Tuesday, April 21, 2009

VIGILANTE FORCE: They Called It God's Country... Until All Hell Broke Loose!

Thanks to Comcast OnDemand I watched about an hour of VIGILANTE FORCE this afternoon. This crazy Gene Corman production from 1976 was written and directed by George Armitage who wrote and directed the excellent MIAMI BLUES.

It's a lightning paced proto-ROADHOUSE with Kris Kristofferson as a Nam vet recruited to come home and help "clean up" his old town by brother Jan-Michael Vincent. Little does JMV know that Kristofferson is planning to run out the current thugs... and replace them with his own cronies.

For fans of 70s pulchritude we've got Victoria Principal and Bernadette Peters in nice supporting roles as well as a pre-WKRP Loni Anderson as a casino bimbo named "Peaches" and I don't think it's for her love of fruit. CHARLIE'S ANGELS' Bosley (David Doyle) turns up as a bank executive and we even get BREAKFAST CLUB principal Paul Gleason as a mob enforcer with quite the taste in shirts and neck jewelry.

Some great dialogue, gratuitous Dick Miller, a very Wild West feel to it (the whole thing could be redone as a Western with little change), and enough random acts of violence and mayhem that you're never bored. As far as I know this little gem is unavailable on DVD and is running on Comcast for the next few days, at least here in the Baltimore region.

Can't wait to see how this one turns out!

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