REAL SOULJA (1984)

 More commonly known under the way better title of THE VIOLENT BREED this might be the worst movie directed by Fernando Di Leo that I've seen so far. It starts off like a typical euro-war flick set in Vietnam and then turns into the story of a CIA agent(Harrison Muller) on a mission to take down his old buddy from the war(Woody Strode) who is now a drug-running gangster still in Southeast Asia. There are a lot of exploding huts but Mr. Muller doesn't make for the most compelling action hero and the ending is pretty underwhelming as is the plot. Muller does look a bit like Jesus though so that's something.
 The old VHS tape I have of this makes Woody Strode out to be the star and REAL SOULJA(whatever that means) but that's sadly not the case and he's only the main bad guy. The great Henry Silva is wasted only really doing anything exciting in the first few minutes of the film before being regulated to the talky scenes. This really made me want to stick with Di Leo's 70's films.

                                              No Strode on the Cannon VHS box!:

BOOTS HILL (1969)

 I always disliked this film because I own it in a triple pack VHS set along with THEY CALL ME TRINITY and TRINITY IS STILL MY NAME and this was the worst movie out of those three and seemed like it didn't really belong. Also it's a horrible full-screen transfer of the film. Watching it again recently it wasn't as bad as I remembered it being. For one thing it has a pretty awesome cast. Besides Terence Hill and Bud Spencer you also get Woody Strode, Lionel Stander, Victor Buono and in a rare heroic role, George Eastman as a deaf, mute fellow with dyed-blonde hair with the unlikely name of Baby Doll? The story itself concerns Hill getting mixed up with a circus(which includes a bunch of midgets and Strode on the trapeze) and getting some help by Spencer and Eastman in getting revenge against some evil mining company. The whole thing still does feel like an slightly inferior version of the "official" Trinity movies but this actually came out before those films and I suppose it isn't bad as a predecessor. Just don't watch it on VHS. AKA BOOT HILL, TRINITY RIDES AGAIN(even though he didn't actually ride yet!), BOOT HILL: TRINITY RIDES AGAIN and THE MAGNIFICENT TWO.

Addendum: I didn't know when I first watched this but it is technically the third part of a trilogy of films directed by Giuseppe Colizzi following GOD FORGIVES...I DON'T (1967) and ACE HIGH (1968). This is obviously not all that important to the plot except that apparently some of the same characters return.



I guess in the German version Woody Strode balances jugs on his head:

 French poster:

THE MANHUNT (1972)

 This is the 2nd part of Fernando Di Leo's Italian mafia trilogy which includes MILANO CALIBER 9 and THE BOSS. This is a trilogy in theme only since these films aren't really connected plot-wise. Mario Adorf plays our main character here and he's a small-time pimp who becomes a scapegoat for a heroin deal gone bad. He's really good going around giving headbutts to anyone who fucks with him and it's kinda like the reverse of his sleazy low-life role in CALIBER 9. Henry Silva and Woody Strode play two hit-men who are on his trail for most of the movie. If you're at all a fan of eurocrime-type films you need to check out these Di Leo films since they're really the best examples of this genre. AKA BLACK KINGPIN, THE ITALIAN CONNECTION, MANHUNT IN THE CITY, HIRED TO KILL and HITMEN.
 There's also an Umbeto Lenzi crime flick called MANHUNT which also stars Henry Silva but in that one he's in the hero role.

 Released in America by AIP:

THE UNHOLY FOUR (1970)

 Woody Strode (ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST), George Eastman(THE GRIM REAPER) a guy who has amnesia(Leonard Mann), and one other nondescript fellow make up our title characters.  They escape from an insane asylum(even though none of them seem all that crazy) and look for some gold and revenge in this Italian western. Also the guy with the shitty memory is trying to figure out who the hell he is which leads to some big revelations at the climax. The last 15 minutes are really the highlight of the whole movie with some neat shoot-outs and double-crosses but most of the rest of this film is your pretty standard spaghetti-western type deal with barroom fights, crooked card games, etc.. Strode doesn't get to do a whole lot but is pretty convincing as a strongman bad-ass and I always love seeing Eastman in bigger roles like this even if this isn't the most memorable of films to star in. AKA CHUCK MOOL. This was also released as a sequel to DJANGO in Germany. Director Enzo Barboni also made the way better TRINITY series.