Fung!

SHOWDOWN-1993-Some bikers beat up some drug dealers and take their stash. The Mayor assigns police captain/martial arts teacher James Long (producer/writer/director Leo Fung) to do something about it. After a botched up stakeout where an undercover officer is killed Long vows revenge against the crime boss Kincade (top billed Werner Hoetzinger). The bikers invade the small town of Sanctuary, a haven for retired gangsters where Richard Lynch is "The Commander". When an ex-mobster (Frank Marth) who recently reunited with his daughter Mickey (Michelle McCormick) is blow up by the gang The Commander calls in Long to "terminate" their leader, the weird looking kind of effeminate Kincade. (Long doesn't seem surprised when on hearing this) Long beats up three bikers and kills two of them. Later a black female gas station attendant beats up half of the gang! Things really hit a wall when one of the ex-mobsters sings at a seniors meeting. Mickey beats up a biker chick but is later taken captive. Long rescues her while beating up guys much bigger than him. Later Long uses a rocket launcher and teams up with The Commander to wipe out the gangs but Kincade escapes and the story suddenly shifts to micro-chips and 2 comedic smugglers. One of them beats down Long but he gets up, gets in his car and follows them like nothing happened! I thought this movie would never end but Long finally beats up Kincade and arrests him.

Troy Donahue appears in one scene at the beginning. The direction, editing and acting in this is martial arts action drama are all sub-par but it was cool to see Lynch in a cowboy hat. Werner Hoetzinger was a set dresser for some movies and TV shows. Thank the lord this was his only acting role! Sometimes confused with the Billy Blanks movie of the same name (made the same year).

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50's Horror

MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS-1958-A college professor Donald Blake (Arthur Franz) cuts his hand on the tooth of a 1000 year old fish treated with gamma rays. He becomes a rubbery faced caveman-monster and kills a nurse (Helen Wescott ) and a cop (Ross Elliot). Since the cops find unusual hand and foot prints at the scenes of the crimes Blake is not a suspect but he begins to suspect himself! His work in proving the fish is somehow responsible makes everyone think he's crazy. His future father in law (Alexander Lockwood) and doctor (Whit Bissell) suggest he go to a mountain retreat to relax. He tries to experiment on himself and turns into the monster just as Madeline, his fiance' arrives at the cabin. She wrecks her car and he carries her off, then chases her through the woods. Blake manages to get a picture of himself  as the monster but Madeline can't understand why the monster is wearing Blake's clothes! At the end Blake injects himself with some of the fish's blood and becomes a monster getting shot to death by a police lieutenant (Judson Pratt) in the process.

MOTC also features a German shepherd with fangs, a giant dragonfly and Troy Donahue (later on the TV shows SURFSIDE 6 and HAWAIIAN EYE) and Nancy Walters (later acted with Elvis in BLUE HAWAII) as some students who try to help. Perennial '50's character Hank Patterson (later Arnold the Pig's "father" on TV's GREEN ACRES) also appears.

CAMPUS is an ok low budget horror film but considering Jack Arnold directed it I thought it could have been better. Of course it was one of four movies he directed in 1958 so maybe he had to rush it a little! Screenwriter David Duncan wrote several other low budget horror films (THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD, THE LEECH WOMAN, and others).

Though Franz is shown in two transformation scenes stuntman Eddie Parker played the monster. Parker had played the Mr. Hyde role in the earlier ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (which also featured Wescott). And if the Mr. Hyde monster in that movie reminds of the cave-monster in CAMPUS well, Bud Westmore and Jack Kevan did the make-up on both! Other Abbott & Costello related notes: Franz starred with "the boys" in A & C MEET THE INVISIBLE MAN and Parker played the mummy in A & C MEET THE MUMMY!

Lead actress Joanna Moore (mother of Tatum O'Neal) had a role in Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL the same year.

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