1987
- Strike Commando (Flora Film)
[Italian
production shot in the Philippines]
Director/Editor
“Vincent Dawn”/Bruno Mattei Story “Vincent Dawn”/Bruno
Mattei, “Clyde Anderson”/Claudio Fragasso Screenplay/Assistant
Director “Clyde Anderson”/Claudio Fragasso Producer Franco
Gaudenzi Cinematography Richard "Gras”/Grassetti Music
"Lou"/Luigi Ceccarelli Production Supervisor Rocky Coleman
Production Manager “Oscar Faradyne” [possibly another screen name
for Luciano Pigozzi] Art Director “Bart Scavya”/Mimmo Scavia
Special Effects Rodolfo Torrente Makeup "Peter"/Pietro
Tenoglio Costumes Valentina Palmer, Tigano Lo Faro [Rome] Assistant
Cameraman "Al Chessar"/Aldo Chessari Head Grip Charles
Brody Best Boy Bart "Chessar"/Chessari Assistant Editor
“Lilian Matthews” Dialogue Director Gene Luotto
Cast
Reb Brown (Michael Ransom) Christopher “Connely”/Connelly (Col.
Radek), “Loes Kamma”/Louise Kamsteeg (Olga), “Alan
Collins”/Luciano Pigozzi (Le Duc), Alex Vitale (Jakoda), Karen
Lopez (Cho-Li), Philip Gordon, Edison Navarro (Lao), Ricardo Santos,
“James Gainers”/Jim Gaines (Radek's soldier), Fred Gahudo, Juliet
D. Lee (Diem), Rose De Guida (Radek's receptionist), Rene’ Abadeza
(Viet Cong soldier), Charly Patino [IMDB lists as Charlie Patiro?],
[uncredited] Mike Monty (Major Harriman), William Berger [voice:
English version] (Maj. Harriman), David Brass (Martin Boomer - POW in
Jakoda's camp), Michael Welborn (Radek's Soldier), James McKenzie
(Radek's soldier), Massimo Vanni
Mini-review
by Andrew Leavold
First
of Italian director Mattei and writer/AD Claudio Fragasso's premier
batch of basic, workman-like, charming and utterly entertaining
knockoffs of much better made knockoffs, shot around the former
Apocalypse Now sets in Pagsanjan, and featuring Reb Brown as a
typically shirtless, bemuscled Spaghetti Rambo named Ransom, an
American commando left for dead behind North Vietnamese lines by the
snake-like Colonel Radek (Christopher Connelly, also in Ruggero
Deodato's Filipino-shot Raiders Of Atlantis [1983]) and rescued by
sympathetic villagers in a former French mission under the frazzled
alcoholic Le Duc (Antonio Margheriti's favoured "old man"
character actor Alan Collins, aka Luciano Pigozzi). Once rescued, he
implores Radek and his former commando leader Major Harriman (Mike
Monty) to send him back behind enemy lines to confirm rumours of two
Russians helping the VC, in return for liberating the villagers.
Instead Ransom finds his friends, including a young woman and boy,
massacred, and is captured by the bald Russian giant Jakoda (The
Bronx Executioner's Alex Vitale) and beautiful cohort Olga (underused
Italian starlet “Loes Kamma”/Louise Kamsteeg), who intend to
break his spirit and exploit his "war machine" reputation
in their propaganda war against the West - he's strung up, beaten
with poles, burnt with oil lamps, and trapped with the fly-covered
corpse of his former cellmate, American POW Boomer (David Brass).
Naturally a VC camp can't hold Ransom and he breaks out in a flurry
of exploding huts and machine gun blasts before facing off against
Jakoda in what I call the film's "Bruno Moment", the
jaw-unhinging tangent present in every Mattei knockoff, and in Strike
Commando, the sight of two shirtless no-necks butting heads and
kicking each other in the balls, before Ransom punches him over a
waterfall (yelling "Americanskiiiiii!!!" all the way down)
and unleashing a primal "Whoaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!!!!!" Bruno's
American cast is uniformly decent, as is Vitale, who Mattei clearly
envisages as his own Richard Kiel (even down to Jakoda's ragged metal
dentures!), and the Filipino regulars are also on parade - Juliet
Lee, a Chinese-Filipino actress later in Bruno's Double Target (1987)
and production manager on Claudio's Zombi 4: After Death (1988), is
Jakoda's black-bereted VC crony who gets to kick the living Jesus out
of Ransom; Jim Gaines Jr, his bright red headband recognizable
through the chopper's windows at 200 metres, plays Radek's radio
operator, and Michael Welborn makes a brief appearance as a GI.
Followed by an in-name-only follow-up.
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