1970 - DARKER THAN AMBER - a would be cult film

A film based on the popular Travis McGee series of detective novels.  Since I have never read any of these books and am barely aware of the character Travis McGee this was all news to me.

Darker Than Amber is supposedly considered a cult film.  But you would have to read a lot into this film to figure out where the cult status comes from.  Maybe the brutal fight scenes or the chief psychotic (what else) villain played by veteran character actor William Smith are supposed to give the film its cult status but I think that would be pushing it.

Darker Than Amber was directed by Robert Clouse whose claim to fame is Enter the Dragon.  Clouse isn't particularly adept at staging action scenes or actually any scenes for that matter.  The film kind of plods along from one cliched story point to another, McGee falls in love, McGee solves a murder, McGee has a fight with a real tough guy, etc.

Veteran actor Rod Taylor is Travis McGee but he basically plays Rod Taylor.  Suzy Kendall who had been in some Italian Giallo films is the love interest.

96 minutes, written by John D. MacDonald and Ed Waters.

1985 - GYMKATA, martial arts film with Olympic gold medal winner Kurt Thomas

I didn't expect that Gymkata was going to be the greatest martial arts movie ever, in fact I was pretty sure this would probably not be the greatest anything.  However the film had Kurt Thomas one of the greatest gymnasts of the late 1970's. 

The film actually starts off well enough in true B movie fashion.  Thomas is one of America's top athletes recruited for a secret mission by the U.S. government to compete in an athletic competition in some silly country called Parmistan for various reasons to stupid to mention.  First, he has to be trained in the ways of karate so he can combine his gymnastic skill with some martial arts moves.  This is probably the best part of the film, the training stuff.

Kurt Thomas has an incredible control over his body, he walks up some stairs standing on his hands and does some amazing back flip and spin stuff from a standing position.  Thomas may not be able to act, but he is in phenomenal control of his body.  

Sadly, it's time for the plot to kick in.  Thomas gets mixed up with Princess Rubali who is played by a former Playboy model who has even less acting chops than he, does and not take off her clothes for this film.  Their love scenes together are shall we say a little stiff.

Once Thomas arrives in Parmistan, he gets involved with the "Game" which is basically yet another variation of everyone's favorite plot, The Most Dangerous Game.  Gymkata was directed by Robert Clouse who had filmed Enter the Dragon,  This film is for the most part a rehash of that better film.

Anyway, Thomas jumps and flips and kicks and hits a bunch of middle European Ninja guys as the whole thing gets increasingly stupid.  It all climaxes in a battle in a city composed entirely of insane people. 

I guess Gymkata is in the tradition of "so bad it's good."  It's a pretty crappy looking film, but you do get to see a champion athlete make a fool of himself.  Kurt Thomas wasn't the first athlete to star in a stupid action film and he won't be the last. 

90 minutes.

1973 - ENTER THE DRAGON, Bruce Lee's very entertaining violent musical

All you have to do is watch the hilarious Fistful of Yen segment from Kentucky Fried Movie, to see how closely they followed the plot of Enter The Dragon, and it's pretty darn close all right.

The direction in this film is poor, the acting is almost nonexistent, the bad guys are way over the top for bad guys and the fight scenes are so loud with the hitting and bone crunching it's really kind of stupid.   The plot is basically a rehash of a James Bond movie like Goldfinger or Thunderball.

Still this was a very enjoyable movie.  Enter The Dragon was carefully filmed to completely entertain an audience.

Bruce Lee staged the action and fights, and as the critic Pauline Kael said at the time, they are basically dance numbers from a musical.  Bruce Lee's howling and screaming during the fight scenes is certainly no worse than Fred Astaire's attempts to sing in his musicals.  Besides, no one watches an Astaire musical to listen to his singing anyway.

The cleverness of the movie lies in the fact that early on the audience realizes that Bruce Lee is almost undefeatable.  The movie then channels the conflict over to John Saxon.  Saxon has to do the heavy lifting and acting to keep the story in focus.  Saxon also has the pivotal fight at the end of the film with some scary bone crunching henchman of evil Mr. Han. 

The final fight is between Bruce Lee and the evil Mr Han.  Mr. Han looks like he can barely hold his arm up with that crazy metal claw he has attached to it much less take on Bruce Lee.  The fight is staged in a room full of mirrors which is a clear rip off from Orson Welles's  Lady from Shanghai room of mirrors finale.

 

If you're going to steal, steal from the best. The running time is 102 minutes, written by Michael Allin.