'The Hard Way' (1979) - Michael Dryhurst.

It's not all that often, with little to no ballyhoo, that a fully fledged cult classic turns up seemingly out of the blue, and then, you are then blissfully made aware of the fabulous fact that a splendidly made, flawlessly acted Hitman thriller exists starring the legendary duo of, Patrick McGoohan and Lee Van Cleef! A seemingly miraculous, rapidly giddy-making cinematic union one dare not even dream about, and, yet, it really happened, and, frustratingly, all too few cult movie fans are aware that such an iconic clash of Promethean acting titans ever took place!

For a modestly budgeted thriller made over 40 years ago 'The Hard Way' has a stark, curiously contemporaneous feel. Extremely aesthetic, the uniquely expressive Irish vistas contrasted by the glacial, brittle-sounding krautrock-inspired themes by, Brian Eno, our steely protagonists resplendent in macho Sweeney-esque chic! Dryhurst's lean, unfussy filmmaking is pleasingly terse, The Hard Way's muted colour palate ideally suited to the increasingly grim, nihilistic milieu of middle-aged mercenary, John Connor (Patrick McGoohan). 

Weary of the life, Connor plans to retire, but his far from altruistic handler, McNeil (Lee Van Cleef) forcefully demands one last fateful kill from the laconic sharpshooter. Unbowed, the hefty sum of £40.000 cannot sway the intractable, stone-faced Connor, and this schism in their previously amicable working relationship provides for a most explosive dénouement. The no less indomitable, McNeal now setting his sights on Connor, thereby the doomy stage is set for an inevitably fatal showdown between these two embattled gunfighters! Eagle-eyed Connor favours a sweet-looking Princes 1800 HL, packing a shotgun, doggedly stalking his wily, shadowy prey, McNeal within the picturesque, rain-lashed emerald splendour of rural Ireland, rather than the sun-bleached haze of Almeria, Spain.

Ripe for rediscovery, Michael Dryhurst's starkly powerful, coolly stylised, flint-edged thriller remains a more than compelling proposition. Like 'Get Carter', 'The Squeeze' and 'Villain', this noirish, Teflon tough thriller is a gritty, conspicuously hard-boiled crime classic that erupts with staccato outbursts of ballistic violence. Seething with dark-alleyed duplicity, bloody-knuckled enmity and cold steeled, gunmetal grey morality, 'The Hard Way' concludes excitingly with a trip-wire tense, exhilaratingly brutal duel of memorable intensity!! 

'Le Cercle Rouge' (1970) - Jean-Pierre Melville.

Not only one of iconoclast, Jean-Pierre Melville's most highly regarded thrillers, but still hugely influential for many filmmakers, the lodestone for which a great number of crime features still rely heavily upon, name any quality heist film, and you will readily see echoes of Melville's iconic work therein. From the very first scene on the train with, Vogel (Gian Maria Volonté) handcuffed to taciturn, cat-loving cop, Mattei (André Bourvil) the maestro Melville creates a bleak, unflinchingly cold milieu, with very little being said, the tension is absolute, and for reasons inexplicable your allegiances reside with, Volonté, his guilt over his undisclosed crime somehow immaterial, and it is this moral ambiguity that features so strongly in 'Le Cercle Rouge'.

There's a sublime metronomic quality at work in 'Le Cercle Rouge', a cool, relentless precision to, Melville's flawless filmmaking. These Stoic characters inexorably drawn together by the merciless mechanics of crime. Those that have a predilection, or talent to do it, Corey (Alain Delon) and, Vogel's pragmatic need to elude capture, with steely-eyed enigma, Mattei's singularly pragmatic approach to stopping him never makes for anything less than uncommonly thrilling cinema!

While the immaculately tense, nerve-frying heist is meticulously executed with the filmmaker's signature flair for precision and verisimilitude, this is also where we see the curious re-birth of hopeless alcoholic, Jansen (Yves Montand) for me, Le Cercle Rouge's most innately fascinating character. When we first see him he is almost entirely insensible due to a chronic case of the DTs, and yet, the ex-police sharpshooter is now the most integral member of this gang of recidivist criminals. Once again there is a curious moral ambivalence at work, while Jansen is wholly reborn by crime, some of Mattei's actions seem positively nefarious in comparison!

The word masterpiece is oft utilized but rarely is it more meritoriously earned than in maestro, Jean-Pierre Melville's compellingly spare and sinuous crime classic 'Le Cercle Rouge'. A true marvel of razor-sharp cinematic understatement, like dead-eyed, Jensen's perfectly calibrated rifle, crime cinema in the equally steady hands of a consummate craftsman is no less lethal a proposition. The final words must come from the film itself; 'Men are guilty. They come into the world innocent, but it doesn't last!...we ALL change...for the worse!

 

'Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things' (1972) - Bob Clark.

This twistedly tittersome 70s terror treat is just tomb much frightful fun that I grave up trying to resist its malevolently mirthful, coffin-clotted charms many fears ago! Deliciously rotten, but never forgotten, this sinisterly sardonic, sweetly satanic, grisly-goofy Grindhouse gem is still bury much one of my Top Ten wrong-headed celluloid raves from the grave! I really stink y'all might 'dig' it too! Should you dare yourself to watch the riotously revivified corpses in 'Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things' prepare to party darkly with gruesomely gallivanting ghoul, Orville until you drop...dead!!!! So, don't accept any pale imitations, this creepy camp comedy classic is a breath of fetid air! If genre movie maverick, Bob Clark's grievously glib, festeringly funny, gruesomely gobby gag-fest doesn't make you snigger it's ONLY because offally capricious Orville's monstrously mildewed mandibles just gone gobbled up your liver!!! Cavort with these cool cadavers and you're guaranteed Wormly fuzzies!!! Come on in...the morgue the merrier!!!

 

 

'Game of Death 2' (1982) - Ng See Yuen.

Legendary action director, Ng See Yuen's 'Game of Death 2' remains one of the more artistically credible examples of giddy-headed Brucesploitation. The incongruous insertion of Bruce Lee in the film's unlovely, rough-looking exposition somewhat awkwardly introduces Game of Death 2's main protagonist, Bobby Lo (Tony Lung), the errant brother of icon, Bruce Lee who was killed during an aeronautical, not-so death-defying stunt in a manner most mysterious. Thereby fatefully suggesting that his erstwhile friend and martial arts mentor, Chin Ku (Hwang Jang Lee) is linked to these increasingly bizarre events! If one can successfully jettison the logic one resolutely doesn't require to fully enjoy 'Game of Death 2', Ng See Yuen's ferociously fight-packed Kung Fu extravaganza delivers high-kicking, power-punching martial arts majesty that exuberantly memorializes, Bruce Lee's immortal legacy. Each scintillating, skilfully choreographed martial arts sequence celebrates the charismatic legend's electric screen presence and exemplary pugilistic prowess!

While certainly not an impeccable Kung Fu classic with the celestial celluloid cache of 'The Prodigal Son', Ng See Yuen's enjoyably frantic 'Game of Death 2' has an audacious B-Movie bellicosity and adrenalized, head-spinningly hectic, panther-footed pace that proves to be insanely irresistible! Its deliciously cartoonish plot features an evil kingpin's sinister subterranean lair, and his elaborate web of increasingly insurmountable security grievously tests the martial mettle of our courageous, quick-silver pugilist, Tony Lung! 'Game of Death 2' concludes spectacularly in a combative climax of explosively performed, fluidly ferocious Kung Fu dexterity that will leave you no less dazed than a lightning-swift, life-ending kick from menacing Taekwondo master, Hwan Jang Lee!