In the '70s, we had a plethora of drive-in yarns about small towns being corrupted by sleazy politicians and sheriffs who invariably have to have their asses kicked by an unbuyable sheriff, an idealistic half-breed, or a returning 'Nam vet. I'm sure there were precursors, but arguably WALKING TALL (1973), the story of the very real Tennessee badass Sheriff Buford Pusser set the ball rolling for a slew of revenge movies that culminated with FIRST BLOOD (1982), which then set off its own chain reaction of post 'Nam ass kickers along with James Glickenhouse's THE EXTERMINATOR (1980). Yes, I realize that David Morell's book on which FIRST BLOOD was based was written in 1972, which predates Doug Warren's 1973 WALKING TALL novel, but we're talking movies here. The popularity of DEATH WISH (1974, novel written in '72) also played a role in creating this action-thriller sub-genre.
This blenderized version of the core ideas bled over into the '80s with a massive spate of films that finally started to run out of steam and mostly died in the '90s when the target demographic was too young to even know what the hell 'Nam was. Even RAMBO III (1988) dumped Vietnam to relocate to a more current war zone, some place called... Afghanistan? Sounds vaguely familiar. Were we allowed to win that one?

So distraught by the heat, Marcy does the only thing she can think of to stay alive in the sweltering heat - take her bra off. Since she simply slides it out from under her shirt, the best part of this scene is when Rome flails on the steering wheel in frustration, she accidentally knocks the rear-view mirror off the window. Loosely applied rear-view mirrors were a notorious issue with old Beetles, but clearly not wanting to do a retake, Hope leaves it in and then actually covers for it later in the film. This guy is talented!
After paying an extra $1.50 for the ice in her coke ("it comes all the way from Barstow!"), the slimeball mechanic decides to cut the hoses on her car so that he can rack up a bigger bill. Just when things were going from bad to worse, the corrupt judge and mayor (Chuck "Porky" Mitchell) and the corrupt and bumbling sheriff Benny (Aldo Ray) decide to pad the city coffers by citing Marcy for all the damage to her car, saying that it's not road-worthy. In what I'm pretty sure is an add-libbed afterthought, Judge points out that she is also missing a rear-view mirror. Genius!
Not having any way to pay for all of the money that these scumbags are trying to extort from her, they, along with Cyril (Wilson Dunster), the inbred son of the local madam, decide to take it out in trade, viciously raping her in a junk yard. Man, I don't want to sound all PC and shit, but I just don't get the appeal of this kind of stuff. Maybe I need to work on my nerd rage. This is Rome's best bit of acting, presumably because she doesn't appear to be acting at all when she's being assaulted by these creeps. She's perky, bubbly, polite and pretty much adorable, and then we have to see her get completely traumatized in a way that reflects way too much of our current news cycle. It certainly isn't fun to watch. Aldo Ray making the "O" face will be haunting my nightmares for generations to come. As if being raped wasn't bad enough, Judge whips Marcy with his belt until he has an orgasm in his pants. Ok, ok, jeeze, I get it, these guys are bad.

Fortunately for Marcy, Sheriff Benny has the brilliant idea to poke around Phil's gold mine, looking for gold that he can steal. I mean, how tough could a loner 'nam vet be? Of course Phil catches his clumsy ass, and after a fight in which we are expected to believe that an out-of-shape Aldo Ray who looks like he's on the verge of a heart attack, goes toe-to-toe with a strapping 25 year old buck, Phil discovers what happened to Marcy. In retaliation, Phil bites Benny on the face (!?), cuffs Benny to his own patrol car and sends it over a cliff. And now, finally, it's payback time! Phil's gonna kill 'em all and let god sort 'em out! Right? No wait. First Phil has to go rescue Marcy and profess his love to her comatose body, telling her that he "should have never let her leave". Yeesh! Poor Marcy is a legit creep magnet. Of course, the man has spent 12 years post 'Nam in a tin-roof shack in the middle of the Nevada desert, so I guess we have to cut him a little slack.

While John Greene's turn as an enraged vet is possibly even more comical than Ted Prior's take in DEADLY PREY (1987), Cindy Rome (aka Sugar Ray Renee) really should have gone on to other things. Known mostly for her clothed appearances in the '80s phenomena of nudie sports videos, such as the infamous FOXY BOXING (1986), this is pretty much her only straight acting role. Other than the videos, she is best known for having dated Nikki Sixx and Brett Michaels in the late '80s. Granted she's not in danger of winning any Oscars, and has a bit of a speech impediment that manages to come off as cute, but is charismatic and looks great in a bikini. You'd think that's all you really needed to get gigs in cheapo indy movies in the '80s. Given the fact that she was, if memory serves, the only participant in FOXY BOXING to remain fully clothed, perhaps her shyness closed a few doors.
The elusive Harry Hope, may be best remembered for his contributions to Al Adamson's DEATH DIMENSION (1978) and SUNSET COVE (1978), as well as producing the musical comedy SMOKEY AND THE JUDGE (1980), also had the promising sounding entry in the Brucesploitation subgenre, ENTER ANOTHER DRAGON (1981) which was to have been shot in the Philippines, staring Bruce Le and Ron Van Clief. This was to be Hope's first film that he wrote, produced and directed, but sadly appears to have never actually been made.
Released direct to video a year after Harry Hope's death, this film, bearing the title SWIFT JUSTICE, is a video burn that was clearly added for the video release. The amusing title HATEMAN: BORN OF HATE was used in Germany, but oddly neither has any real bearing on the content of the film. Justice comes... eventually and there is more than one hate-filled man. In some parts of Europe the film was released as POP'S OASIS, which is a title that hardly sells a rape/revenge film. As it turns out, Variety archive obsessionist Will Wilson found an ad selling the film under the title POP'S OASIS, which proves that it's the original title. I imagine it was a pretty tough sell under that moniker.

I would love to be able to interview Harry Hope and find out exactly what happened, during what I must assume was a stop-over in Jean, that inspired him to make this film. Hope was clearly very proud of this film as he managed to cram his name into every available gap in the opening credits, even going so far as to have a card that reads "A Harry Hope Film".
It was the only original film he wrote, produced and directed (except for DRAGON, which may or may not have even existed in any form). I'm not sure whether he was trying to give it an air of legitimacy or whether he really thought this was his signature masterpiece. And maybe it was, it's probably the best of his films with some ambitious effects work in the final reel. As genuinely unpleasant as the film is in parts, there is some ramshackle charm about it if you are killing brain-cells, nursing a concussion or are just in the right frame of mind.
Great review.
ReplyDeleteGood review, just got done watching this film, loved the bit where that mechanic accidentally cuts off his own hand and the dog grabs it LOL.
ReplyDeleteRape scenes aren't really supposed to be fun to watch(at least I hope that's not the intention of any of the directors that shot scenes like that) they're supposed to disturb you and make you revile the rapists and whoo boy that scene sure did a good job of that.