The stream of consciousness continues to flow. The previous post's reminiscence of film flotsam such as
Firecracker brought back a flood of video rental memories. For instance, speaking of
Firecracker, mention must be made of
Raw Force, the zombie martial arts movie made in tandem with the former, also featuring the alluring Kesner in the cast alongside B-movie vet Cameron Mitchell (who might deserve his own post) and a bunch of kung fu no names. This one actually had TV commercials! This brings to mind a film that came out around the same time that never made it on video here and remains shrouded in obscurity, despite its incredible title:
Karate Killers on Wheels. This was in New York area theaters circa 1980 or 82 and
Joe Bob Briggs raved about it. Still, no one else seems to remember it and it doesn't seem easy to find. From what I've sussed out it's a violent biker~martial arts movie made in 1976 by none other than Shaw Brothers, also released as simply
Killers on Wheels. The only sign of any video ever being available seems to be in German (sans subs).
The Chinese title is "Wu Fa Wu Tian" which means something along the lines of "Totally Unlawful." Celestial Pictures, who now
own the Shaw library, have it
listed on their website. Wouldn't it be nice if some DVD distributor picks it up? Apparently it features actress
Liu Hui Ru, who played 'Princess Dragon Mom' in the incredible
Inframan. Back when Sneak Previews was still on channel 13 (public television) and
Siskel and Ebert made snarky comments at each other, they did a great 'guilty pleasures' episode on which they featured Van Peebles seminal blaxploitation outcry
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and the Shaw Brothers cash-in on
Ultraman, featuring Bruce Lee imitator
Bruce Li (Ho Chung Dao) as the titular
Inframan.
Anyway, the advent of home video in the 80's was the first death knell for grindhouse exploitation pictures. A ripe catalog of juicy taboo-defying genre films made there way into homes. I remember looking at an early video catalog that featured provocative titles such as
The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula and
The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism. The avatars of distribution included major and indie labels, both mirroring the sleazy marketing tactics of exploitation days of yore. Paragon Video remains endearingly carved in the memory for their copious and diverse low-budget fare, big boxes and close to
15 minutes of lurid trailers on every tape. Titles included the gloriously shameless
One Armed Executioner, about an Interpol agent on a Death Wish styled mission of vengeance; Lucio Fulci's gratuitously gory
The Gates of Hell; Weird run-of-the-mill b-movie fare like
Hotwire, a southern fried potboiler about car thieves. Check out this
incredible online gallery of vintage VHS box art.
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