pmc-17741

I recall seeing this movie on our local CBS station late night Friday Chiller Theater. That was likely 1977 or 1978. The movie makes more sense if back then when WWII was merely 30+ years away and my dear dad was a career Army kid as an officer in the Far East, but I knew of kids who dads fought into Nazi Germany and the artifacts they captured. Our dad had a Samurai sword, for example.

Buy and update to a blu ray player and that blu ray has multiple commentaries. The directors first US movie, for example, they had no distributor. They only had a few couples and had to drive the reels from city to city which became impossible. That is why it saw early TV distribution.

Compare this movie to Zombie Lake, Oasis of the Zombies, or Night of the Zombies and Shockwaves is miles above this other more mainstream drive in B mess ups. Sure it could of been improved, but the newer stuff does not appeal to me as do not need to see blood and guts being eaten over and over.

I have seen and own the Hammer trilogy that is famous for being one of the first to adapt the story, and I would call them tame by 1980 standards, but yet still interesting to view. I would say the same for this adaption. Being 60, I grew up in the era of plot driven stories that at drama and so do not believe that every movie is non stop action as it has been since 2000. It is not a porn flick either, it is an attempt to understand the author point of view. There are other adaptions from this time period that I have not seen. I found a new Blu Ray and paid less than $30 for it and will add to my library of fine films and movies as well as B movies that I love.

Back in the day of 1983, I was 22 and really did not care about quality in movies like I do now at 60. There is a place for cheesy movies or drive in movies, but Cannon chose to skip and save on each budget to hoped to fund their next idiot production of knock off movies. I caught Wicked Lady 1983 for the first and final time after doing a Faye Dunaway search. When I saw the other movies were Cannon, I did not expect much. A period movie with customs was nice, but cannot compare to Richard Lester the 3 and 4 Musketeers and see for yourself the difference in quality. In defense of Michael Winner, he was a mans man director, meaning his style worked best with men who were stage actors and needed little or no direction, they could improvise out on rugged locations. Chato's Land a release by United Artist.