EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

I was so loud while watching this movie that my wife had to come to check on me. The sheer delight had overtaken me when East Eddie (Sid Haig) appeared in a movie where gigantic-eyed Atlantean people attempted to keep their undersea world alive thanks to a new queen named Syrene (Leigh Christian), who must constantly sire new children, as decreed by her adopted father Nereus (George Nader).

Eddie is part of a group trying to farm pearls for money which includes what could be the exploitation movies made in the Philippines version of The Avengers: Manuel the Barracuda (Vic Díaz), Logan (John Ashley) and Vic Mathias (Patrick Wayne).

Producer Ashley had the idea that this would be a science fiction version of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which is a big idea, while Wayne would only be in the film if it was a family-friendly movie, but it’s also about rebuilding the DNA of a dying world of interbred bug-eyed merpeople, which is a fun juxtaposition.

The underwater scenes are gorgeous and this has way better production values than many movies made in the Philippines. Yet if it had more exploitation — a fact that Ashley believed — I think it would be a more exciting movie.

This was released by Dimension Pictures in 1973 and rereleased by 21st Century.

You can watch this on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Terminal Island has been created as an off-shore island prison after the abolition of the death penalty by the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, first degree murderers are sent there to spend the rest of their lives battling to remain alive in what has become a lawless place. Kind of like Escape from New York only eight years earlier or No Escape but two decades before.

Carmen (Ena Hartman) is dropped off at Terminal Island by the last guards she’ll see. Prisoners are stuck on the island until they die, which could be any minute the way things are here. There, she meets Dr. Milford (Tom Selleck), who was sentenced there for a mercy killing and joins the camp of Bobby (Sean Kenney) and Monk (Roger E. Mosley, working with Selleck years before Magnum P.I.).

As the male prisoners just keep killing one another, the women work in the fields by day and service them at night. Carmen is joined by the revolutionary firebrand Lee (Marta Kristen), the sex-loving Joy (Phyllis Davis) and the silent Bunny (Barbara Leigh).

A.J. (Don Marshall) and Cornell (Ford Clay) start their own camp and steal some of the women. Carmen ends up with A.J. while another man, Dylan (Clyde Ventura) tries to assault Joy. She responds by later covering his privates with honey and setting bees loose near him.

Lee teaches everyone how to use weapons and together, the men and women of this rebel camp decide to go after Bobby. In the final battle, nearly everyone is killed, other than Dr. Milford, who decides to stay instead of returning with the guards; Bunny, who gets her voice back and Monk, who is blinded.

Director Stephanie Rothman made this instead of The Big Doll House, saying “I would be in control of how the subject matter was treated, and while I had to put in the usual elements of sex and violence, I also could introduce ideas about how prisoners were treated, and how they could treat each other, that were not necessarily in these other films. I didn’t have to turn it into what most of these other films were, which was a cartoon.”

She also avoided having a rape scene. “In a film like Terminal Island, practically the whole film involves violence because the subject matter is violent people. I accepted that. I recognized that if I was going to make films, and I was going to make them for the market, I was making them for it. I wanted to make films very much and that’s what I needed to do. What I needed to do was try to refine that and give it some meaning beyond the violence itself, or beyond the nudity itself. In that sense, I tried very hard to not make it exploitative.”

I love that the women and the men in this end up having equal agency by the end. While this is exploitation, Rothman is a great director and turned in something here that’s better than the assignment. It’s an idea that takes advantage of its budget, with an outdoor location and simple effects working for a great concept.

You can watch this on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Supposedly, The Devil’s Wedding Night (AKA Full Moon of the Virgins) was all Mark Damon’s idea. After being in House of Usher, Damon had moved to Italy and appeared in movies like Black Sabbath and Johnny Yuma.

Perhaps this idea was the start of his producing career, which was more successful than his acting job. Damon was planning on selling the movie an American production company. Luigi Batzella (Nude for Satan, The Beast In Heat) was picked to direct, but most people believe that Joe D’Amato stepped in and finished the film.

I’m a firm believer in this theory because there’s a moment near the end of this movie where an otherworldly Countess Dolingen De Vries rises from a bathtub of blood and fog and writhes near nude on the screen and somehow going beyond the confines of the screen to destroy my mind. I generally try my best not to turn reviews of movies with atrractive women into male gaze spectacles, but Rosalba Neri is absoutely iconic in this moment, a perfect scene that is never discussed nearly enough.

There’s also a magic vampire ring of the Nibelungen, which is gigantic costume jewelery and therefore better than any Hollywood baubles, village girls with sacred amulets of Pazuzu (yes, really), five virgins getting sacrificed all at once in an express line of bloodletting magic, three different twist endings in a row, tripped out Dr. Who looking tunnel moments, D’Amato billing himself as Michael Holloway and going absolutely wlld capturing every inch of womanly curves and an incredible setting, the Castello Piccolomini Balsorano, the same place Lady Frankenstein, Bloody Pit of Horror, Crypt of the Vampire, The Lickerish Quartet, The Blade Master, Sister Emanuelle, The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance, The Reincarnation of Isabel, Farfallon, Pensiero d’amore, Lady Barbara, 7 Golden Women Against Two 07: Treasure Hunt, C’è un fantasma nel mio letto, Baby Love and Put Your Devil Into My Hell were all shot at.

Plus, Xiro Papas, the monster of Frankenstein 80, plays a vampiric giant.

If you’re a fan of the harder side of Hammer, then allow this female vampire to obsess you as well.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

This movie has so many names, but that’s because it was released both before and after Jackie Chan became a big star in Hong Kong in Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master. In 1979, a version with new inserts and a Jackie stand-in showed up in Hong Kong. This goes by names like Little Tiger of Canton, Ten Fingers of Death and after it was sold to producer Dick Randall, he dubbed and repackaged it as Master with Cracked Fingers. He sold to 21st Century who released it in 1981 as Snake Fist Ninja.

Hsiao Hu (Jackie Chan) has been forbidden to fight by order of his foster father (Tien Feng). However, he’s been training with a beggar known as “The Man Who Isn’t There” (Yuen Siu Tien, in new footage where he’s playing the same role as Drunken Master) and soon learns that his real father was murdered when protecting the people. However, all that fighting back causes the gang to kill his adopted patriarch and now Hsiao Hu has two reasons to get a pound of flesh from these criminals.

If you bought cheap VHS back in the day, you probably got this remixed Jackie movie along with Fantasy Mission Force.

You can watch this on YouTube.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Director Li Kuan-Chang also made The Cub Tiger from Kwangtung, which was rereleased as The Master With Cracked Fingers after Jackie Chan became a bigger deal. This rips off Fist of Fury and The Big Boss while trying to make you think its a Bruce Lee movie.

It stars Tong Lung, who spends more time running than fighting in this, but to paraphrase the words of MXC, “He’s not running from, he’s running to.” This has him fighting the Japanese who are invading China, much like the aforementioned Bruce Lee movies. Otherwise, it’s not your normal Bruceploitation. It’s more just a kung fu movie brought to the U.S. to cash in on the martial arts craze of the early 70s.

This was brought to the U.S. by 21st Century, who renamed it Challenge the Dragon. They also licensed it to Continental Video.

You can watch this on YouTube.

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.

Cheung Da Gong (Henry Yu Young) is a journeyman martial artist, sometimes fighting on stage, other times as a bodyguard or someone who protects shopkeepers. The death of his father brings him back home to work on the farm. He refuses to sell it to criminal Mr. Wong (Tien Fang), who gets his men to burn it down, killing his mother and sister. As you can imagine, the grief makes him get revenge. Then he gets arrested and the police say, “You should have left retribution to the law.”

This is a downer.

Also released as Fury of the Black Belt, this was directed by Lung-Hsiang Fang. Woo-Ping Yuen coordinated the action and a young Jackie Chan even shows up, but you may not spot him. He has a mustache!

It’s a very serviceable revenge film, even if I dislike that it ends with an arrest. I think if the mob burns down your family, legally you should be able to destroy everyone.

You can watch this on Tubi.