The Ransom

This was one of the b-thrillers of the '70s released when there was the craze of the ''Dirty Harry'' movies (until the mid-1980s), and it has an unusual plot.

A sniper (Victor) hops around in a town where he kills people and demands that he wants money so he can stop his killing spree! So a tough law enforcer tries to stop the killer with every possible solution.

This thriller is very tame in comparison to flicks like ''Mitchell''; there is no blood, no sex scenes, and not much bad words. The problem is the script full of holes; Victor is a sniper (and former swimmer) that has a bone to pick with the USA because of his Vietnam war experience. His motives are explained in the end credits song, and to complete the weird stuff, he dresses as a native American and kills his victims with a jagged crossbow! So the city folks hire macho detective McCormick, and then the movie unfolds in a slow pace, with cheesy action sequences and subplots about the characters. But the ending it's a bit surprising, and the hero ends his killing spree with clean hands and with the money. It seemed to me that they compensated the plot holes with some nice shots of the Phoenix mountains in Arizona!

The actors are the true high-lights of the movie: Oliver Reed steals the scene with his bombastic appearence, but his only flaw is that his drunkness has the first focus on the movie instead of the plot, and in certain scenes talks like growling. By the way, Oliver Reed even here gives a great performance, and it's also funny to look at in some scenes. It's supported by few famous actors of those years: John Ireland, James Mitchum as a tracker, and Stuart Whitman as an arrogant milionaire are very good in their roles.

If you want to look some '70s thrillers of the Dirty Harry type, pick this one. It's a decent time-passer for an hour and a half.

In the town of Paradise, Arizona, shady land deals enrich a handful of select few. A Native American (Paul Koslo) travels around a resort town, murdering cops and rich people with a high-powered crossbow, while demanding that the town's richest residents pay him money to stop the killings. The psycho starts killing people in the small town and refuses to stop until he receives several million ransom. The town's mayor and sheriff are corrupt and aware of the land schemes. Incensed by this, native-American Victor plans to extort money from the rich as punishment for the land they stole. He starts by killing two local cops with his crossbow. He leaves a note claiming the rich must pay a ransom or die. He demands a lot of money to be delivered within 24 hours. The Chief of police, Haliburton (John Ireland) , contacts local businessman William Whitaker (Stuart Whitman) and they decide to keep the whole thing confidential. They don't want the Press or the Feds involved since it could reveal the local land frauds. In fact, there is a nosy reporter (Deborah Raffin) snooping here and there. Instead, they hire private security investigator Nick McCormick (Oliver Reed). The latter hires a tracker (James Mitchum) who he takes out of prison to follow the tracks of the relentless killer. The maniac kills anywhere... anytime! Their agony was his ecstasy!.They called it paradise - but it was Hell on Earth!.In Paradise, Arizona, money doesn't talk... it screams. Killing is his passion, money is his motive !.

Moving film with silly and non-sense in the extreme script, really violent at times, but with lack of originality, campy dialogue , a lot of plentiful action scenes, including wild car chases , pursuits, thrills and violence. This is a medium-budget American movie concerning a young Indian exacts a strong vendetta. A Western-style film set in Arizona, although a bit more contemporary than the old west. Starring Whitman as the richest man in the town, Oliver Reed as the mercenary hired to kill the extorsionist played by Paul Koslo. The latter is a native Indian who turns into one army man , spending several minutes destroying property , shooting by means a crossbow to police officers and other contenders. As revenge is the top priority , as the protagonist tormenting and reckoning the bad guys along the way. The picture deals with usual theme in the cinema of the 60s and 70s : a merciless vendetta. There are some slow moments, but worse than these are the unanswered questions about why the murderer dresses like an American Indian and what this motive really is. The main and support cast is made up of known actors giving functional interpretations, such as: Oliver Reed, Deborah Raffin, James Mitchum, Stuart Whitman, John Ireland and Paul Koslo.

The motion picture was mediocrely directed by Richard Compton. Richard had a long film career. His debut feature "The French Way", was never released in America. Compton followed this film with the nifty biker flick Angels Die Hard (1970), which was the first movie to be released by Roger Corman's New World Pictures. Compton then did the excellent and unjustly overlooked psycho Vietnam veterans exploitation winner Welcome Home Soldier Boys (1971). He scored his biggest hit with the outstanding cult classic Macon County Line (1974); the unexpected enormous box-office success of this movie begot a handful of similar Southern-fried "don't go down to Dixie" drive-in pictures, which include Jackson County Jail (1976), A Small Town in Texas (1976), and Nightmare in Badham County (1976). He followed directing the tepid semi-sequel Return to Macon County (1975) and a post-nuke sci-fi picture, Ravagers (1979). In the early 1980s Compton began directing more and more for television; he's done several made-for-TV pictures and numerous episodes of famous TV series. ¨The Ransom¨ rating: 5/10. Average but passable and acceptable at times.

"The Ransom" has a great basic premise, about a lone (wannabe?) native American who kills random rich people with his crossbow and threatens to continue until the corrupt landowners in his county pay him $3,000,000. "The Ransom" also has an ensemble cast that is every B-movie fanatic's dream come true, including Oliver Reed, John Ireland, Paul Kelso, James Mitchum, and Stuart Whitman. Put two and two together and you've got an unhinged 70s action/exploitation classic, you'd think, but somehow this film is only mediocre. Not great, certainly not bad, ...just mediocre.

None of the characters are particularly memorable. Reed, as the hired hunter, isn't the eccentric or relentless psychopath he could have been in a role like this. Whitman, as the leader of the rich pack, is a jerk but not the loathsome creep he could - and should - have been. And something similar can be said about all characters. Deborah Raffin, the only woman in the cast, got the worst deal. Her character is docile, naïve, and redundant. The script is severely lacking as well. Reed and C° hunt for loony Kelso, but they don't really have a plan. So, the latter just hides out in the desert, or in Whitman's giant mansion, or within the crowd during the town's folk festival, and occasionally shoots a few arrows in people's stomachs. Still though, it's enjoyable 70s guff, with a handful of cool scenes and a neat soundtrack.

An American Indian named Victor (Paul Koslo, "The Stone Killer") is running around an Arizona town picking off people with his trusty crossbow. What he wants is for all the local fat cats to pay him a million to make him stop the killings. The richest jerk in the area, William Whitaker (Stuart Whitman, "The Comancheros"), hires a mercenary, Nick McCormick (Oliver Reed, "The Devils") to work on behalf of him and his peers. Since these particular fat cats are by and large a corrupt bunch, they would rather not use the regular legal channels. John Ireland ("I Saw What You Did") is the rather useless sheriff, Jim Mitchum ("Trackdown") a local hired for his tracking skills, and Deborah Raffin ("Death Wish 3") the reporter who takes a shine to gruff stranger-in-town Reed.

Directed by the late cult filmmaker Richard Compton ("Macon County Line"), "The Ransom" (also known as "Maniac!" and "Assault on Paradise") is decent entertainment, as far as it goes. There's nothing particularly interesting or different about it, it just tells a passable, routine story in capable fashion. It does have some good set pieces, whether they be vehicular chases or a stalking / suspense sequence set at Whitakers' estate. It is rather amusing, and ridiculous, how Victor is almost always way ahead of everybody else. He seems to have little trouble infiltrating defences and acquiring excellent vantage points. Nicely photographed (by Charles Correll) in scope, and scored (by Don Ellis), it moves along pretty well, but never gives us much info about, or insight into, the characters. Most of them are ciphers. And very little is done with many of the plot details.

Still, it's a treat to see Reed do just about anything, and here he gets to be moderately badass and try out an American accent. Raffins' reporter is a largely useless character, but Whitman is fun as the cranky moneybags who becomes increasingly frustrated over Victors' success and McCormicks' insistence on doing things his way.

Overall, a reasonable way to kill an hour and a half, with a fairly high body count but not much in the way of gore.

Six out of 10.

I am a great fan of novelist James Hadley Chase, a prolific writer of crime stories, between the late thirties and mid eighties, stories about psychopaths of all kinds, gumshoes, rogue cops, femme fatales, where greed, greed was the key word, where characters were lead only by gold lust, and certainly not love nor tenderness. That said, this very movie RANSOM, is not supposed to have been inspired by a Jim H Chase's novel. But for me, I am not that positive. Chase gave us WANT TO STAY ALIVE, back in 1971, which took place in a Florida town called Paradise City - in this film, the town where the action takes place is called Paradise - where an Indian born hoodlum decides to ransom rich people; if not the killing will begin. It is a violent but tense story, page turner topic, which is not exactly the same as this one, let's admit. The Olly Reed's character doesn't exist in the novel. This film is also very good, as good as the novel, believe me.