Expect loads of action, along with some lighthearted romance, when an heiress is menaced by villains with a base at a weird sanitarium. Her only hope of rescue lies in a new acquaintance who himself is suspected of wrongdoing. As usual, Richard Talmadge, who produced, delivers on the stunts and battles, even if the plot …
Read the full post →“<em>Get That Girl</em> (Richard Talmadge Productions / Mercury, 1932)”
Hammer and Shaw Brothers teamed up in 1974 to bring out a moderately effective blend of martial arts and horror movies, with action star David Chiang as the leader of a group of warrior siblings who recruit Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing), who is visiting China, to assist them in freeing their village from the …
Read the full post →“<em>The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires</em> (Hammer-Shaw Brothers, 1974)”
An action movie in the vein of the 18 Bronzemen films, in The Unbeaten 28 (original title: Shi ren guan shi ba qi), the protagonist faces a similar battery of trials as he attempts to win the right to a document detailing a secret, powerful martial arts technique. Here, however, the “men” he must fight …
The seventh installment in Mack Bolan’s war against the Mafia finds the Executioner returning stateside after his devastating dealings with the Mob in London. He barely escapes the trap set for him at the airport and only does so through the assistance of folks unconnected with the battles … though soon they will be heavily …
Read the full post →“<em>Nightmare in New York</em>, by Don Pendleton”
In The Buddha Assassinator (original title: Fo zhang huang ye), a young fan of martial arts finds a place in a Manchu prince’s guard, but his family’s opposition to the prince soon forces the young man to choose between the sides, all while learning more fighting techniques. There’s nothing particularly special here, but the fights …
Read the full post →“<em>The Buddha Assassinator</em> (1980)”
In The Mystery of Chess Boxing (original title: Shuang ma lian huan), a young man out to avenge his father’s murder at the hands of the infamous Ghost Face Killer first seeks training at a martial arts school where he is bullied by one of the advanced students but does get some learning from the …
Read the full post →“<em>The Mystery of Chess Boxing</em> (1979)”
The Dragon Missile (Chinese title: Fei long zhan) is a well-crafted Shaw Brothers martial arts feature, with Lo Lieh the wielder of the titular weapon, actually a pair of boomerang blades capable of decapitating opponents and returning to the user’s hands. Lo’s character, the henchmen of an evil nobleman, is sent to get a healing …
Read the full post →“<em>The Dragon Missile</em> (Shaw Brothers, 1976)”
A man (Li Tung) sent to prison after killing his adulterous sister-in-law and her lover is recruited by the warden’s son to fight the gangsters who have taken over the nearby resort of Delightful Forest. There’s a certain amount of humor blended with the action in this Shaw Brothers movie, whose Chinese title is Kuai …
Read the full post →“<em>The Delightful Forest</em> (Shaw Brothers, 1972)”
In Dance of Death (original title: Wu quan), a young woman (Angela Mao) convinces two rival martial arts masters to teach her their evenly matched techniques, so that she can use them to gain vengeance on the gang that murdered her friends. When even those techniques prove insufficient, the masters are able to develop a …
Masked wrestler Santo comes to the aid of the daughter of a deceased old friend, and along the way he finds romance. There’s far too little of the weirdness I associate with the Santo movies, although the trained eagle does add a certain element of interest, but overall the movie is just plain dull. Not …
Read the full post →“<em>Santo y el águila real</em> (1973)”
