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Released by: MGM Limited Edition Collection
Released on: October 18, 2011.
Director: Michael Moore
Cast: Jack Palance, Fernando Lamas, Aldo Ray
Year: 1967
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The Movie:
Directed in 1967 by Canadian born filmmaker Michael Moore (not the documentarian but the guy who made The Fastest Guitar Alive and directed many episodes of Al Bundy's favorite TV show ever - Hondo!), Kill A Dragon stars Jack Palance as Rick Masters. Not only a man with a macho name, Masters has the tough guy skills to back it up and when he's not doing salvage work in the bay, he's boning an exotic looking dark haired hottie named Tisa (From Russia With Love's Bond girl, Alizia Gur).
When a fisherman named Win Lim busts into the boat when Rick and Tiza are about to seal the deal, Rick soon learns the poor guy is being chased and gets into a brawl with the dudes who are after him. It turns out Win has found himself on the wrong side of a gangster named Nico Patrai (Fernando Lamas). Complicating matters is the presence of a large shipment of nitro glycerin that Win found on shore, which he hopes Masters will help him smuggle back to Hong Kong to sell at a tidy profit. Patrai wants that nitro for himself, however, and is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. In the middle of all of this is Vigo (Aldo Ray), a tour guide that Masters hires, along with a pair of karate experts, to help Win Lim and his pals win the day.
Fairly awful in every way you can imagine, Kill A Dragon is pure bad movie bliss. Everything about this movie evidently just went so wrong so fast that you can't help but love it and it could easily be considered a precursor to some of Joe Don Baker's bad action movie classics like Mitchell and Final Justice as it works on those same sort of levels. Front and center in all of this is Palance, who sneers his way through every bit of the film. It doesn't matter if he's getting it on with an amazingly hot Alizia Gur or duking it out with Patrai's thugs, he just looks angry. Cool and angry. He squints and grimaces and generally just looks very uncomfortable throughout all of this, though not nearly as uncomfortable as Aldo Ray, who is pudgy and weird and creepy, particularly when he pops up in women's clothing at one point in a surprisingly successful attempt to seduce some Chinese sailors.
The movie does, however, move at a great pace and feature some awesome footage of sixties era Hong Kong. As such, it's completely watchable in spite of the fact that the martial arts on display are terrible and that the score suits the film about as well as Lamas' bizarre (though notably colorful) wardrobe. The real reason to watch this one, however, is Palance. He's so miscast here and his performance so ridiculously over the top and out of place that you can't help but love him. He not only chews through the scenery but just looks so amazingly out of place and delivers his bad one liners with such bizarre hissing enthusiasm that he really does make for one of the strangest action movie hero's you're ever likely to see.
Video/Audio/Extras:
MGM's 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer presents the film in what we can safely assume is its proper theatrical aspect ratio and generally it looks quite good here. Detail is strong, color looks great and there's not much print damage at all outside of a speck here and there, and the consistent grain present throughout gives it a nice film like appearance. The disc is well authored, free of compression artifacts or edge enhancement and generally provides the movie with a strong picture.
The Dolby Digital Mono track, in the film's native English, is also fine. Levels are well balanced and there are no problems with hiss or distortion to report. Don't expect any subtitles or alternate language tracks, you'll be disappointed, but the audio is of perfectly good quality here, even if there's nothing particularly remarkable about it.
Extras include a fun trailer for the film and, a static menu and chapter stops.
The Final Word:
If the idea of watching Jack Palance play a Bond-style super hero running around sixties era Hong Kong in tight fitting polyester suits taking on martial arts bad guys of all shapes and sizes sounds like your idea of a good time, and it should, then definitely check this on out. It may not be a high point in Palance's filmography but it's a lot of good, stupid fun.
