Runtime: 87 minutes
Directed by: William Grefe
Starring: William Shatner, Jennifer Bishop, Kim Nicholas, Ruth Roman, Harold Sakada
From: Conqueror Films, Inc.
A wild movie I was glad to finally see in HD quality. Many moons ago I saw this horror/thriller (hopefully no one minds me viewing more of those even though the time of year where I see many of those is barely more than a month away) from the infamous William Grefe even though the quality was best described as “barely better than potato-vision.” William Shatner is a gigolo (!) who wines & dines women for their money, then they die at his hands. This is due to childhood trauma… he walks in on a soldier making out with his mom, soldier assaults her, then child Matt Stone stabs him with the samurai sword the soldier brought over as a souvenir from Japan!
Of course this is a motion picture I’ve wanted to tackle with a better than poor picture. When I randomly discovered yesterday that the print Grindhouse Releasing used for their Blu release is now on the streaming sites… I hopped on that immediately. The crux of the plot: Matt Stone attempts to grift a lady named Ann, but her adolescent daughter sees through his chicanery. Tina is a bratty kid, although thankfully comically so instead of an irritant that drove me batty. I say that about a character who steals money out of her mother’s wallet and hitchhikes with people like Stone. There is Dead Parent Trauma, which is at least some sort of an excuse… both for Matt and Tina.
Ruth Roman (as Ann’s chatterbox friend) is one of the two other famous names present. The other: Harold Sakata as the ex-con known as KARATE PETE. The reason the viewer knows his name: Pete lives in a Winnebago and has a giant banner on the side stating his name! A scene he has at a car wash truly is one for the ages. There’s plenty to laugh at despite how self-serious Impulse is. Shat’s period fashion sense is always delightful. The acting from him is as spectacular as you would hope. So is a moment early on where it sounded like Shatner let loose a FART and there wasn’t another take done!
People shouldn’t expect something serious from a B-movie where William Shatner portrayed a heartthrob that all the women swoon over. Be that as it may, it was still a sun-baked tale (filmed in & around Tampa, Florida) featuring a Shat performance like no other, plenty of yelling, a dog death-unfortunately-a few shocking moments and occasional lulls aside, was never boring. Thank goodness for Grindhouse Releasing restoring such trash.
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