USA/South Africa. 1981.
Crew
Director – Ivan Hall, Screenplay – John Crowther, Producer – Igo Kantor, Photography – Tai Krige. Production Company – Film Ventures International/The Again Corporation.
Cast
James Ryan (Steve Chase), Anneline Kriel (Kandy Kane), Michael Mayer (Marduk/Wellington Forsyth III), Ken Gampu (Gorilla), Bill Flynn (Hotdog), Stan Schmidt (The Fly), Norman Robinson (Gypsy Billy), Marloe Scott-Wilson (Minerva), John Ramsbottom (Dr Horatio Kane), Ivor Kissin (Chief Guard), Nobby Baird Clarke (Bartender)
Plot
Karate champion Steve Chase is hired on behalf of Kandy Kane. Her father, the scientist Dr Horatio Kane, has developed a fuel substitute derived from potatoes, which can also be used to enslave a person’s mind. However, Dr Kane has been abducted by Marduk, a billionaire who styles himself in the manner of a Babylonian god. Marduk wants to place the serum in the world’s water supplies and enslave the population. Steve gathers his old team and they set forth to Marduk’s base in Ironville. However, this means having to fight off Marduk’s army of trained martial artists along the way.
The South African-born James Ryan is one of the forgotten names of 1970s/80s Martial Arts cinema. Ryan appeared in the South African-made Kill or Be Killed (1976), which gained reasonable international play in 1980 under the title Karate Killer. The non-genre plot was a ripoff of Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon (1973) and featured Ryan as a martial artist fighting in a competition held by an embittered ex-Nazi. Following the film’s success, Ryan and director Ivan Hill were given US funding to make this sequel. A third film was planned but never made. Ryan never did much else – he played in a handful of other films, including the classic bad movie Space Mutiny (1988), but surprisingly no other action roles.
Kill and Kill Again is a sequel to Kill or Be Killed that isn’t quite a sequel. Ryan plays a similar but not the same character – he gets a name change from Steve Hunt in the first film to Steve Chase here. There is a similar plot where he is required to spend most of the first half reuniting the old team – a couple of whom are played by actors who appeared in the first film but not in the same roles. There is a similar Super-Villain behind it all – not an ex-Nazi but a billionaire (Michael Mayer in a very fake beard) with a world domination scheme that involves placing a Mind Control drug in the world’s water supply. The film is not quite set around a combat tournament as the first film was, although does feature an extended climax where the villain places the various members of the team into such a competition.
All of this is fairly typical of the English-language martial arts films being made around the time. This does come with a really goofy sense of humour. There are several variations on scenes where the team members sit by on the sidelines and allow others to fight off large numbers of opponents, including one scene where a couple of them stand by playing cards while the others fight off a detachment of paratroopers. Or a running gag where villain Michael Mayer keeps getting called cute, affectionate names by pink-haired subordinate Marloe Scott-Wilson, which are then picked up and copied by his parrot. One of the most ridiculous scenes are when the group go to recruit Bill Flynn’s Hotdog and find him and several friends in a warehouse conducting a game that is a variant on Russian Roulette where they throw a loaded gun into the air and gamble on whether the impact of it hitting the ground will cause it to go off and hit anybody.
The fight scenes are okay. James Ryan reveals a lithe presence, none the more so than during the climactic tournament scenes where he is conducting flips through the air. On the other hand, one does have to say that the writing of Kill and Kill Again as a martial arts film defies believability. For one, the villain keeps a massive army of martial arts fighters and spends a great deal of time having them all lined up training. You cannot help but feel that he might have conserved his forces considerably if he had simply had a smaller coterie of armed soldiers instead. Equally, as James Ryan and his team are making their way across country to his stronghold, the villain heads them off by having various of his martial artists either waiting to attack them or being parachuted in for the occasion. On the other hand, if he had simply send a handful of armed soldiers or a sniper to lie in wait, he would have wiped the unarmed Ryan and co out or taken them prisoner in no time flat. It is only when Ryan and co enter the compound that the villain’s army actually produce any guns to take them prisoner.
Trailer here
Full film available here