T.N.T. Jackson (1974)

TNT Jackson (1974)

Starring: Jeannie Bell, Stan Shaw, Chiquito, Pat Anderson, Ken Metcalfe, Joe Mari Avellana, Max Alvarado, Percy Gordon, Imelda Ilanan
Director: Cirio H. Santiago
Action Directors: J. Lo, Renato Morado, C. Tan Siu Tong, Boni Uy

 

If one were to trace that cinematic lineage of TNT Jackson, a low-budget Blaxploitation movie filmed in the Phillipines, it would be a curious one indeed. It is clear that TNT Jackson was a cash-in on the higher-budgeted Cleopatra Jones, which merged the Blaxploitation and kung fu genres. That was a given considering the success of Enter the Dragon and the popularity of Jim Kelly’s Williams character. Enter the Dragon was also the crowning achievement in Bruce Lee’s career, which started with The Big Boss. That film represented a high-water mark in the nascent modern kung fu film, which started the year before with Jimmy Wang Yu’s The Chinese Boxer. It goes without saying that TNT Jackson is a loopy film, taking the ‘xploitation’ in Blaxploitation and running with it as far as it can go given its budget.

 Diana “TNT” Jackson (Playboy playmate Jeannie Bell) is a female martial artist who shows up in Hong Kong (played by the Phillipines) looking for her brother, Stack. Following an address given to her, she heads over to Hong Kong’s “Yellow District,” a crime-ridden hellhole where women are summarily raped in broad daylight. After beating up a bunch of random criminals trying to steal her luggage, Diana finds a nightclub/karate dojo ran by Joe (Chiquito, who showed up in Filipino films like James Bondat and Atorni Agaton: Agent Law-Ko). Stack had been Joe’s student, but disappeared some time before.

At about the same time, Jackson gets into a fight with some troublemakers at the nightclub, catching the attention of Charlie (Stan Shaw, of The Boys in Company C and Snake Eyes), an enforcer for local drug kingpin Sid (Ken Matcalfe, who wrote the screenplay alongside famous character actor Dick Miller!). Charlie is planning a hostile takeover of Sid’s organization and is rounding up the best martial artists in town to help him. Jackson tries out for the part and impresses Charlie to the point that the two become lovers…until she discovers that Charlie is the one who killed her brother…Now it’s time for TNT Jackson to put some asses in traction!

Nobody should come into TNT Jackson expecting art. After all, this is a movie produced by Roger Corman, directed by a Filipino schlockmeister, starring a Playboy playmate, and written by the star of Bucket of Blood and War of the Satellites. No, we come into this film to see a beautiful black woman beating people up, getting naked, and calling white girls “no-good honky pigs.” On that account, the film delivers. While Cleopatra Jones, the film’s big-budget predecessor, certainly boasted better production values and a stronger story, this movie makes no ambitions but to be a trashy action pic.

Unfortunately, being a trashy action pic may be enough for some, but not for us. Part of the problem is the casting of Jeannie Bell in the lead role. Roger Corman and other B-movie purveyors have long casted Playboy and Penthouse models in their trash flicks, mainly because producers know these women will have no qualms with doing nudity and/or sex scenes. To all outward appearances, Jeannie Bell was hired for that purpose. Her acting is questionable and her fighting skills are even worse. As sexist as it sounds, Bell is at her best when her top is off. She is certainly beautiful, but lacks the in-your-face presence of Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson.

Interestingly enough, Bell’s nudity in this film highlights the difference between Chinese female action cinema and its American equivalent. Chinese action heroines tend to be more modest in their dress and manners, usually leaving the nudity and sex to the supporting actresses. Nobody turns on an Angela Mao or Judy Lee film hoping to see them naked; there’s a supposition that both the actresses and characters who show their breasts onscreen would be of a weaker moral fiber and unbecoming of a leading action heroine. American action films generally require the actress to be both badass (with a gun, a sword or her fists) and sexy at the same time. The Hollywood heroine is badass because she delivers the beatdown and sexy because she shows skin; the Chinese heroine is badass and sexy because she delivers the beatdown.

Director Cirio H. Santiago hired no fewer than four fight choreographers to handle the action. Only one of them, Renato Morado, went on to have a real career afterward. Morado became something of a go-to guy to do stunt coordination on Hollywood pictures filming on location in the Phillipines, like American Ninja; Missing in Action; and Delta Force 2. It is clear that while the four men knew martial arts, they were not experienced enough to make a non-martial artist look authentic. Jeannie Bell gets in a lot of fights, but they are unconvincing: her punches are slow and weak; her kicks are uncoordinated; and her best moves are obviously doubled. Her most memorable fight will obviously be the one where she fights a roomful of attackers while topless. Stan Shaw looks a little better: the man held black belts in judo and karate before moving into acting. His punches are crisper and faster, although sometimes it looks like he’s too fast for the camera: there’s a difference between being movie camera fast and real-life fast. The two go at it twice, including the finale, where Bell dispatches him in true gory, exploitation fashion. And in true exploitation fashion, the final shot rips off another film. In this case, it’s the Hong Kong action classic Queen Boxer.