Lo Wei’s film has a lot of attractive elements. Chief amongst them being its Japanese Yakuza milieu, which gives it a very different look than any other Hong Kong martial art film of this period.

For lovers of the genre, one of the all-time favorites.

rated: excellent Now while it’s true I have a soft spot in my heart for Filipino cinema in general, and director Cirio Santiago in particular. My affection for his 1976 women in prison (sorta) flick “The MUTHERS” has grown over the years, until this cruddy little grindhouse cheapie has actually become one of my favorite movies.

In my opinion of all the fifties He-man leading men that were still starring in movies in the seventies (Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Glenn Ford, Yul Brynner and Robert Mitchum), Rock Hudson was hands down the hippest.

Harvey’s film was ridiculed by critics and dismissed by audiences when it came out back in 1979. But as a Hollywood tennis sports movie it’s pretty good.

And the film’s final coda, “The Finger cutting scene,” is, for me, one of the great endings of any movie of its era. And arguably Mitchum’s single greatest acting moment on film (as long as some fuckwad in the cinema doesn’t laugh during it).

However, this time screening the film with a great 35mm print, the film eventually took hold.

Escape from Alcatraz, a film I didn’t like when it came out — I’m sure it was just too dry for the seventeen year old me, proved both fascinating and exhilarating on a re-view a few years ago.

Ulzana’s Raid is hands down Aldrich’s best films of the seventies, as well as being one of the greatest westerns of the seventies.

Now watching The Lords of Flatbush when it came out was an interesting (in retrospect) experience. Not least of which because it was the first time I was introduced to the New York independent low budget film.

And just as the unmotivated fights begin to become tedious, a terrific end fight between Bruce and Old Man Han caps the film off excitingly. The film also starts with a funny little scene (gallows humor) of Bruce trying to save a man from jumping off a building, that I’ve never forgotten since I saw the film in 1978. The rest of the film I forgot, but not that opening grim joke. Even Kevin Thomas of the Los Angles Times mentioned it in his review. Oh btw, the film, as per usual, has nothing to do with Bruce Lee.