All the way back in his teens, Leon Issac Kennedy was a DJ in Cleveland, a job that took him to Los Angeles and finally into two films with Fred Williamson, Hammer and Mean Johnny Barrows. By this point in his career, he’d already become a star as Martel “Too Sweet” Gordone in Jamaa Fanaka’s Penitentiary and had married Jayne Kennedy, the former Miss Ohio USA and NFL broadcaster. Sadly, they’d break up just as this movie was being released and as part of their divorce case, a sex tape — decades before this became something that anyone knew of — that EBONY Magazine claimed that Kennedy had released. He later sued for a million dollars.

But back before all that ugliness, the Kennedys appeared in this remake* of Robert Rossen’s 1947 boxing move of the same name. Supposedly, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus – those who are all things Cannon — studied marketing research and discovered that Americans wanted to see one thing more than anything else: Leon Isaac Kennedy beating people up.

Leon is Leon “The Lover” Johnson, a boxer who we first meet dancing around an opponent and then getting a few more rounds in with a woman who caught his eye in the crowd. In a public bathroom, no less.

Despite the unclean nature of where Leon chooses to do his loving, he’s actually a somewhat decent man who only became a boxer because it can pay for the medical care of his sister Kelly (Nikki Swasey Seaton). To get to the top, he has to deal with a fight promoter named Big Man (Peter Lawford) and get trained by Muhammed Ali, which seems to be the right person to train you and wow, seeing The Greatest up close in the ring sparring reminds you of just how amazing he was, even this late in his career.

He also falls for Julie Winters (Mrs. Kennedy, of course) who ends up leaving him after all his groupie-loving shenanigans, telling him “I just wish you were double-jointed so you could turn around and kiss your own ass.”

Can he get it all together, get the girl, win the big fight and keep his sister as healthy as possible? I mean, have you ever seen a boxing movie before?

That said, this is like no other boxing movie you’ve seen, as Kennedy does near pro wrestling moves as he boxes, like windmill punches, multiple punches to the face piston style and even runs up the ropes to deliver a big punch near the end. Plus, his nemesis has a very pro wrestling name — the St. Louis Assassin — and is played by former WBC Light Heavyweight Champion J. B. Williamson in a role that demands that he grimace, destroy people and throw babies. Yes, he really tosses a baby in one scene.

Body and Soul was directed by My Tutor and Private Resort’s George Bowers, who edited Galaxina, The Stepfather, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Sleeping with the Enemy and A League of Their Own.

This is pretty much a perfect cable Sunday do-nothing movie. You know the kind — it comes on WTBS and you have no plans other than getting over that hangover and just watch how it all comes out. That’s high praise for a film, actually, as movies can be the balm that soothes your soul.

*Maybe I should say loose remake.

You can watch this on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Back during Junesploitation, we watched this on June 16, 2021. Our plans for a Cannon month started right then and there. This movie is everything great about the madness that is Cannon Films. 

Cannon Films need to be on our site more often, but that’s because I want to make sure that I have the time and energy to properly focus on this astounding company. But hey — let’s get things started by talking about Enter the Ninja, a movie written by the man who stole Priscilla from Elvis, Mike Stone, and nearly starred in it before his acting ability supposedly wasn’t good enough for a ninja movie Luckily, Franco Nero was in the Philippines and Stone was nice enough to remain on set as the fight double for Nero and the fight/stunt coordinator.

That’s right — Django as a ninja. Make that a ninja that cucks his best friend and arrdvarking his wife Susan George and then fighting Sho Kosugi.

If you were wondering why I loved Cannon Films so much, just read that last sentence again.

Cole (Nero) is a soldier who has become a ninja — much like Snake-Eyes in the Marvel comics — before he visits his war buddy Frank Landers and his new wife Mary Ann (Ms. George) who own a giant farm in the Philippines that is threatened by Charles Venarius (Christopher George), whose Venarius Industries wants the oil that’s on their land.

After said cuckolding — Frank had already drunkenly confessed to our hero that he couldn’t life his own katana, so to speak — Venarius’ henchmen kill Frank and kidnap Mary Ann. That means that Cole has to battle his way through all of the many soldiers in his way before battling his old sword brother Hasegawa (Sho Kosugi).

Directed by Menahem Golan, who also gave us The Apple, this is actually the exact kind of movie that I want it to be. Golan said, “It started when Chinese karate films became popular. I looked for something new in Asian martial arts and found information about the ninja culture in an encyclopedia. The ninja were middle-class people in Japan — lawyers, government clerks, etc. It was a secret organization that helped the feudal government. It actually preceded the Chinese karate battles. They used very special methods, developing their sixth sense. That fascinated me and I said I could write story ideas out of it, so we made Enter the Ninja and American Warrior later on. Many imitations followed.”

Actually, Emmett Alston was supposed to be the film’s original director. Supposedly Charles Bronson refused to allow Golan to direct Death Wish II. Alston directed Force of the Ninja and Nine Deaths of the Ninja, which is somehow even better than this.

Also, I know that we got a whole bunch of Kosugi ninja movies, which I love, but man, why did we not get another Franco Nero in karate PJs movie?

You can listen to The Cannon Canon episode where they discuss this movie here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We originally watched this movie as part of Fantastic Fest on October 1, 2021. We’re re-rerunning this as the film is now playing in theaters.

Issachar & Zabulon, two scumbag brothers, have lost just about everything including a place to get food, now that they’ve lost one more thing — January Jack, their mother’s beloved dog. And unless they get it back in 24 hours, they’re out of her house.

Starring — as well as written and directed by along with his brother Lenny — Harpo Guit, this movie starts with the two leads (Maxi Delmelle plays the other brother) cooking their mother human feces for breakfast and her throwing up the film’s title. If you don’t run away at that point, maybe this is the film for you.

Debuting in the U.S. as part of the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival, this film is a barrage of scatological humor that is either going to be the hardest you’ve ever laughed or seventy minutes that feels stretched out beyond infinity.

There is one scene that made me laugh out loud, as one character repeatedly licks and sucks on a loaded gun, then starts gagging because he claims that someone rubbed peanuts all over it. It hit me just right, even if most of the rest of the movie didn’t. But you just might find something that you like here.

The other positive that I can bring up is that the filmmaking is frenetic and full of energy. That said, if you’re a dog person, you might want to skip the end of the movie.

Mother Schmuckers is playing select theaters March 4 and is available on demand March 15 from Dark Star Pictures.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes, I realize that Silent Night, Deadly Night originally came out the whole way back in 1972. But nearly nine years after it first played theaters, Cannon released it as Deathhouse on May 8, 1981. If it makes no sense to release a holiday movie in May, well — don’t worry about it. It’s Cannontown.

Christmas Eve, 1950: Wilfred Butler runs from his home, on fire, and supposedly dies in the snow.

Christmas Eve, 1970: John Carter (Patrick O’Neal, The Stepford Wives, The Stuff) and his assistant Ingrid arrive in a small Massachusetts town. He meets with the town’s mayor, sheriff and major citizens like Tess Howard and Charlie Towman (John Carradine!), who may have lost his voice to a tracheotomy but not his need to smoke, about selling the Butler mansion as soon as possible. While staying overnight with Ingrid, who is also his mistress, they are both killed by an axe. The killer calls the police and says that they are Marianne.

Tess, the town’s telephone operator, hears the call and drives to the mansion, where she is greeted by Marianne Butler before she is hit in the head with a candle holder. Meanwhile, Sheriff Mason finds that Wilfred’s grave is empty. He is killed and thrown into the empty hole.

Mayor Adams is asked to go to the Butler mansion but leaves his daughter, Diane (Mary Woronov, Death Race 2000, Chelsea Girls) at home. She meets up with a man who claims to be Jeffrey Butler, who has taken the sheriff’s abandoned car. Together, they search for the lawman but can’t find him.

After taking Towman to the mansion, Jeffrey goes back to get Diane. On their way to the mansion, Towman stumbles blindly in front of them and is hit and killed. His eyes had been stabbed out and Diane grows worried about Jeffrey.

Well, fuck me, this movie is also about incest! A diary found at the house reveals that Jeffrey is the son of Wilfred and his daughter, Marianne. Afterward, Wilfred turned the house into an asylum and admitted his own daughter. However, on Christmas Eve 1935, he turned all of the inmates loose. They killed every doctor as well as his daughter. Of note here is that many of the inmates in the flashback are played by former stars of Warhol’s factory, like Ondine, Tally Brown, Kristen Steen and Lewis Love, as well as Flaming Creatures auteur Jack Smith, artist George Trakas and his wife at the time, Susan Rothenberg. Warhol superstar Candy Darling also shows up in the film as a party guest.

Well, it turns out that some of the inmates of the insane asylum ended up being important parts of the town — that’s right, all of the important people John met with in the beginning!

Mayor Adams arrives at the mansion and he and Jeffrey face off, guns drawn, each believing the other is the killer. They kill one another as Marianne shows up, but she is really Wilfred, who is alive. He went after the inmates for their role in the death of his daughter and used his grandson/son/secret shame Jeffrey as a patsy. Diane gets the gun and kills the old man. One year later, the mansion is demolished as she watches.

Director Theodore Gershuny worked on plenty of episodes of Monsters and Tales from the Darkside after this film. He was also married to Woronov. The original title for the film was Night Of The Dark Full Moon and it was also nearly called Zora, which makes little to no sense.

There are some really interesting techniques here, especially in the flashback sequences, which feel like tinted photographs come to life with the saddest version of “Silent Night” ever playing behind the action. I love how experimental and dark these sequences look — they remind me a little of the film Begotten.

This is a dark film for your holiday viewing, so if you want to chase away the family for awhile, this is the one to do it.

You know, I keep finding more of these Lemon Popsicle sequels and every time they come on, I just try and close my eyes and ride them out, like nausea that you get from a rollercoaster. I’m kidding — they aren’t that bad — but if it weren’t for my mission to watch every single Cannon movie ever, there’s no way that I would have watched one — much less every single installment — of these movies.

Another Boaz Davidson film, this one has German co-producers and starts with the kind of quality humor that you depend on from this series, as a child pisses in a grown man’s face to start off the funny.

Benzi (Yftach Katzur) is dating nice girl Sally (Ariella Rabinovich), but then he wants Nikki (Orna Dagan), who ends up being more than he can handle so he goes back with his more chaste love interest. And somehow, Benny has become more of a jerk in these movies, so much so that his friend Bobby has to explain to him that Sally is the kind of girl you should be with. 

This raises the issue that the guys in these movies can sleep around with prostitutes, all have sex with the same married woman in the same night and be continually ready to bed anyone they even get the slightest interest from, yet when Nikki wants to own her sexuality, she’s instantly a fallen harlot who must be avoided.

For some reason, every time Frieda appears — she’s played by Sibylle Rauch, who was also in plenty of adult movies in the years after this — dudes completely lose their minds. It’s like they’ve never seen a 5′ 10″ platinum sex bomb up close before or something.

I realize that I have to watch so many more of these movies and hopefully, together we can find something worthwhile in them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: G.G. Graham is a cult film cryptid, horror hag, and exploitation film explorer of the dusty and disreputable corners of cinema history. The street preacher of Z-grade cinema can be found at Midnight Movie Monster, as well as writing for various genre sites and print publications, or on Twitter and Instagram @msmidnightmovie. Visit her blog at www.midnightmoviemonster.com and Twitter @msmidnightmovie.

The Unknown Man of Shandigor (L’Inconnu de Shandigor) was nearly one of the many films lost entirely to time. Director Jean-Louis Roy had had some sizable successes in Swiss television, including winning a prestigious Rose d’or award for the series Happy End in 1964. The Unknown Man Of Shandigor was his first fictional feature film, part of his goal to show that Swiss cinematography could hold its own on the world stage.

Despite respectable reviews of the film’s festival showings at Cannes and Locarno in the summer of 1967, Shandigor failed to garner wide distribution, vanishing into obscurity with little more availability than occasional poor quality copies pulled from European VHS. The film first reemerged at the 2021 Fantasia Film Festival with a 4k restoration via the Cinémathèque suisse. Additional digital restoration work was done by boutique label Deaf Crocodile, who are also facilitating the film’s first United States/English language friendly release of any kind with a comprehensive Blu-Ray.

The Unknown Man of Shandigor opens with the biggest anxiety of its particular era, an atomic blast. The deadly blast is reversed, lethal force dissipated into a harmless bit of fog. Brilliant researcher Herbert Von Krantz (Daniel Emilfork, playing to type in a meatier than usual role) has invented a “canceller” formula, that can defuse all nuclear weaponry. 

Yet unlike most mad scientists, Von Krantz has no taste for fame, fortune or world domination. Instead, he offers the press flippant answers to their tedious questions, and retreats to his villa in the countryside. Keeping his secrets guarded are an impressive surveillance system, albino henchman Yvan (Marcel Imhoff), daughter Sylvaine (Marie-France Boyer), and the mysterious monster he keeps in the family pool. 

Dutiful Yvan is happy to assist his master in keeping the “canceller” hidden. Meanwhile, put upon Sylvanie pines for a normal life and Manual (Ben Carruthers), the handsome fiancee she was forced to leave behind in the resort town of Shandigor. Meanwhile, a massive influx of foreign agents is racing toward the villa, each group hoping to get their hands on the formula, and position their home country as the dominant power.

While the plot is firmly entrenched in B movie trappings, Jean-Louis Roy’s visual direction and Roger Bimpage’s stunning cinematography give the film a distinctly arthouse gloss. There are shades of Godard’s Alphaville in how the architecture of the film’s locations are used to create a unique aesthetic that feels like a distinct world of its own without any extravagant set dressing. Silent era referencing title cards and careful framing in static shots also recall the graphic geometry of Pop Art, rendered in crisp black and white. Alphonse Roy’s quirky scoring further supports the comic book tone. These varied points of reference blend better than one would expect, and overall effect is as if the luminaries of the French New Wave made a particularly delightful Saturday matinee serial.

This is not to say that Shandigor takes itself (or anything else) unduly seriously. There’s no artful dourness here, just a film drily spoofing the sort of international superspy cinema that was very popular at the time, while also mining the black comedy of Atomic Age anxieties. Not content to stop with monsters and mad scientists, all of the competing spy factions offer opportunities for even more layers of absurdity. 

In Shandigor‘s version of world espionage, rogue communist operatives that torture their captives with deadly soap foam and the decadence of capitalist rock music. Rogue divers are sent out a suicide mission that involves clothing that self destructs when pierced by bullets. A “master of disguise” gives a lecture on his many faces, which all just so happen to look like different actors. French music legend Serge Gainsbourg even pops up as the leader of a group of bald agents in matching turtlenecks, singing a delightfully daffy tribute to a fallen comrade called “Bye, Bye Mister Spy”. The fact that the film is so undeniably gorgeous helps the unapologetically silly comedy land via sheer contrast.

The Unknown Man of Shandigor is too niche to be properly called a lost masterpiece, as it is very specific to the era in which it was made, and is satirizing a subgenre that has long since fallen out of mainstream popularity. For viewers that have no fondness for any of the visual or contextual references at play here, Shandigor‘s over stuffed plot and off kilter humor will be more of a curio than a classic.

However, the work of boutique labels is often in service of films tailor made for niche audiences, and you’d be hard pressed to find a better match of careful restoration and cinematic chic than this particular movie. It’s also refreshing to see a secret agent parody that hasn’t ossified into kitsch, visually as dapper and debonair as its more serious counterparts. For the subset of eclectic souls (this reviewer included) who enjoy Jacques Demy and Danger: Diabolik, silent films and Serge Gainsbourg….The Unknown Man of Shandigor is a disc well worth seeking out.

You can get this on blu ray from Deaf Crocodile. It has a 4K restoration from the original 35mm picture and sound elements by Cinémathèque suisse with additional digital restoration by Craig Rogers of Deaf Crocodile, new commentary by film journalist Samm Deighan, an essay by filmmaker, punk musician and poet, and genre expert Chris D. (The Flesh Eaters; author of Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film), a new interview with Francoise Roy, wife of director Jean-Louis Roy, and Michel Schopfer, first assistant director, an ultra-rare 1967 “making of” documentary from Swiss TV’s Cinema VIF show (featuring interviews with director Jean-Louis Roy, cast members Daniel Emilfork, Jacques Dufilho, and Marie-France Boyer and behind-the-scenes footage) and a trailer.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We originally watched this movie way back on December 31, 2018, which is a pretty appropriate date to cover this early Cannon film. PS — what came first, the poster for Midnight or the German poster for this movie?

By 1980, every holiday was taken. All writer and director Emmett Alston had left was New Year’s Evil. It would have to do.

TV’s most beloved punk, Diane “Blaze” Sullivan (“Pinky” Tuscadero from TV’s Happy Days) is getting ready to count the night down from a Hollywood hotel. Things are great until Evil himself call, saying that in each timezone, he’ll be killing a naughty girl, with Diane being the last to die.

In an insane asylum nearby, a nurse is the first victim, with the killer audiotaping each kill and replaying them. Who is he? A crazy fan? A religious nut? Her son? Her husband?

Whomever it is — I won’t tell — he dies by jumping off the roof of the hotel. But as Diane is loaded into the ambulance, her son (Grant Cramer, Killer Klowns from Outer Space) is at the wheel, wearing the mask of the killer.

The big selling point of this movie for me? Fake 1980’s punks. There is nothing like the Hollywood mainstream ideal of what punk rockers are like, because it is always far from the truth and always awesome.

This is fine, I guess. I wanted it to be something more, but maybe I demand too much from 1980’s slashers.

You can get this on blu ray from Kino Lorber, who have released it a new 2K version of this movie on blu ray with lots of extras, including audio commentary by director Emmett Alston, moderated by Code Red’s Bill Olsen, The Making of New Year’s Evil, a trailer and new art by Vince Evans.

You can listen to The Cannon Canon review and watchalong here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The first time I saw The Apple, I was in the throes of losing my job and starting a new company and feeling lost. This is the movie that not only made me feel like I could go on, but inspired me to start writing more about films and why they mattered to me. It originally appeared on the site on May 31, 2019. Hey, hey, hey, BIMs on the way.

You know how everyone thinks Cannon put out some completely crazy movies? If you haven’t seen The Apple (also known as Star Rock), you haven’t seen their full power. Directed by Menahem Golan, this slice of sheer madness is a movie I use to test the resolve of anyone brave enough to watch movies with me.

The genesis of this film begins in 1975. Israeli rock producer Coby Recht was signed to Barclay Records and began to feel distrustful of show business. He worked it into a story with his wife Iris Yotvat and brought it to the attention of his longtime friend Menahem. After hearing the demos for the songs, the producer/director instructed Recht to go to Los Angeles immediately. They were making the movie.

Yotvat said, “That was marvelous. That was just fantastic to think that it was going to be a movie all of the sudden. It was just amazing.”

It wasn’t going to stay that way.

Recht and Yotvat lived in a villa that Menahem provided, writing six screenplay drafts in three weeks. As those drafts progressed, the story became more comical and less Orwellian. Soon, things were getting corny, out of touch and out of date. If you’ve seen any of the movies that Golan was involved in, you can see how that might be true.

After auditioning thousands of hopefuls, Recht settled on Catherine Marie Stewart for the lead role of Bibi. Who is a singer. Not a dancer, like Stewart. He figured she could learn, but the producers decided to have her voice dubbed.

Tensions only got worse once filming began, as what started as a $4 million dollar movie turned into $10 million and then more. Editor Alain Jakubowicz claimed that Golan shot around a million feet of footage, with six cameras of coverage for every dance number, ending up with a four-hour rough cut.

The movie got way bigger than its scriptwriters intended. Shooting in West Berlin lasted forever, with a five-day shoot for the opening number, the song “Speed” being filmed at the Metropol nightclub (which held the world record for biggest indoor laser show) and some scenes were actually shot inside a gas chamber that had killed people during World War II.

Nigel Lythgoe, who later was a big part of American Idol, choreographed the film, saying that some days were “really, really depressing” and others “very, very stressful.” The cast and crew hated the script, but here they were, making the film.

Menahem and Recht’s battles soon got worse. The writer felt he should be in London mixing the songs (the sessions had more than 200 artists involved), but Menahem demanded that he show up at the shoot. The first day he was there, he witnessed the uncut version “Paradise Day” which featured fifteen dinosaurs and a tiger that broke free and escaped. This scene also contained elephants getting their trunks stuck in the set, actors collapsing while wearing a too hot brontosaurus costume and a set that made it near impossible for people to dance on and cameras to move around. Removing this scene makes the Biblical end of the movie come out of nowhere. That’s right. None of this is in the film.

Catherine Marie Stewart has stated that none of this rattled Menahem. In fact, he was convinced that The Apple was going to be embraced: “Menahem was very passionate about what he was doing. He had very lofty ideas about the project. He thought this was going to break him into the American film industry. It had, you know, all the elements that he thought were necessary at that time. It was the early eighties and there were a lot of musicals. And Menahem thought that was his ticket into the American film industry.”

So what happened?

The plot is basically Adam and Eve meets Faust. Bibi (Stewart) and Alphie (George Gilmour) are contestants in the 1994 Worldvision Song Festival. They’re talented but easily defeated by the machinations of Mr. Boogalow (Vladek Sheybal, Kronsteen in From Russian With Love) and BIM (Boogalow International Music).

The evil leader soon signs the duo but they soon fall victim to the darkness of show business. Bibi is caught up in the drugs and sex and glamour, while Alphie is beaten by cops and nearly dies to save her. He also lives with a woman who is either his mother or lover or landlady and no one ever explains it to us.

Eventually, they escape and live as hippies, having a child. Mr. Boogalow finds them and claims that Bibi owes him $10 million dollars, but soon God, known here as Mr. Topps (Joss Ackland, The House That Dripped Blood, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey) takes them away in his Rolls Royce and the Rapture occurs.

There are numerous scenes where people put stickers, called BIM Marks, all over their faces. Everyone has camel toe. And the movie is nearly 100% disco.

The movie premiered at the 1980 Montreal World Film Festival. To say it did not go well is an understatement.

Attendees hated the film so much that they launched giveaway records of the soundtrack at the screen. Menahem was so devastated that he almost jumped off his hotel balcony before being saved by his business partner, Yoram Globus. A similar scene happened at its second premiere at the Paramount Theater in Hollywood.

The director said, “It’s impossible that I’m so wrong about it. I cannot be that wrong about the movie. They just don’t understand what I was trying to do.”

I get it, Menahem. You were just trying to get people to understand the power of love and music and being hippies a full decade after any of that mattered. You didn’t care if anyone else got it. You had a vision. And we’re not talking about any of those critics today. No, we’re talking about you. We’re talking about The Apple.

This is a movie that wears its heart messily all over its spandex crotch. The songs are ridiculous. The dancing is, at times, poor. The story makes no sense at all. You’re lucky to sit and witness it. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve watched it!

You can get the Scorpion Releasing blu ray of this film on Diabolik DVD or watch it for free on Tubi.

BONUS! You can hear Becca and me talk all about The Apple on our podcast.

You can listen to The Cannon Canon episode with The Apple here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We originally watched this movie as part of our Not So Classic Monsters week on January 10, 2022. Thanks for checking out another appearance of this early Cannon movie.

Charles B. Griffith — the Quentin Tarantino-named “Father of Redneck Cinema” — is credited with 29 movies but he probably wrote plenty more. From 1955 to 1961, he was Roger Corman’s main screenwriter, starting with two unfilmed Westerns (Three Bright Banners and Hangtown) and moving on to an uncredited rewrite on It Conquered the World and his first credit Gunslinger. He went on to make Not of This Earth, The Flesh and the Spur, The Undead, Teenage Doll, Naked Paradise, Attack of the Crab Monsters and Rock All Night before making two movies — Ghost of the China Sea and Forbidden Island —  for Columbia (which didn’t go well).

Griffith reunited with Corman after and really went into the prime of his career of making movies, writing stuff like Beast from the Haunted Cave, Ski Troop Attack, The Little Shop of Horrors, A Bucket of Blood, Creature from the Haunted Sea and many, many more.

His films rank among some of my favorites of all time — The Wild Angels, Death Race 2000, rewrites on Barbarella — and he went on to direct, act and — as all must in the 80s — work for Cannon Films.

Beyond a script Cannon tried for years to get made — Oy Vey, My Son Is Gay — Griffith made this movie, which started as part of a series of joke movie titles that he shared with Francis Ford Coppola at a Christmas party. He showed them to Menahem Golan — half of all things Cannon — and after writing The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington didn’t work out, Griffith made up a story to go with the title, all about a hippie who creates a drug that makes anyone that takes it into an ad exec. Golan bought it, as long as the ugly guy became the good guy.

In typical Cannon fashion, Griffith had three weeks to write and do preproduction, four weeks to shoot and two weeks to edit. Then, as always, the rug was pulled out Cannon style: They wanted Oliver Reed. Great actor. Maybe not a comedic actor.

Griffith told Sense of Cinema, “Heckyl and Hype could have been a very good picture. Oliver was great as Heckyl. Wonderful. He played the part with a kind of New York accent and everything, but when he was Hype, he didn’t know how to do it… Reed played Hype as Oliver Reed, slow and ponderous.”

It’s a good looking movie, but man, it’s a movie that has no idea what it wants to be. Kind of like Cannon at the time, which had just been bought by two Israeli madmen who were about to take the small New York studio and make it into something so much bigger than it was supposed to be.