Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Mystery Movie: SPLIT-SECOND SMOKEY



Our buddy Eric Harvey of Serious Exploitation posted on AV Maniacs almost 3 years ago (when it was still known as DVD Maniacs) looking for information about DON'T BLEED ON ME, a movie title he found in a Jacksonville, FL theater listing in January of 1983. The co-feature was the Shaw Brothers' FLYING GUILLOTINE, so we both suspected that DON'T BLEED ON ME was also a martial arts flick, albeit a pretty damn obscure one that we'd never heard of and couldn't find a shread of information on anywhere. Well, the mystery has been solved thanks to Matthew Allison, another AV Maniacs member, who found the one-sheet photo below on eBay and brought it to our attention.


Excellent work, Matt! This one had us stumped for a long time.

Now Eric has another mystery movie. This one is called SPLIT-SECOND SMOKEY, which Eric found in a Miami News theater clock in 1980. The ad we've posted above ran in the Atlanta Constitution in October 1978, offers no credits to go on except for a PG rating, and features cut-and-paste artwork ripped off from the BLACK OAK CONSPIRACY and RIDE IN A PINK CAR ad campaigns. Obviously this is another movie that has been re-titled by a subdistributor trying desperately to ride the box-office coattails of GONE IN 60 SECONDS and SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT.

So, what the heck is SPLIT-SECOND SMOKEY?


It's DOUBLE NICKELS from 1977, featuring GONE IN 60 SECONDS cinematographer Jack Vacek in the lead role as "Smokey," a California highway patrolman who moonlights as a repo man. Vacek also co-wrote, produced, and directed this entertaining car chase actioner, which can be found on at least one cheapo DVD 10-pack.

Mystery solved!

Now, turning our attention back to RIP-SAW RAPES... Anyone?

3 comments:

Serious Exploitation said...

You're The King! The King! Thanks!

Kung Fu Manchu said...

To answer questions about "Don't Bleed On Me"

It was originally released in Taiwan in 1977 (1981 in the US I think) as "Fight For Survival" and Xenon released it on VHS as "Lady Wu Tang"

KFM
http://faces-of-fu.blogspot.com

Temple of Schlock said...

Excellent info! Thank you for updating our files, KFM!