and a stick that tends to turn into a loaf of French Bread. However, it is hard to overlook the fact that Pusser’s code of refusing to play by the rules or compromise is remarkably similar to a code the State Line might espouse, and I wouldn’t want to be pulled over by Pusser on a lonely Tennessee road. Even with these moral questions, however, Walking Tall is a lot better than the sequels that were quickly churned out afterward.

Henry Fonda, who blew people’s minds when he appeared as the heartless villain in Leone’s epic Once Upon a Time in the West (Fonda was the classic all-American patriotic hero for most of his career), takes a more familiar role here as a respected and retiring marshal on his way to New Orleans, where he plans to catch a boat to Europe and live the high life. Only two things stand in his way — the mystery of his brother’s murder, and a goofy chap named Nobody (Terence Hill) who seems hell-bent on turning Fonda from a respected has-been into a legend. He believes the world, so quickly changing and becoming modern, has run out of heroes, and he urges Fonda to become one by taking on the Wild Bunch, 150 hollerin’ dynamite throwin’ outlaws. Fonda says no thanks. Wouldn’t you?

While, admittedly, some of my enjoyment of Khoon Khoon arose from the novelty of it being a Bollywood adaptation of one of my favorite films — just as it was with Inkaar, Raj N. Sippy’s reworking of Kurosawa’s High and Low — I also found it irresistibly watchable on its own terms. It is a taughtly-paced, rough-edged and deliciously trashy little thriller with all the garish accouterments I’ve come to love from 1970s Indian cinema. That it also turns that freaky, funky Bollywood funhouse mirror on an American classic is just the day-glo frosting on the cake. Okay, granted, the overwhelming feeling I brought away from it was a desire to watch Dirty Harry again. But since when is that a bad thing?

Made in eighteen days for less than half a million dollars, Black Caesar went on to become a big hit, and AIP were quick to demand that Cohen provide a sequel as soon as possible. Adding to the time pressure on Cohen was the fact that his star, Williamson, would soon be leaving the country for some shooting overseas, which meant that production had to begin more or less immediately. Unfortunately, Williamson was at the time stuck in L.A. — far from Black Caesar‘s New York locations — filming That Man Bolt for Universal, while Cohen was working five days a week to complete It’s Alive, the first of his reputation-making creature features, for Warner Brothers.

Release Year: 1973 Country: Japan Starring: Miki Sugimoto, Reiko Ike, Seiko Saburi, Misuzu Ota, Rie Saotome, Tsunehiko Watase, Yuuko Mizusawa, Yukiko Asano, Ryoko Ema, Emi Jo, Rena Ichinose, Rika Sudo, Takako Yamakawa, Kaya Hodumi, Nobuo Kaneko, Kenji Imai, Nobuo Kaneko Writer: Tatsuhiko Kamoi Director: Norifumi Suzuki Cinematographer: Jubei Suzuki Music: Masao Yagi Producer: Kanji Amao [...]

1973, Turkey. Starring Enver Ozer, Feri Cansel, Suleyman Turan, Orcun Alkan, Altan Gunbay, Kayhan Yildizoglu, Huseyin Zan, Tarik Simsek. Directed by Tunc Basaran. I gather that there are people out there clamoring to see a Batman vs. Superman movie. I’m pretty sure those two squared off in comic books, too. Well frankly, I’m not sure [...]

1973, Italy. Starring Antonio Sabato, Phillipe Leroy, Antonio Casagrande, Carla Romanelli, Alessandro Sperli, Franco Fantasia, Tano Cimarosa, Marisa Mell. Directed by Umberto Lenzi. Written by Franco Enna, Ombretta Lanza, Umberto Lenzi. Purchase from Amazon.com. Like Enzo Castellari, Umberto Lenzi is no stranger to followers of global cult and genre cinema. And like Enzo, it’s a [...]

Release Year: 1973 Country: Italy Starring: Franco Nero, James Whitmore, Fernando Rey, Duilio Del Prete, Silvano Tranquilli. Writer: Maurizio Amati, Tito Carpi and Enzo Castellari Director: Enzo Castellari Cinematographer: Alejandro Ulloa Music: Guido and Maurizio De Angelis Producer: Maurizio Amati Original Title: La Polizia Incrimina la Legge Assolve Promote It: Digg | del.icio.us Back when [...]

Okay, so we’ve covered Spanish devil worshipper movies, and we snuck in one of Paul Naschy’s werewolf movies. What’s next? Oh, I know. How about one of those jungle movies where white folks are menaced by the undead locals? You know, I really love that things like that are plentiful enough to become actual genres [...]

Before I begin the review proper, I should explain that for some time now, I’ve been sitting here trying to think of an adequate way to describe exactly what it is that Sonny Chiba does and wears in this second film in Kinji Fukasaku’s high enjoyable, highly influential Battles without Honor and Humanity series of films that delve into the world of organized crime and the role it played in rebuilding post-war Japan. The closest I can come up with to summarize the acting display by Chiba is to say that you should try to imagine William Shatner and Jimmy Walker being merged into one creature, which the director then instructs to “stop being so subtle.”

If I say “post apocalypse film,” then chances are, one of two things will pop into your mind. What you won’t think of, I’m willing to bet, is a gritty Japanese yakuza film set in the years immediately after the end of World War II, but that’s exactly what Battles Without Honor and Humanity can be construed as. It is, after all, taking place in the wake of the one atomic war we’ve actually had, and you can’t get more post-apocalyptic than Nagasaki or Hiroshima after the Bomb. And while you may not, thankfully, spy any pink-haired men in assless leather pants or bodybuilders in a Quiet Riot mask imploring a bunch of people in shoulder pads and burlap sacks to, “just walk away,” and while there may be no rolling deserts in sight, there are roving gangs of hooligans in leather jackets wreaking havoc on the innocent.

1973, Spain/UK. Starring Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Alberto de Mendoza, Silvia Tortosa, Julio Pena, Georges Rigaud, Angel del Pozo, Victor Israel, Helga Line, Alice Reinheart, Juan Olaguivel. Directed by Eugenio Martin. It didn’t take long for the genres of horror and science fiction to start mingling. It’s a natural marriage, after all, and the two [...]