Der Boss von San Francisco

That's what it was called when I saw it sometime around 1982. It was playing in a rundown theater in Denton, TX with my then boyfriend. We were in college in Denton and were huge Chuck Norris fans. We'd seen every 1 of his movies up to that point and the theater was advertising this 1. It was so bad that it played like a comedy. The dubbing was so awful that the dog physically barked and then you heard it 5 seconds later. Aside from this 1, I still like his movies.

****SPOILERS*** A blond beach-boy looking Chuck Norris playing top San Francisco mob drug kingpin Chuckie Slaughter does his best to keep a straight face in this movie that if anything should have earned him the top acting Academy Award honors for 1974. Norris in his first staring role plays the baddest of bad guys, having a gangster-like voice dubbed in, who not only runs the city's top drug operation but is as crude and uncouth towards the ladies in the movie as Jack the Ripper or Ted Bundy. It's Chuckie's attempt to rape his kid brother Paul's fiancée Sylvia Chu that in the end did him in and put him under. With former SFDP cop, and now restaurant waiter, Wong in taking him as his gang out and making chop suey out of them.

Wong who was framed by Chuckie's under-link Capt. Newman in a bank robbery that Chuckie and his boys pulled off that ended up killing Wong's police partner Robert Jones. As for the robbery it was blamed, with planted false evidence, on Mr. & Mrs. Chu, Sylvia's parents, who just happened to live next door to the bank that was held up. With Wong determined to find those that murdered his partner he discovers that his former boss Captain Newman was behind it. After kidnapping Newman and with a little friendly persuasion, like hanging him by his you know what, Wong finds out that Chuckie was the master mind behind this entire crime wave, as well as police and political pay-offs, that's sweeping the city.

***SPOILERS*** The final showdown has Wong take on Chuckie and his gang on their own turf with Chickie & Co. getting the worst of it. It was when Wong dumped Chuckie in the duck pond and his his yellow hair dye bleach started to run he finally called it quits. It was far more humiliating to Chuckie Slaughter to end up not being blond, since in his mind blonds have more fun, then taking a whopping from Wong whom at the time, before being dunked, he was more then holding his own against.

My review was written in September 1981 after a Times Square screening:

Filmed in 1973 but just released domestically to cash in on the presence of currently hot chop-socky star Chuck Norris in the cast, "Slaughter in San Francisco" is a curiosity item representing an early by Raymond Chow's Golden Harvest ("Cannonball Run", "The Big Brawl") to shoot a film in the U. S. Entirely lensed on the West Coast", "Slaughter" nevertheless retains all the defects of a Hong Kong entry (atrocious dubbing and sound effects, tinny score, zoom-crazed camera and wooden acting). Martial arts fans may feel ripped off by the presence of supposedly "starring" Norris in a supporting role.

Clearly designed for the Far East audience, pic is set in a mythical "Daly CIty" (supposedly near S. F.) where the police are so ruthless they will kill suspects who refuse to confess. This exaggerated parallel world has all the Caucasian cast members portrayed as evil, including Norris, who looks and dresses much the same as in his familiar heroic roles, but is cast here as a mean gang leader so nasty that he tries to rape his brother's fiancee.

Don Wong is the nominal Chinese hero, an ex-cop out to avenge the murder of his Black partner. Norris' gang is responsible and after numerous 20 against one kung fu battles for Wong, the agile thesp finally goes up against Norris in a well-shot finale. If his fans can last out the tedium until this point, they may get a kick out of seeing invincible Chuck get soundly thrashed.

A suspended San Francisco cop (Wong) is sloving the case of the murder of his african american partner who was beat up by chinese. Then at the end of the movie,he had a fight with Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris voice is not heard on the movie, it was dubbed by British people. I wish it had his real voice in the flim.

I like it.

I give it a *****.

I must of been despondent after watching this, or in complete stupefaction. I didn't find one thing about this dull action film or it's lead, entertaining, except bad arse drug kingpin, Chuck Norris being dubbed with an evil voice that actually boosts his performance if taking it from a 7 to a 200. You truly expect much more from this dull cheapie, and judging by the faded shot of Chuck, looking completely serious, sporting his moustache with a thinner face, you automatically assume, he's a good guy. If one can only wish. I'd know the end result would be much better than this waste of time, I had seen this tape looming on the shelves in the 80's and wondered what it would be like. If only it could of lived up to my expectations. Well, I might just get my cheap laughs from Chuckie, play bad, of course with a lot of help from some dubbed voice. Dubbed films are funny though, and it's kind of cool when you see people's lips move differently to the words that are uttered. This film isn't cool. It's a shame as it doesn't have a bad plot. It's just a "go nowhere" film that's unequivocally dull.