Movie Ad of the Week: VICIOUS CONNECTION (1973)

The Toho production HANGYAKU NO HŌSHŪ opened in Honolulu on June 29, 1973 under the title VICIOUS CONNECTION. The Honolulu Advertiser wrote: "VICIOUS CONNECTION, dealing with dope traffic from Vietnam to Tokyo and Okinawa, is the new movie at the Toho Theatre. Tetsuya Watari plays a photographer who uses his camera as a blackmail weapon. He is on the trail of a narcotics smuggler (Mikio Narita) and his beautiful contact (Haruko Wanibuchi). Watari meets a former gangster (Yujiro Ishihara) who is seeking revenge against Narita, his former partner. Watari and Ishihara become allies and hijack the dope shipment. But Narita threatens the life of Haruko, who turns out to be Ishihara's sister, and demands the dope in return for the girl."

Co-billed with ZATOICHI'S CONSPIRACY, it hit the Toho La Brea in Los Angeles on October 20, 1973...

...and the Kokusai in San Francisco on December 26, 1973.

The IMDb lists it as REBELLION REWARD. Anyone know where to get a copy?

Movie Ad of the Week: THE TOURNAMENT (1973)

For those of you who read my article for the Deuce's Mubi Notebook last week, The Samurai Cinema Slaughter of '74, here's an interesting footnote: Before he made wide release action movies like DEATH MACHINES, WEAPONS OF DEATH and OMEGA COP, filmmaker Paul Kyriazi shot a handful of color 16mm karate/swordplay shorts such as BLADE OF DOOM and TRAPPED that were contemporary remakes of SWORD OF DOOM and THREE OUTLAW SAMURAI.  The last of these was THE TOURNAMENT, an hour-long period samurai movie that Kyriazi filmed in 35mm black-and-white Techniscope with a cast that includes Jennifer Ashley, later seen in THE CENTERFOLD GIRLS, BARN OF THE NAKED DEAD, PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, INSEMINOID and others. There were screenings, including the four in this ad for the Gemini Cinema in Lompoc, CA in September 1973, before the film was picked up by a non-theatrical distribution company called Threshold Films and converted to 16mm for the college circuit. Only a 3/4-inch copy of THE TOURNAMENT survives today, and it was included as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray release of Kyriazi's NINJA BUSTERS from Garagehouse Films.