Der Boss von San Francisco

This movie is so bad I couldn't stop laughing. I've seen it like a dozen times because I find new screw ups every time! Why is there sirens in the police station? Why do the bad guys follow the cops while driving in front of them? How come punches, kicks, chains, 2X4's etc all make the same thump noise? The Best part: Chuck Norris's fake hairy chest. It looks like a vest. That can't be real. Plus why is Chuck dubbed? Does he even speak chinese?

****SPOILERS*** A blond beach-boy looking Chuck Norris playing top San Francisco mob drug kingpin Chuckie Slaughter does his best to keep a straight face in this movie that if anything should have earned him the top acting Academy Award honors for 1974. Norris in his first staring role plays the baddest of bad guys, having a gangster-like voice dubbed in, who not only runs the city's top drug operation but is as crude and uncouth towards the ladies in the movie as Jack the Ripper or Ted Bundy. It's Chuckie's attempt to rape his kid brother Paul's fiancée Sylvia Chu that in the end did him in and put him under. With former SFDP cop, and now restaurant waiter, Wong in taking him as his gang out and making chop suey out of them.

Wong who was framed by Chuckie's under-link Capt. Newman in a bank robbery that Chuckie and his boys pulled off that ended up killing Wong's police partner Robert Jones. As for the robbery it was blamed, with planted false evidence, on Mr. & Mrs. Chu, Sylvia's parents, who just happened to live next door to the bank that was held up. With Wong determined to find those that murdered his partner he discovers that his former boss Captain Newman was behind it. After kidnapping Newman and with a little friendly persuasion, like hanging him by his you know what, Wong finds out that Chuckie was the master mind behind this entire crime wave, as well as police and political pay-offs, that's sweeping the city.

***SPOILERS*** The final showdown has Wong take on Chuckie and his gang on their own turf with Chickie & Co. getting the worst of it. It was when Wong dumped Chuckie in the duck pond and his his yellow hair dye bleach started to run he finally called it quits. It was far more humiliating to Chuckie Slaughter to end up not being blond, since in his mind blonds have more fun, then taking a whopping from Wong whom at the time, before being dunked, he was more then holding his own against.

After seeing this flick, the voices of everyone (African American, Caucasian, and Oriental) were dubbed. Even the sound effects were trashy, like the constant "police sirens" sound effect during the police precinct scenes, as well as the sounds of the cars firing up, which sounds like a 4-cylinder import, not to mention the bull-whip sound effects when someone is punched or karate-chopped.

They should have had the Caucasian and African American voices heard normally, instead of some British accented voice-over. LOLs, when hearing an African American sounding like a Brit, as well as the dubbing of Chuck Norris' voice. The only thing worth hearing is the 70's score, common with the blaxploitation genre.

My review was written in September 1981 after a Times Square screening:

Filmed in 1973 but just released domestically to cash in on the presence of currently hot chop-socky star Chuck Norris in the cast, "Slaughter in San Francisco" is a curiosity item representing an early by Raymond Chow's Golden Harvest ("Cannonball Run", "The Big Brawl") to shoot a film in the U. S. Entirely lensed on the West Coast", "Slaughter" nevertheless retains all the defects of a Hong Kong entry (atrocious dubbing and sound effects, tinny score, zoom-crazed camera and wooden acting). Martial arts fans may feel ripped off by the presence of supposedly "starring" Norris in a supporting role.

Clearly designed for the Far East audience, pic is set in a mythical "Daly CIty" (supposedly near S. F.) where the police are so ruthless they will kill suspects who refuse to confess. This exaggerated parallel world has all the Caucasian cast members portrayed as evil, including Norris, who looks and dresses much the same as in his familiar heroic roles, but is cast here as a mean gang leader so nasty that he tries to rape his brother's fiancee.

Don Wong is the nominal Chinese hero, an ex-cop out to avenge the murder of his Black partner. Norris' gang is responsible and after numerous 20 against one kung fu battles for Wong, the agile thesp finally goes up against Norris in a well-shot finale. If his fans can last out the tedium until this point, they may get a kick out of seeing invincible Chuck get soundly thrashed.

Yes it's a low budget martial art film, but the fight scenes, particularly the big boss finale with Chuck and the hero aren't bad with acrobatic moves a plenty. Also of note are the many driving scenes in Daly City specifically Westlake including DC City Hall (the main characters are DCPD not SF), Westlake Shopping Center, Marjorie Tobias Elementary, Southgate Ave, and other locations just outside SF including local residences. Additionally, movie was obviously making a point about racist cops which was ahead of its time. Nice work featuring the Great Highway, and Twin Peaks. (Notice the poor air quality over SF at the time in that scene)