VIDEO ARCHIVES NOTES: This movie was discussed on the Patreon for the Video Archives podcast. You can hear a preview here.

Edward Dmytryk may be best known for his film noir efforts like Crossfire, Cornered and Murder, My Sweet. In 1947, he was named as one of the Hollywood Ten, blacklisted professionals who refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), serving time in prison for contempt of court. However, in 1951, to save his career, he named names to the HUAC, which destroyed several careers. He went on to direct The Caine Mutiny, Broken Lance, The End of the Affair, The Carpetbaggers and Bluebeard amongst many other movies. The Human Factor is his last theatrically released film; he taught film school, did lectures and wrote books, including Odd Man Out: A Memoir of the Hollywood Ten.

John Kinsdale (George Kennedy) is an American NATO computer specialist with two kids in Naples, Italy. He’s easy going — he likes to play video games at work — and has a good relationship with his wife, who is looking for a new housekeeper. That night, when he gets home from home and expects to go to a birthday party. he finds his entire family killed. He nearly kills himself until he sees a story about his family on TV.

Now he wants revenge.

After the funeral, Kinsdale meets with Inspector Lupo (Raf Vallone), who is investigating the murders. U.S. State Department officers Janice Tilman (Rita Tushingham) and Mike McAllister (John Mills) are also part of the case and they have two suspects: Andrew Taylor (Tim Hunter) and Eddy Fonseca (Mark Lowell). Kinsdale steals U.S. Embassy credentials and tracks down Fonseca, learning that he’s a tourist. He uses those credentials to meet another agent, George Edmonds (Barry Sullivan), who tells him that terrorists have demanded the release of prisoners and $10 million dollars or they’ll kill an American family every three days.

Taylor and Kamal Hamshari (Frank Avianca) are the ones behind it and the government has run a computer simulation that says that Kinsdale has an 8% chance of succeeding in killing him.

Kinsdale does some detective work and discovers that the housekeeper ad in the paper bring Ms. Pidgeon (Haydee Politoff, Queens of Evil) and the killers into the homes of these families. He hides in one family’s house and is there to shoot back when a van filled with murderers arrives. He then follows clues he finds in the fake maid’s purse and tracks down Taylor, shrugging off being stabbed and using a chain to choke the man into oblivion.

Now, clutching his daughter’s doll and driven by rage, he tracks the killers down to a U.S. Embassy grocery store where he engages in a shootout with them, including a moment where an unmasked Ms. Pidgeon spits in his face. He responds by shooting her in the face and continually gunning down people, bleeding all over the place, until he finally kills Kamal and just keeps firing his gun until its empty, filling the dead man with bullets.

Peter Powell and Thomas Hunter only wrote one other movie, The Final Countdown.

I loved this, because I love George Kennedy. If you only know him as Frank Drebin’s partner Ed Hocken, this is a revelation, as he goes Bronson by the end, killing everyone that has done him wrong. Bonus points for the VHS re-release on the Sybil Danning’s Adventure Video label, as we get a great photo of her holding TNT on the back cover.

You can watch this on Tubi.