Mystery Movie Solved! HAN BO WARRIOR (1982)

Here's a 2-for-1 deal: one movie that solves two mysteries! Alice Hsia's Transmedia Distribution Corp. released seven martial arts movies in the early '80s, six of which starred Billy Chong (KUNG FU EXECUTIONER, A HARD WAY TO DIE, SUPER POWER, JADE CLAW, KUNG FU ZOMBIE, A FIST FULL OF TALONS). The seventh, HAN BO WARRIOR, opened in only two theaters in midtown Manhattan on August 13, 1982 before traveling to the outer boroughs, Jersey, Connecticut and action theaters elsewhere, which leads us to the conclusion that Transmedia only had two prints. It turns out HAN BO WARRIOR was 10 years old at this point; a recent investigation by the sleuths here at Temple of Schlock revealed its true identity as MENG HU XIA SHAN/THE RAGE OF WIND (1972), starring Chen Sing and Yasuaki Kurata.

The film stayed in circulation for almost two years. Here it is playing second fiddle to MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY in a Baltimore grindhouse (courtesy of Washington D.C. sub-distributor Ross Wheeler) the week of February 10, 1984.

Below is a funny article written by Baltimore Sun syndicated columnist Matt Seiden about his experience attending the MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY w/ HAN BO WARRIOR double bill.

Meanwhile, the World Northal "Black Belt Theater" television packages were earning great ratings for channels like WNEW 5 in New York, which ran martial arts movies every Saturday afternoon on their DRIVE-IN MOVIE program. One movie I always wondered about was THE NINJA WARLORD, which premiered on DRIVE-IN MOVIE on February 26, 1983. The TV listing below gets the date wrong and the plot turned around --

A Hong Kong production where the Japanese are the good guys? Yeah, anyway, when the Transmedia films were picked up by World Northal for inclusion in the "Black Belt II" package, the title of HAN BO WARRIOR was changed to THE NINJA WARLORD (Right, because in addition to always being the villains, all Japanese are ninjas!). In other words, the film was still playing the kung fu circuit as HAN BO WARRIOR while showing on TV as THE NINJA WARLORD. As an elderly Italian-American co-worker of mine used to say, "Nice in America!"

Movie Ad of the Week: THE FLOWER WITH THE DEADLY STING (1975)

The giallo IL FIORE DAI PETALI D'ACCIAIO/THE FLOWER WITH STEEL PETALS (1973) -- directed by Gianfranco Piccioli and starring Carroll Baker, Gianni Garko and Pilar Velázquez -- opened in Boston as THE FLOWER WITH THE DEADLY STING on August 22, 1975.

Mystery Movie solved! LADY LEE'S REVENGE (1978)

Another day, another Ark Films release without a billing block -- but once we recognized Kathy 'Kat' Lee as Polly Shang-Kuan, LADY LEE'S REVENGE (U.S. release: 1978) was pretty easy to nail down as GAN LIAN ZHU DAI PO HONG LIAN SI / GAN LIAN ZHU DESTROYS THE RED LOTUS (1976) a.k.a. HEROINE KAN LIEN CHU. The above ad is from Odessa, TX on March 6th, 1981 (The second feature, HAMMERFIST, is the John Liu movie RENEGADE MONK). The ad below is from Miami on January 19, 1979.

Movie Ads of the Week: Toho's "Bloodthirsty Trilogy" in Hawaii!

THE VAMPIRE DOLL
February 24, 1971

LAKE OF DRACULA
June 19, 1971

EVIL OF DRACULA
August 30, 1974

EVIL OF DRACULA w/ THE VAMPIRE DOLL
August 10, 1979

Mystery Movies solved! SAVAGE RIDERS and TORNADO ON WHEELS (both 1973)

Seven years ago we did a Mystery Movie post about two unidentified motorcycle movies, THE SAVAGE RIDERS and TORNADO ON WHEELS, and we're happy to report that both films have now been ID'd with help from Temple of Schlock contributor Mike MacCollum. Shot in 1972 as A HARD RIDE TO THE MOVIES, the R-rated THE SAVAGE RIDERS was directed by hardcore filmmaker Jack Genero and stars Robert Harvey, Darlene Genero and Chuck Wells. TORNADO ON WHEELS, which was released with a G rating by the Dallas Film Exchange during the 1973-1974 drive-in season, is actually I FIDANZATI DELLA MORTE/THE BOYFRIENDS OF DEATH (1957), a widescreen color Italian film dubbed into English and starring Rik Battaglia and Sylva Koscina. A print was recently restored through a crowdfunding campaign by Fenland Classic Motorcycles and can now be purchased on DVD here.

Thanks again to Mike MacCollum, who was at the Skyline Drive-In in August 2015 when the only known print of THE SAVAGE RIDERS was shown as part of the Skyline's weekend late-night "Drive-Insanity" series.

Movie Ads of the Week: Dragon Lee in New York!

THE REAL BRUCE LEE
April 13, 1979

DRAGON ON FIRE
July 4, 1980

RAGE OF THE DRAGON
December 26, 1980

THE CLONES OF BRUCE LEE
April 17, 1981

GOLDEN DRAGON, SILVER SNAKE
October 9, 1981

THE DEADLY SILVER NINJA
February 5, 1982

DRAGON'S INFERNO
April 23, 1982

JUSTICE OF THE DRAGON
October 1, 1982

ENTER THE DEADLY DRAGON
October 8, 1982

THE DRAGON'S SHOWDOWN
February 11, 1983

DRAGON LEE VS. THE 5 BROTHERS
February 18, 1983

THE MARTIAL MONKS
January 27, 1984

THE SECRET NINJA
February 24, 1984

THE DEADLY DRAGON FIGHTS AGAIN
March 2, 1984

Mystery Movie solved! BLACK BELT ANGELS (1980)

There's a big empty space on this poster where the billing block should be, but we've managed to identify BLACK BELT ANGELS (U.S. release: 1980) as FEI YAN SHUANG JIAO (1978), a.k.a. THE LADY CONSTABLES, starring Angela Mao and Judy Lee.

Movie Ads of the Week: Sonny Chiba in New York!

THE STREET FIGHTER
January 29, 1975

RETURN OF THE STREET FIGHTER
August 13, 1975

THE KILLING MACHINE
January 21, 1976

CHAMPION OF DEATH
October 20, 1976

SISTER STREET FIGHTER
March 11, 1977

THE BODYGUARD
September 30, 1977

THE EXECUTIONER
July 19, 1978

"The Sonny Chiba Film Festival"
January 12, 1979

THE STREETFIGHTER'S LAST REVENGE
April 6, 1979

THE ASSASSIN
November 23, 1979

"Big Triple Show"
January 4, 1980

KARATE WARRIORS
June 6, 1980

DRAGON PRINCESS
January 9, 1981

ROARING FIRE
December 10, 1982

Movie Ad of the Week: THUNDER WARRIOR (1985)

The Italian action film THUNDER, filmed in Arizona and Utah in 1983, opened in two theaters in Nashville as THUNDER WARRIOR on August 30, 1985. The distributor, VPD International, was the short-lived theatrical arm of Trans World Entertainment run by Sunil Shah (before he left to form Imperial Entertainment). Most people who saw this BILLY JACK meets FIRST BLOOD ripoff, which stars Bo Svenson and Mark Gregory, either rented the Trans World videocassette or caught it on cable TV. Two direct-to-video sequels followed.

Movie Ad of the Week: DRAG-ON TOKER (1978)

The "high flying" and "hard hitting" kung fu joint called DRAG-ON TOKER (THE KUNG FU SMOKER) beat Cheech & Chong's UP IN SMOKE to theaters by at least six months. Here it is in Orangeburg, SC on March 10, 1978. "What the hell is the real title" you ask? It's actually SHAO LIN BAN PAN TU (1977) a.k.a. SHAOLIN TRAITOR. Mmm, good stuff!

Movie Ad of the Week: PLAY DEAD w/ SPLATTER UNIVERSITY (1986)

The three-screen Sunset Drive-in theater in Colchester, VT ran a double bill of Troma horror films on May 16, 1986. PLAY DEAD, shot in 1981, stars Yvonne De Carlo as a wealthy woman with supernatural powers who uses her pet rottweiler Greta to kill off her family members over a past misdeed. The second feature, Richard W. Haines' SPLATTER UNIVERSITY (1984), was filmed around the New York tri-state area mostly in 1981, with some additional scenes shot in 1982 to expand the film to feature length.

Movie Ad of the Week: THE HUNTER WILL GET YOU (1982)

L'ALPAGUEUR/THE HUNTER WILL GET YOU! (1976), an action thriller from France directed by Philippe Labro and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Bruno Cremer, opened in Tallahassee, FL on November 28, 1982.

Movie Ad of the Week: REVOLT OF KUNG FU LEE (1977)

A double bill of REVOLT OF KUNG FU LEE and THUNDERFIST opened at the Fox Theater in downtown Detroit on October 12, 1977.

REVOLT OF KUNG FU LEE is TIE HAN (1973) a.k.a. THE IRON MAN, starring Yu Wang (Jimmy Wang Yu).

The second feature, THUNDERFIST, is originally titled ZE WANG and is also known as DEATH BLOW. Rated PG and advertised as "the first kung fu karate motion picture for family audiences," it first appeared in U.S. theaters in October 1973 from Artisan Releasing Corporation, a short-lived distribution company that also released THINGS FALL APART, DON'T LEAVE GO MY HAND (a.k.a. BLACK HOOKER), a reissue of the concert film SOUL TO SOUL, and possibly a second martial arts film called THE COBRA KNOWS NO MERCY. The head of Artisan was jazz pianist James LaMont Johnson, whose LaMont Johnson Quintet did the music for THUNDERFIST. Johnson later ran two other exploitation film distribution companies, Twin World Films (BARN OF THE NAKED DEAD) and Elmark General Film Corporation (WHEN DRAGONS COLLIDE), and passed away in 1999 at age 58.

Movie Ad of the Week: THE DARK SIDE OF TOMORROW (1970) a.k.a. JUST THE TWO OF US (1973)

THE DARK SIDE OF TOMORROW, "a tormentingly sensitive love story" co-written and directed by Barbara Peeters, opened in Philadelphia on December 2, 1970.

By the time Harry Novak's Box-Office International re-released the film in 1973 as JUST THE TWO OF US, Peeters was working for Roger Corman and had directed BURY ME AN ANGEL for his New World Pictures. The ad above is from the Montgomery, Alabama opening on July 6, 1973.