Referred to as an “amphetamine fantasy,” this film has the Harry of the title, played by Harry Walker Staff, hiding out in his mansion as the mob wants him dead over a drug debt. The only person he has around is not even a person, but a Greek chorus by way of John Lennon-glasses wearing hippie known in the credits as The Shadow (Mio Domani).

His wife Erica (Victoria Wilde) has left him, so he brings home a girl named Christine (Christine Kelly) just in time for his wife to return. He has a hit out on her. She has a hit out on him. The two women soon turn on him. Somehow an underground film that was sold under the name The Dirty Three which makes it seem like it’s going to get sexy and it never really does.

Alex Matter, who co-wrote this and made The Drifter with Stephen Winsten, was a production manager on Cannon’s The Swap and then went on to write the Kenny Rogers movie Six Pack, so yes, life is weird.

• I can’t even explain to you the sheer madness that this movie unleashed on my elementary school. The notion of Chuck Norris fighting ninjas blew minds at a level that I believe is no longer possible.

The Octagon was distributed by American Cinema Productions, the four-wall exploitation masters who also put Chuck’s Good Guys Wear Black and A Force of One in theaters, as well as The Late, Great Planet Earth, Fade to Black, Silent Scream, Tough Enough, Dirt, Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen, Force: Five and I, The Jury before going out of business. Their final release, The Entity, was picked up by Twentieth-Century Fox.

Directed by Eric Karson (Black Eagle) and written by Leigh Chapman (Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry and Truck Turner, which she did as the pen name Jerry Wilkes) and Paul Aaron (who woud direct Deadly Force), this movie places Chuck into the role of Scott James, a karate champion like so many of Chuck’s characters who simply no longer wants to fight. Yet he can’t even take Nancy (Kim Lankford, Ginger Ward from Knot’s Landing) without getting her and her entire family offed by some back pajama wearing killers.

As trained by Katsumoto (Yuki Shimoda), the ninjas have been told that if they are ever discovered or captured, not only will they die, their entire family will also be extinguished. There must be some pretty great salary and 401K when it comes to being a ninja or maybe the job market in Japan really is rough.

To get some background on the killers, Scott turns to his old mercenary friend McCarn (Lee Van Cleef, who may know a thing or two about ninjas). He’s told, “If you are seeing ninja, you are seeing ghosts.”

Pulling a Paul Kersey, Scott immediately falls for another woman named Justine (Karen Carlson, Black Oak Conspiracy, The Student Nurses) whose idea of a meet cute is asking for help with her car, which is stuck in a ditch, and stealing Scott’s keys and driving off. How does he know where she lives? Why would he put up with that? No matter — they’re soon being tracking by some bodyguards who end up being McCarn’s men. That’s because Justine wants Scott to kill Seikura (Tadashi Yamashita, Seven, American Ninja), the ninja who sliced and diced her father. He turns her down, but McCarn is able to convince one of Scott’s friends named A.J. (Art Hindle!) to join his cause.

That’s when Scott remembers that he’s actually Seikura’s adopted brother, having been raised by the same father (John Fujioka, once again pretty much playing Shinyuki from American Ninja or Tatsuya Sanga from American Samurai) and of course, surpassing the native son with his gaijin karate abilities.

This flashback features Chuck’s son Mike as Scott and Brian Tochi — yes, Toshiro Takashi from Revenge of the Nerds, Tomoko Nogata from Police Academy 3 and 4 and the voice of Leonardo — as Seikura.

Scott decides that he has to help, so he heads off to a ninja training school run by Doggo (Kurt Grayson, once the Tijuana Smalls cigar pitchman back when cigar ads were on TV). Doggo recognizes him and forces him to fight his entire school, ending with Scott delivering Chuck Norris-sized sidekick injuries to two fighters nicknamed Longlegs (Richard Norton, once a bodyguard for David Bowie, ABBA and Fleetwood Mac before appearing in movies like Gymkata, China O’Brien and many more; he’s a 5th-Degree Shihan rank Black Belt in Goju Ryu, 8th-Degree Masters rank in Chuck’s Chun Kuk Do, 5th-Degree Black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and a 10th-degree Black Belt in Zen Do Kai Karate; he was also the fight coordinator on Walker, Texas Ranger) and Hatband (Chuck’s brother Aaron).

There’s also another evil soldier named Aura (Carol Bagdasarian) that defects to help Scott, which helps because he wasn’t joining the fight and then the ninjas went and killed Justine, who thought Aura was leaidng Scott to the side of evil and went after Seikura by herself. One poison dart later and she’s out of the movie, despite seemingly being one of the leads. McCarn’s men, Scott and Aura then kill everyone in Doggo’s army and decide to go to Mexico to face Seikura.

Before that, Aura takes what we can only imagine is a molasses 2×4 mustache ride, as she realizes that if every other woman is this movie is getting killed, she may as well enjoy some assault with a friendly weapon. Some harpooning the salty longshoreman. Finding the ranch dressing deep in Hidden Valley. You know what I mean. Respectful and mutual affection between two consenting adults.

Look — Chuck Norris went to the Virgin Islands… now it’s just the Islands.

A.J. gets taken and it turns into a rescue mission, as Scott must face multiple toughs in the Octagon — yes, scream, scream when the title is said aloud! — and then Scott faces Kyo, the magically garbed ninja also played by RIchard Johnson and good lord, this may be the best fight ever committed to celluloid. What does Scott get for winning? The chance to see A.J.’s throat et slashed, but Aura is able to convinced the rest of the bad guys to turn babyface and Scott straight up nukes his adopted brother just as he’s attacked from behind, stabbing him and bringing an end to a movie that I wish went on forever.

Somehow, this movie also finds roles for Ernie Hudson, comedian Jack Carter (the mayor from Alligator) and Tracey Walter in an uncredited part. Yes, Bob the Goon in a Chuck Norris movie.

Made for between $2.5 and $4 million, this film made $19 to $25 million — never believe these money claims when you read them by the way, obviously the figure is somewhere in that range thanks to the magic of Hollywood math — this movie gets it all right. After all, “In a world of choices, for one man there is no choice . . . he must face THE OCTAGON.”

Forty ninjas and karate fighters died in this movie. We should remember their sacrifice.

Oh man! I totally forgot that Chuck narrates a lot of the movie to himself. Doggo is not the answer…answer…answer…Oh my God! Ninjas…ninjas…ninjas…

The Kino Lorber blu ray release of The Octagon has a new 2K master, commentary by film historians Brandon Bentley and Mike Leeder as well as director Eric Karson, a making of feature, four TV ads, 4 radio ads and a trailer. Buy it as soon as you can.

Of all the early Cannon movies, I would never have expected that a roughie American version of an Italian western would be one of the ones released on blu ray — Ronin Flix — but life is always so surprising.

The Kid (Gary Allen, one of the movie’s writers) and his Mexican sidekick Amarillo (Jeff Kanew, the other one of the movie’s writers) ride through the Wild West of New Jersey, a place where The Kid meets and falls in love with a young girl played by Susannah Campbell. Most of this movie will have her being assaulted by bandits, miscreates and even her father, who kills himself and gets buried by The Kid.

William K. Hennigar directed Mr. Mari’s Girls and Seven Days Too Long, another early Cannon movie. As for Allen, he would go on to act in everything from Annie Hall to Alice, Sweet Alice and The Sentinel while Kanew would direct Revenge of the Nerds, Gotcha!, Tough Guys, Troop Beverly Hills and V.I. Warshawski.

This is a more than sleazy regional oddity. I can get behind lots of scummy stuff in a movie, but one that has near-constant sexual assault isn’t really my thing. Your mileage — I hope not — may vary.

Cannon was making money on Joe Sarno’s films, getting them into theaters as Sarno divided his time making movies in the United States and in Sweden, Germany and Denmark. His early films are stark black and white affairs and life is never easy for anyone within them. Also, the phrase Deep Inside is the greatest adult title ever and would eventually be used along with the names of actresses, such as Sarno’s uncredited X-rated Inside Jennifer Welles and Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle.

Millicent Redmond (Peggy Steffans, the Findlay Flesh trilogy) is a woman who is frigid in bed and therefore gets her pleasure manipulating others, like seeing what kind of trouble she can get Lina (Mary Park) into; plays around with the relationship between her old lesbian roommates Neva (Tia Walter) and Jean (Sheila Britt, The Swap and How They Make It); heats up older lesbian who loves younger women Mavis (Bella Donna, not the Belladonna whose retirement still makes one wistful) and gets Pam (Lara Danielli) involved with the absolute wrong man.

Sarno’s movies have an existential sadness that I absolutely love. I can only imagine what raincoaters felt about these movies, already worried about being in public watching filth, worried about the cops coming in and then the movie they went up against so much just depresses them beyond comprehension.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Originally on the site on XXX, A Force of One has been rereleased by Kino Lorber with a new 2K scan, two commentaries (film historians Brandon Bentley and Mike Leeder, as well as director Paul Aaron), a making-of doc, four TV commercials, five radio ads and the trailer.

Gene Siskel said that it was “just a poor excuse for a lot of fighting.”

Writer Ernest Tidyman* (Shaft, High Plains Drifter) claimed he only made it so he could buy his mother a house.

Chuck Norris said it was ten times better than his last movie Good Guys Wear Black.

The commercial for this movie was all my grade school class could talk about, breathlessly getting excited about Chuck kicking and spinning and beating on people.

Directed by Paul Aaron, whose stepson Keanu Reeves talked him into making the film, this film presents a world where cops are getting killed, so they turn to Matt Logan (Norris), a karate instructor. One of those narcotics officers, Amanda Rust (Jennifer O’Neill, The Psychic star who was present both when Jon-Erik Hexum accidentally shot himself on the set of Cover Up and when she shot herself in the stomach testing to see if a gun was loaded), believes that one of their own is behind it. She also falls hard for Chuck, who may not be the best actor, but gives an authentic charm as a normal guy who can kick people really hard.

This is a smart movie — no, really — as the cast surrounding Chuck is solid, like the late great Clu Gulager as detective Sam Dunne, who believes that the killer is a martial artist, and Ron O’Neal from Superfly.

A Force of One kicks into major action when Chuck’s adopted son Charlie (Eric Laneuville) is killed, making it personal. Plus, he’s headed into a karate tournament where he’ll get kicked repeatedly by Sparks, played by Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, who was the bodyguard who found the body of John Belushi. And trust me, he kicks really, really hard. You don’t get called Superfoot and half step.

Norris surrounded himself with family in this one, as brother Aaron was the fight coordinator and his son Mike was the skateboarding pizza delivery kid. It works — a movie made in the time when karate was the kind of dastardly heel move in Memphis wrestling, still mysterious in the West, but made approachable by the everyman charm of Chuck.

Called Der Bulldozer in Germany, this movie also has an appearance by Charles Cyphers, who played Sheriff Brackett just one year earlier in Halloween.

In closing, Siskel and Tidyman were both incorrect, while the kids in my class and Chuck were right.

*He co-wrote the movie with stuntman Pat E. Johnson, a 9th degree black belt in Tang Soo Do under Chuck Norris who only has this one writing credit, but did stunts for Jackie Chan (Battle Creek Brawl), Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon), Norris (this movie), three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films and both Mortal Kombat movies. He’s also the referee in The Karate Kid.

“And the heat goes on with Linda and Chuck, Lisa and Walter, Robin and John.”

That tagline and who is in this movie — thanks to the always astounding Grindhouse Cinema Database — is nearly all I could find about this movie.

Its director, William K. Hennigar, also made another movie Cannon released in their early days, The Wicked Die Slow, and ran camera on three Barry Mahon movies — A Good Time With a Bad Girl, Sex Club International and Run Swinger Run! — all made in 1967.

Some of its cast members did more than a one and done appearance, like Robin Nolan who shows up in Shaft and Teenage Gang Debs; Christopher Penncock was Gabriel Collins on Dark Shadows; Helen Stewart is also in Hennigar’s aforementioned The Wicked Die Slow; Verne Williams was Cujo in The Last Dragon and was part of Bad Guys Inc., a prank created by Joey Skaggs in The Art of the Prank); Maria Lease would go on to direct several adult films as Joanna Williams, Jack Williams, Wray Hamilton and Jennifer Ray; as an editor she used the name Mario Graves and edited Planet of the Dinosaurs; she appeared in Al Adamson’s Dracula vs. Frankenstein and finally, wrote and directed Dolly Dearest. That’s what I call a career!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Originally posted on January 30, 2022, this Chuck Norris movie is now being released n blu ray by Kino Lorber. It has a new 2K remaster, audio commentary by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema, a feature on the making of the movie, an interview with director Ted Post, TV and radio commercials and the trailer. This is a must-buy for Chuck Norris fans!

Since his first starring role in Breaker! Breaker!, critics have made light of the acting ability of Chuck Norris, something that he’s taken in stride, because what Chuck lacks in acting ability, he makes up for in hard work.

Chuck told The New York Times, “I was the worst thing in 50 years. Well, I wasn’t good, but my feelings were hurt. I’m not trying to be Dustin Hoffman; I just want to project a strong positive hero image on the screen. I went to Steve McQueen, and he said, ‘In Good Guys you talk too much. Too much dialogue. Let the character actors lay out the plot. Then, when there’s something important to say, you say it, and people will listen. Anyway, you’ll get better as an actor. You should have seen me in The Blob.”

In These Fists Break Bricks, Grady Hendrix and Chris Poggiali share the story of how Norris went from a name in the world of martial arts to small parts in films* to suddenly ruling the box office of the 80s and the TV ratings of the 90s.

Phillipe (Marcel Dorian, who also directed and wrote this movie with Amanda Webster and Ian Armer) and his companion, Camille (Gabriella Brinza) have just arrived at a motel on a business trip. But Camille is not truly his, a fact that both will pay for.

That’s because Paul (Joseph Steyne), who works in the hotel, has already been making time with Phillipe’s wife Susan (Michelle J. Wright) and, as coincidence would have it, Paul is the husband of Camille.

This is a movie packed with characters trying to destroy one another when they aren’t making love to one another’s wives, often right in front of each other. The Orpheus Motel is a place that seems conducive to sin, whether it’s in the bed or at knifepoint.

I was pretty surprised not only by the sexual content of this movie, but by the sheer voracity of its profanity. I wasn’t offended — have you seen the aberrant movies that I watch on a daily basis? — but I was genuinely surprised that a movie that came out recently went this far.

That said — this pushes itself toward Cinemax fare — a compliment in my world — while trying unique things with its story, its performances and its camerawork.

You can watch this on Tubi.

The thing about so much of early erotic films — particularly the work of Joe Sarno, who directed and wrote this — is how so many of the stories end in sheer despair. Is that the square-up reel hanging like the Sword of Damocles hung by a thread over the lovemaking so that we feel morally superior by the end of our voyeurism?

Inside a New York apartment building lives divorced rich mother Fletcher (Melissa Ford, The Roommate) and her shy daughter Wendy (Gretchen Rudolph, My Body Hungers), who ends up at one of those swinging free love parties that I am certain only exist in Joe Sarno movies, one where Barbara introduces her to a sordid world of sin, all to somehow steal money from Pam’s mom, thanks to the schemes of Billy, who says that he’s an artist, but I think he’s some kind of asshole. Yet Billy falls for mom, while Hank, a sadist who Wendy keeps blowing off, starts to grow enraged.

Angelique Pettyjohn, The Mad Doctor of Blood Island) is also in this black and white film, a movie that seems where everyone wants something — love, sex, money — and everyone fails at finding it.

This is another example of films that Cannon would bring to America, get into art theaters and make a quick buck. More than a few years later, it would become the Cannon we know and love, but everyone starts somewhere.