There's some really nice ads there. It's cool to see that QUEEN HUSTLER (1975) played outside of Asia in a dubbed format. It was a movie I was looking forward to seeing on DVD, but never got a chance to be released before IVL's license ran out. I got the original poster and lobby set and it looks like a good time. HK's then Queen of exploitation, Chen Ping is the star.
The director was an award winning filmmaker, believe it or not. His action packed spaghetti Eastern, THE FUGITIVE (1972) is a great piece of escapist entertainment and the gore addled THE CASINO (1972) is no doubt the progenitor to all those gambling movies that came later.
I'm curious if FISTS OF VENGEANCE is the same Shaw production from 1973 called THE DEADLY KNIVES with Ling Yun. The Chinese actor known as Tommy Lee isn't in the movie, or the other flick that bears the FOV title. Not seen the latter, but his name isn't listed among the credits.
This FISTS OF VENGEANCE is from 1974 and is a.k.a. TWO FISTS VS. SEVEN SAMURAI. We caught this on WPIX (Channel 11) in N.Y.C. back in December '83 and recall a long, impressive fight atop a moving freight train as the climax. Cinema Shares released it theatrically circa 1978.
We've never seen QUEEN HUSTLER, but would like to check it out one of these days. World Northal originally had it slated as the b-feature to THE DEADLY ANGELS, but I think that one ended up being paired with THE 5 DEADLY VENOMS instead. EXECUTIONERS OF DEATH was supposed to be paired with THE ANGRY GUEST, which was retitled KUNG FU KILLERS when we saw it on "Drive-In Movie." Other World Northal double bills that were announced but may not have actually been released as planned were MARCO POLO (later retitled THE 4 ASSASSINS) w/ NAVAL COMMANDOS, BLOODY BOXER w/ 7 MAN ARMY, and AVENGING EAGLE w/ INVINCIBLE KUNG FU.
Wang Yu did a movie called SCREAMING TIGER (1973) where he fought the main villain on top of a moving train at the end. It's also another of the Chinese vs. Japanese type movies. I wonder if it's the same one under a different title?
Cheng Tseng Chai also directed some other rare movies that didn't get released on DVD like REDBEARD ('71) and THE GAMBLING SYNDICATE ('75). The former is around in bootleg form in fan circles. A while back I posted some photos from a spread on the making of the movie. It looked really unusual from the typical action films of the time. I got the lobby set for GAMBLING SYNDICATE and it looks like more in the same vein as QUEEN HUSTLER and THE CASINO, only possibly not nearly as gory and violent as the last one. Cheng was apparently high on Danny Lee. He used him as the lead in RIVER OF FURY (1973), GAMBLING SYNDICATE (1975) and co-star in QUEEN HUSTLER.
I remember seeing the trailer for THE FOUR ASSASSINS at the drive in. Didn't catch up with it till the early 90's from an uncut Dutch tape under its original MARCO POLO title.
Does anyone know what "Blood Kick: Kung Fu of the 5 Hand Ninja" is? I know that the ad is from c.1988. I can't seem to find out anything on the names("Marcel Giroux", "Alain Francois" ect.) or the director "B. Inbar". It's also interesting to see that this mystery film was released by none other than Terry Levene and his Aquarius Releasing? It makes me wonder if any of the names in this ad are real ;)
Jean-Claude Van Damme's breakout film BLOODSPORT was released in April 1988 and was such a big hit that Terry Levene rushed something called BLOOD KICK out to a dozen-plus New York area theaters barely a month later. Levene even got it booked into the Criterion Center, where the two "blood" films shared the marquee for a week in late May (along with RAMBO III, SALSA and MANIAC COP). We can tell you that this is a re-release of KUNG FU OF THE FIVE HAND NINJA GANG, which Aquarius had unleashed in November '83, but we don't know too much more about the movie (we just uploaded the ad with the others, so you can check it out). We'll look through out Gore Gazettes but we don't recall any of the 'zines covering this flick under either title. When we interviewed Levene in December '89 and asked him about the movie he told us "That was a trick-up job of something, I think it was FORCED TO FIGHT" -- but take that with a grain of salt. He also told us that BURIED ALIVE had played 450 theaters in the U.S. when 4 was probably a more accurate number. And yes, all the names on the BLOOD KICK ad are bogus.
"Wang Yu did a movie called SCREAMING TIGER (1973) where he fought the main villain on top of a moving train at the end. It's also another of the Chinese vs. Japanese type movies. I wonder if it's the same one under a different title?"
This fight was also spliced into BRUCE LEE: SUPERDRAGON.
We screened the first reel of a print with the BLOODKICK: KUNG-FU OF THE FIVE HAND NINJA GANG title card at an American Genre Film Archive event tonight, and I can confirm that it is indeed FORCED TO FIGHT (INVINCIBLE SUPER CHAN).
There's some really nice ads there. It's cool to see that QUEEN HUSTLER (1975) played outside of Asia in a dubbed format. It was a movie I was looking forward to seeing on DVD, but never got a chance to be released before IVL's license ran out. I got the original poster and lobby set and it looks like a good time. HK's then Queen of exploitation, Chen Ping is the star.
ReplyDeleteThe director was an award winning filmmaker, believe it or not. His action packed spaghetti Eastern, THE FUGITIVE (1972) is a great piece of escapist entertainment and the gore addled THE CASINO (1972) is no doubt the progenitor to all those gambling movies that came later.
I'm curious if FISTS OF VENGEANCE is the same Shaw production from 1973 called THE DEADLY KNIVES with Ling Yun. The Chinese actor known as Tommy Lee isn't in the movie, or the other flick that bears the FOV title. Not seen the latter, but his name isn't listed among the credits.
This FISTS OF VENGEANCE is from 1974 and is a.k.a. TWO FISTS VS. SEVEN SAMURAI. We caught this on WPIX (Channel 11) in N.Y.C. back in December '83 and recall a long, impressive fight atop a moving freight train as the climax. Cinema Shares released it theatrically circa 1978.
ReplyDeleteWe've never seen QUEEN HUSTLER, but would like to check it out one of these days. World Northal originally had it slated as the b-feature to THE DEADLY ANGELS, but I think that one ended up being paired with THE 5 DEADLY VENOMS instead. EXECUTIONERS OF DEATH was supposed to be paired with THE ANGRY GUEST, which was retitled KUNG FU KILLERS when we saw it on "Drive-In Movie." Other World Northal double bills that were announced but may not have actually been released as planned were MARCO POLO (later retitled THE 4 ASSASSINS) w/ NAVAL COMMANDOS, BLOODY BOXER w/ 7 MAN ARMY, and AVENGING EAGLE w/ INVINCIBLE KUNG FU.
Wang Yu did a movie called SCREAMING TIGER (1973) where he fought the main villain on top of a moving train at the end. It's also another of the Chinese vs. Japanese type movies. I wonder if it's the same one under a different title?
ReplyDeleteCheng Tseng Chai also directed some other rare movies that didn't get released on DVD like REDBEARD ('71) and THE GAMBLING SYNDICATE ('75). The former is around in bootleg form in fan circles. A while back I posted some photos from a spread on the making of the movie. It looked really unusual from the typical action films of the time. I got the lobby set for GAMBLING SYNDICATE and it looks like more in the same vein as QUEEN HUSTLER and THE CASINO, only possibly not nearly as gory and violent as the last one. Cheng was apparently high on Danny Lee. He used him as the lead in RIVER OF FURY (1973), GAMBLING SYNDICATE (1975) and co-star in QUEEN HUSTLER.
I remember seeing the trailer for THE FOUR ASSASSINS at the drive in. Didn't catch up with it till the early 90's from an uncut Dutch tape under its original MARCO POLO title.
Does anyone know what "Blood Kick: Kung Fu of the 5 Hand Ninja" is? I know that the ad is from c.1988. I can't seem to find out anything on the names("Marcel Giroux", "Alain Francois" ect.) or the director "B. Inbar". It's also interesting to see that this mystery film was released by none other than Terry Levene and his Aquarius Releasing? It makes me wonder if any of the names in this ad are real ;)
ReplyDeleteJean-Claude Van Damme's breakout film BLOODSPORT was released in April 1988 and was such a big hit that Terry Levene rushed something called BLOOD KICK out to a dozen-plus New York area theaters barely a month later. Levene even got it booked into the Criterion Center, where the two "blood" films shared the marquee for a week in late May (along with RAMBO III, SALSA and MANIAC COP). We can tell you that this is a re-release of KUNG FU OF THE FIVE HAND NINJA GANG, which Aquarius had unleashed in November '83, but we don't know too much more about the movie (we just uploaded the ad with the others, so you can check it out). We'll look through out Gore Gazettes but we don't recall any of the 'zines covering this flick under either title. When we interviewed Levene in December '89 and asked him about the movie he told us "That was a trick-up job of something, I think it was FORCED TO FIGHT" -- but take that with a grain of salt. He also told us that BURIED ALIVE had played 450 theaters in the U.S. when 4 was probably a more accurate number. And yes, all the names on the BLOOD KICK ad are bogus.
ReplyDeleteChris, did you or Paul manage to see very many of these films theatrically?
ReplyDeleteNot a single one of them, Robert.
ReplyDelete"Wang Yu did a movie called SCREAMING TIGER (1973) where he fought the main villain on top of a moving train at the end. It's also another of the Chinese vs. Japanese type movies. I wonder if it's the same one under a different title?"
ReplyDeleteThis fight was also spliced into BRUCE LEE: SUPERDRAGON.
Wooow! What a kung-fu movies!some of them are really rare.
ReplyDeleteA greeting from Spain¡
We screened the first reel of a print with the BLOODKICK: KUNG-FU OF THE FIVE HAND NINJA GANG title card at an American Genre Film Archive event tonight, and I can confirm that it is indeed FORCED TO FIGHT (INVINCIBLE SUPER CHAN).
ReplyDelete