As promised, here's my review of the second of three movies on the "Lethal Ladies" collection, TNT Jackson (aka Dynamite Jackson), part of the Roger Corman's Cult Classics DVD line from New Horizons Pictures and Shout! Factory.
Unlike last week's selection, Firecracker, I had actually seen Jackson before- in fact, I already own it, as part of one of those bargain bin collections you get at places like Wal-Mart or Suncoast Video (do they even have those anymore?).
Of course, this version is cleaned-up considerably, and I don't mean content-wise (as if!), but rather in terms of presentation, which is to say the movie looks and sounds a lot better than the crappy copy I had, which was almost certainly a bootleg dubbed from a VHS or an inferior print or something.
While watching Firecracker, I had the thought that it seemed like I'd seen it before somehow, even though I was quite sure I'd remember something like that, given the whole hot blonde fighting topless thing. Turns out I had seen it before, after all, in a manner of speaking, as TNT Jackson is practically the same movie!
They say if you're going to steal from someone, steal from the best. Apparently, Roger Corman and director Cirio H. Santiago decided that they were, in fact, the best, because they totally recycled the plot here for Firecracker, down to even the topless fighting scene!
I'm not even kidding. See if this sounds familiar: a woman whose sibling has gone missing travels to a foreign land- in this case, Hong Kong- where she has but one lone contact, a bartender, which she leverages into insinuating herself into a local gang running drugs, led by a sinister hulking white guy.
The guy in question is writer/actor Ken Metcalfe, who also did literally the same role in Firecracker. As in that film, Metcalfe's character, Sid, has two people working for him: a local and an outsider, neither of whom trust one another, and one of which is trying to make a name for himself and rips off his boss, derailing several drug shipments in the process.
Meanwhile, there's an undercover cop involved, who is sleeping with Sid, and all concerned are wary of the newcomer, Diane "TNT" Jackson, played by Jeanne Bell. She wastes no time in snuggling up to her fellow outsider, a black man named Charlie (Sam Shaw), who naturally is the very one responsible for killing her brother in the opening sequence.
Lots of violence and fighting ensue, and pretty much everyone gets what's coming to them in one way or another, down to a climatic fight to the death between TNT and Charlie at the end, which ends in spectacularly gory fashion.
Like I said, it's literally the same movie, save switching around the ethnicity of most of the characters and the locale it takes place in. (Although it, like Firecracker, was also shot in the Philippines, standing in for Hong Kong.)
I will, however, give credit where it's due to one man: the legendary Dick Miller, who wrote the original script this was based on. Corman simply had Metcalfe overhaul it and viola- TNT Jackson was born. And Firecracker, apparently, lol.
That Corman, he's a sly little devil. If there was a buck to be wrung out of something, by God, he was going to get it. His autobiography How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime was not a misnomer.
Dick Miller, of course, is better-known as a character actor, who appeared in countless Corman flicks, and went on to work with a lot of Corman's alumni as well, including such luminaries as James Cameron, Ron Howard and Joe Dante, as well as directors like Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis and Martin Scorsese.
Some of his more notable films include: It Conquered the World, Not of This Earth, Sorority Girl, A Bucket of Blood, The Little Shop of Horrors, Premature Burial, The Terror, The Wild Angels, The Trip, The Student Teachers, The Young Nurses (and most of Corman's "nurse"-themed flicks), Truck Turner, Big Bad Mama, Capone, Crazy Mama, Hollywood Boulevard, Cannonball, Corvette Summer, Piranha, The Lady in Red, Rock 'n' Roll High School, 1941, Used Cars, The Howling, White Dog, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Gremlins (and the sequel), The Terminator, The 'Burbs, Matinee, Small Soldiers and Burying the Ex.
Leading up the charge against the gangsters this time out is Jeanne Bell, aka Jean or Jeannie Bell, depending on the film or source. Bell was notable as one of the very first African-American Playboy playmates. Originally from Houston, Texas, she was also the first black woman to take part in the Miss Texas Pageant.
She also dated legendary actor Richard Burton and is often credited with not only helping him to get sober, but to reunite with his longtime love, Elizabeth Taylor, for better or worse. After posing for Playboy one last time in 1979, with Burton's help, she quit the business and got a place in Switzerland.
Along the way, though, she appeared in some well-regarded films, including The Choirboys, The Muthas, Policewomen, The Klansman, Three the Hard Way, Mean Streets (from director Martin Scorsese), Black Gunn, Trouble Man and Melinda.
Many of these films are considered Blaxploitation classics, especially Three the Hard Way, TNT Jackson and Trouble Man, which featured a memorable soundtrack by the late, great Marvin Gaye. Fun fact: Vivica Fox's character uses Bell's name as an alias in the Kill Bill movies.
Co-starring alongside Bell is Stan Shaw, as Charlie, the local Karate King. Shaw made his film debut in the aforementioned Truck Turner, starring R&B legend Isaac Hayes, after a successful run in Broadway's Hair. Before becoming an actor, he was a Karate instructor, which would obviously come in handy in films like this and his other action flicks.
Shaw's impressive acting resume includes films like Darktown Strutters, The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings, Rocky, The Boys in Company C, The Great Santini, Roots: The Next Generation, Tough Enough, Runaway, The Gladiator, The Monster Squad (a film I LOVED as a kid), Billionaire Boys Club, Harlem Nights, Fear, Fried Green Tomatoes, Rising Sun, Houseguest, Cutthroat Island, Snake Eyes, Daylight, Freedom Song and Jeepers Creepers 3 (can't win 'em all).
As the sexy undercover cop, Elaine, there's Pat Anderson, an exploitation mainstay of the 70's and early 80's. Her list of credits includes Bonnie's Kids, Fly Me, Dirty O'Neil, Newman's Law, Summer School Teachers, Cover Girl Models and the cable favorite Angel of H.E.A.T., featuring former porn star Marilyn Chambers, of Behind the Green Door infamy.
Also cropping up are Filipino character actors Max Alvarado (Alias Chain Gang, Tiger Unit) and Chiquitos (James Bondat, a James Bond spoof, also with Alvarado, Black Kung Fu), Leo Martin (a Santiago regular, also in Vampire Hookers, Enter the Ninja, Caged Fury and lots more) and John Gamble (aka Joonee Gamboa, another Santiago regular, from Wonder Women, Savage Sisters, Cover Girl Models and the third film in this collection, She's Too Hot to Handle).
As we covered director Santiago and writer Metcalfe in the last installment, I'll simply direct you to that review for more, or, if you prefer, you can cut to the chase and check out their respective IMDb pages here and here.
TNT Jackson is a lot of fun, and though it suffered a bit from my having watched Firecracker last week, which, like I said, literally has the same exact plot, I will say this for it: the editing is far superior here to that film's and the action sequences are better staged and far more compelling.
Granted, they're also pretty cartoonish, thanks to the director or editors' oddball habit of often speeding up the film! (Think how you can speed up YouTube videos by tweaking the settings.)
The ill-advised "trick" does nothing, save expose that much further how none of the punches or kicks aren't connecting in the slightest. Still, the staging is way better than the much-sillier ones in Firecracker.
Another undeniable plus is the locale, which is put to much better use here than it was in Firecracker as well. For one thing, Santiago lucked out- or simply took advantage of the scheduling to put it to good use- when he happened to shoot at the same time as a local carnival, which provides some pretty great visual elements, making it look like the film has higher production values than it really does.
That said, some Millennials may need a trigger warning when they get a load of some Filipinos in what appears to be black-face (and body) make-up, not to mention followed by a group of locals dressed as apes. Don't know local customs in the Philippines, but that is admittedly kind of messed up, for sure.
I suppose which of the films you prefer depends entirely on your given sensibilities. I was a massive Blaxploitation fan as a teenager, thanks in no small measure to Tarantino, so back then, I probably would have leaned more towards this film.
But now that I'm a bit older, as a child of the 80's, I'm always up for a solid 80's-era B-Movie, least of all one I've never seen, so Firecracker hit the spot for me. It certainly didn't help that star Jillian Kesner was such a stone cold fox, and that the music was so wonderfully cheesy.
That said, Bell certainly isn't too shabby her own damn self, and she has a great sassy approach to the role that makes her the more superior actress of the two. Example:
Elaine: I'm a government agent.
TNT: Oh yeah? Well, I'm Snow White suffering from a sunburn.
It's sort of like comparing Pam Grier to Cynthia Rothrock. They're both hot bad-asses with a sarcastic, snarky bent, but Grier can act circles around Rothrock, to be sure. Same here with Bell and Kesner, with Bell the obvious winner.
My advice would be to space out viewings of the respective films, so you don't suffer the same fate as I did. I mean, as someone who has watched a gazillion slasher movies, I suppose I'm one to talk about people recycling plots, but you get my drift.
It's basically the same movie, but one has a hot white girl and the other a hot black girl. That's really the only difference, believe me, so choose accordingly to your taste preference. I don't know what you're into, lol.
Either way, they are both worth at least a one-time viewing. Both are readily available on DVD, but, if you must, you can watch them on YouTube, where both are available as of this writing.
Just keep in mind the quality is crap there, so if you want remastered picture and sound, definitely go with Corman's "Lethal Ladies" collection. All the better to see those nude fight scenes the way they were meant to be seen: clear and not looking like someone didn't know how to focus the camera lens. 😉
Check 'em out!
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