Also known as Suicide Force, this film comes to us from the dual directing team of Nick Cacas (Jungle Fighters and the Ron Marchini-starring Forgotten Warrior) and Segundo Ramos (who has fifty-six films to his credit, but let’s go with Eastwood and Bronson as an example, a movie that has Richard Gomez and Joey Marquez playing the two action heroes in a parody film).
An American general has been kidnapped by Muslim separatists and Captain Borbon and his Savage Six have been released from a military prison to bring him back alive. They’re joined by Adora, a rebel whose brother is the very person who kidnapped the general and wants nothing more than for the war to never end.
Every one of these Vietnam in the Philippines movies ends with a gigantic explosion and this one is no different, however, the last minute of this movie is completely wild.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to Paul Andolina, whose website is Wrestling with Film, for sending this to us to express his love of Philippine war flicks. This review first ran on October 15, 2018, and we’ve brought it back . . . as our first review for our week-long “Philippines War Week” tribute that ends on Friday, August 6, at 6M. To populate a complete list of all of our reviews, click here.
Every October since about 2014, I’ve participated in a friendly movie watching competition called the Halloween Horror Movie Marathon Madness. The first couple years I joined in I tried to stick to horror movies as much as possible. However since certain actors and directors are considered Wild Cards during the Madness I can get away with non horror fare. Such is the case with today’s film, Saigon Commandos. I came across this film while searching for movies starring P.J. Soles, who most will recognize from Carpenter’s film Halloween.
Saigon Commandos centers around a Military Police officer named, Stryker, during a drug war, a series of murders and an election happening in Saigon, Vietnam during the Vietnam War. It is based on a book in a series of novels written by Nicholas Cain, who served as an MP in Vietnam. He couldn’t get his memoirs published but was told they would publish his works if he fictionalized them with more violence and sex. The series ran for twelve novels, Saigon Commandos being an adaption of the ninth one.
Released in 1988 and starring Richard Young as Stryker, and P.J. Soles as a journalist, Saigon Commandos is not too easy to find. This is a shame as I found it to be a decent film concerning the Vietnam War that didn’t solely focus on what was going on in the jungles but more on what was happening in Saigon. Corruption is running rampant, heroin flows freely in the city streets, and someone is going around killing people with hollow point rounds. I knew I was in for a treat when it opened with a Vietnamese band singing House of the Rising Sun in a bar/stripclub. At times it felt like it was unintentionally funny especially when an AWOL soldier is shot in the ass by drug dealers. As he is on the examination table in the medic’s office in Camp Pershing, he screams in a manner that has to be heard, I found myself cracking up.
There are quite a few plot points happening at once in this film, with Stryker dealing with an AWOL Specialist who has made it his mission to get vengeance when some of the corrupt politician Trui’s men kill his fiancee when trying to get to Stryker. There is also an investigation into who exactly the hollow point killer is, as well as Trui and his men trying to win the election by fear mongering.
This film has a bit of action and even a small skirmish in the jungles of Vietnam when Stryker is forced to head into the shit to get two of his friends to sign a disposition backing up his alibi when his commanding officer of the military police turns up shot in the head in his bed after a night of Stryker’s heavy drinking.
I had very low expectations for this film and it turned out to be quite fun. If you can manage to track down a copy, I highly recommend it. I bought a German DVD that has both German, and English audio tracks. The picture quality isn’t the greatest but I think it adds to the enjoyment of it.
American-International Pictures follow up to The Raven, this movie reunites Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff. Adding to the trio is Basil Rathbone, giving this film an astounding cast. They’re all working from a script by Richard Matheson and direction by Jacques Tourneur, who for my money made some of the greatest horror movies ever like Night of the Demon, The Leopard Manand Cat People.
Price is Waldo Trumbull, a funeral home owner, a business that he stole from his partner Amos Hinchley (Karloff) after marrying his daughter Amaryllis (Joyce Jameson). They only have one coffin, which saves them money, as Felix Gillie (Lorre) dumps the bodies when he isn’t setting up the death of wealthy clients.
Rathbone plays John F. Black, Esq., the landlord that tries to evict Trumbull but keeps dying and coming back to life, giving soliloquies and dying again. The cat, who keeps waking him up due to allergies, is played by Orangey the cat, who also menaced The Incredible Shrinking Man.
While a fun movie, this one could have really used Corman’s touch. That said I’m a big fan of Tourneur. It wasn’t a big success, but it’s still worth a watch. You might even spot the hearse coach that now is part of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion.
This new Kino Lorber release has commentary by film historian Tim Lucas, a feature on Matheson, a trailer and a great looking slipcase. You can get it directly from Kino Lorber.
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