VIDEO ARCHIVES NOTES: This movie was discussed on the November 12, 2024 episode of the Video Archives podcast. 

One of the things I’ve picked up from Video Archives is that Quentin Tarantino is from the era when Robert Mitchum was considered an action hero.

This was called “the meanest Mitchum movie yet” and has him playing former DEA Agent Quinlan, who was kicked off the force for stealing confiscated drug money. Now he’s using drug dealer Chung Wei’s (Keye Luke) tips to tell the DEA where to bust people. At least that was the plan but there’s a leak somewhere in the DEA.

Mitchum works with agents Howard Odums (Bradford Dillman, who only made this movie so he could take his wife Suzy Parker on a trip), Ridgeway (Richard Egan) and Riley Knight (Leslie Nielsen). Yuen Wah and Yuen Biao also show up.

Man, Robert Clouse made all over the place movies. Whether it’s Enter the Dragon, Golden Needles, Game of Death, The Big Brawl, Deadly Eyes, Gymkata or the two China O’Brien movies, he knew how to entertain. This was a Golden Harvest production and supposedly a remake of Jumping Ash. Editor Allan Holtzman would go on to direct Forbidden World and Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Holocaust.

You can watch this on Tubi.