Firecracker (1981)
AKA: Naked Fist
Starring: Jillian Kesner, Darby Hinton, Ken Metcalfe, Vic Diaz, Pete Cooper, Rey Malonzo
Director: Cirio H. Santiago
Action Director: n/a
Firecracker is essentially Roger Corman's Filipino equivalent* remaking his own T.N.T. Jackson from seven years prior. It is a near racial inversion, although there are no black people in the film. It is about a white girl karate expert who goes to the Philippines in search of her sibling, only to get involved with karate-kicking drugs dealers, led once again by Ken Metcalfe, who helped write this.
The movie starts with Chuck Donner (Darby Hinton, looking like Bob Wall by-way-of Marjoe Gortner) killing his opponent in mortal combat at an underground fight tournament. Cut to Susanne Cooper (Jillian Kesner, of Raw Force and Student Body), a blonde karate expert arriving in Manila. During the aforementioned fight, there was another blonde girl who was taking pictures of the event until she was forcibly escorted out by some Hired Goons. That is Susanne's sister and our heroine wants to know what happened to her. She goes to the bar/hotel where her sister, Bonnie, had been staying. That is run by a white guy named Pete (Pete Cooper, Stryker and Up from the Depths) who employs a Bruce Lee imitator named Rey (Rey Malonzo, Twin Fists for the Blackmasters). Their first meeting turns into a huge bar fight for no reason than to establish that Susanne is a badass.
Susanne goes to the fight club we saw earlier, which is run by a drug dealer named Erik (Ken Metcalfe). Erik keeps Chuck as a sort of enforcer and a Filipino guy, Grip (Vic Diaz, of Caged Heat II and Live by the Fist), as the liaison with the heroin suppliers (one throwaway scene shows us that Erik is an addict himself). Susanne beats one of Erik's men in combat and is later invited to participate in to-the-death fights. Chuck falls for her and they eventually have sex--Attention, Men! According to this movie, the best way to comfort a woman who has learned of her sister's murder is to engage in kinky sex involving switchblade knives! Meanwhile, Chuck is amassing an army of martial artists that he plans to use in order to get rid of Grip and eliminate the middle man in the drug acquisitions.
So, this film is basically T.N.T. Jackson, the white girl version. It shares much of that film's plot points--the boss's main squeeze being an undercover agent, the love interesting turning out to be the murderer, the missing sibling, the internal intrigue in the main drug gang, etc. This film also features a topless fight when a pair of would-be rapists attack Susanne, who gradually has her clothes ripped off until she's in her bra and panties. One of the assaulters rips off her bra with a hook, leaving her topless. There are lots of fights, but like its predecessor, they are not very good. Much like Jeannie Bell, it seems that Jillian Kesner was hired based on her willingness to show her tits (they get a good workout here) than on her fighting skills. Her kicks almost never rise above belt level (despite her character being a 6th dan black belt) and her punches are sloppy. There is some Arnis stick work and it's not very interesting, although it does play a part in the film's final gory kill. If you want boobs and fights (regardless of quality), you might enjoy Firecracker. Viewers with more higher standards may want to avoid.
Starring: Lucinda Dooling, Vincent Roberts, Pamela Jean Bryant, Richard Herd, Mel Novak
Director: David Sheldon
Action Director: Rex Kimbell
When high school student Arthur Lovitt (Vincent Roberts) drowns while strung out on drugs, his sister, Mary Ann "Lovely" Lovitt (Lucinda Dooling, The Alchemist) takes matters into her own hands. She is a karate expert and starts making her way through the drug ring in the school. The main drug pusher in school is the star football player Mantis Managian (Rick Moser), whom the police cannot touch because he's likely to get a football scholarship. Really. Consider how lawyers are often trying to get star athletes off the hook for S.A. charges because of their promising future, that isn't too far from our reality.
Anyway, Lovely starts flirting with Managian, which pisses his current cheerleader girlfriend, Gloria (Pamela Jean Bryant, of Private Lessons and H.O.T.S.), to no end. This is done with the intent of getting herself whore'd out to the higher-ups in the drug ring. You see, Managian gets his stuff from a rich broker named Warren Leng (the late Mel Novak), who in turn gets it from a local businessman named "Honest Charlie" Gilmarten (Richard Herd, All the President's Men and The China Syndrome). Gilmarten receives the shipments at the local shipyard, whose owner is in cahoots with him. Managian also supplies Gilmarten with high school-age girls to satisfy his libido on a regular basis. Anyway, Lovely finds herself fighting with Gloria and the rest of the strung-out whore-cheerleaders, Gilmarten and his enforcers, and ultimately the entire city drug ring. The police are useless, but the school's karate club will be at her disposal if she needs them...
Lovely But Deadly is a mix of high school drama, martial arts movie, and vigilante film, with a smidgen of exploitation (a few random moments of female nudity). There are a number of fight scenes, although the choreography is quite sloppy. Lucinda Dooling can throw a higher kick than Jillian Kessner of Firecracker, but the choreography is uninteresting. There are a few catfights that are more grappling and pawing than actual fighting. The focus of the film is drugs and the evils of them, but the film glosses over the fact that the bad guys are practically running a high school prostitution ring in the process. I found that rather odd. In the end, fans of 1980s cheese may enjoy this ironically, but everybody else can skip it.
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