American Rikscha

'American Rickshaw' on my disc but even with its Italian title, 'American Riscio', it would be no better. Directed by prolific and usually reliable, Sergio Martino, this suffers from weak and mostly inexperienced cast and pretty ludicrous storyline. Male lead, Mitch Gaylord is famous for having been the 1984 US Olympic gymnast champion and his female counterpart is unknown Victoria Prouty, who does well enough compared to everyone else but is asked to play a lap dancer despite a most modest chest. Actually, this begins fairly well and remains quirky throughout but things start to go wrong with appalling police representation and then this Chinese mumbo jumbo which becomes more prominent as the film progresses. We also get a spluttering performance from, always willing but not always able, Donald Pleasence as an evangelical nutter preacher, gone very wrong.

After seeing this movie, I realize how bad a film can be. I was sober when I began the movie but it left me intoxicated with stupidity. I've never seen a movie about a rickshaw driver and, because of this movie, I never will again. What was Donald Pleasence thinking? A horrid film such as this does not deserve even a hint of his presence.

This movie is baffling, but baffling in every best ways a movie can be. If you are someone who loves strange, unorthodox and confusing storylines, it doesn't get much better than this. You will find yourself baffled many times, saying "what?'' and usually it would make for a terrible viewing experience, but this is actually enthrallingly confusing. The acting isn't the best you'll ever see obviously, but it is certainly passible and as bonus, you even get to see the one and only Donald Pleasance do ludicrous stuff towards the end that I won't spoil.

I'll just end by saying that for a movie that may somewhat have the reputation of being bad, I was captivated by how confusing everything was. I sincerly think every lovers of bad movies should give it a shot. 10/10 recommended.

My review was written in June 1991 after watching the film on Academy video cassette.

Olympic gymnast Mitch Gaylord makes an okay hero in the Italian action pic "American Tiger". Poorly scripted effort is being released directly to video in the States.

Credited to four writers, including director Sergio Martino, storyline unwisely attempts to inject a mystical element into an otherwise straightforward suspense plot.

Muscular Gayulord plays a young student in Mami who earns money pulling a rickshaw carrying tourists (pic's original title was "American Rickshaw"). Pic opens with him being kind to an old Oriental woman (Michi Kobi) by giving her a ride in the rain. It turns out she's an ageless witch who's been guarding a legendary Boar Statue that's about to fall into the hands of unscrupulous televangelist Donald Pleasence unless Gaylord saves the day.

While Peasence's henchman Daniel Greene is killing folks and hunting Gaylord for a missing key to obtain the statue, Mitch is thrown together with a young stripper (Victoria Prouty) as innocents on the lam. Martino stages the action scenes well with plenty of Miami location atmosphere but keeps injecting idiotic supernatural interventions, as Kobi starts fires or uses her pet cat and snake to try to confound the villains.

Prouty is an attractive redhead who deserves better roles than this while Gylord shows some promise as a he-man action star. Pleasence is embarrassing wearing a wig in flashbacks as a younger version of himself -he already was bald back in '50s movies, so the effect is incongruous..

This may be named "AMERICAN Rickshaw", but it's a 200% ITALIAN cocktail of absurd satanic horror, sleazy exploitation, and macho 80s action! Sergio Martino was one of the most prominent and successful directors of the 70s and early 80s but, just like his compatriots, he struggled during the late 80s to get his movies noticed. "American Rickshaw" is little-known and barely loved, but undeservedly so, as it's marvelous entertainment.

I presume that Italian cult directors booked group travels together to Miami, Florida, and then shot movies there separately. Enzo G. Castellari made "Hammerhead", Alberto de Martino did "Miami Golem", and Sergio Martino thought up the grotesquely inventive "American Rickshaw". The hunky & athletic Mitchell Gaylord (I'm not making fun of him, mind you, that's his actual name) stars as a student/rickshaw driver Scott Edwards who becomes entangled in a convoluted web of Chinese spiritualism, devilish evangelists, voyeuristic amateur-pornography, double-crossing strip dancers, hypnotizing cobras, spontaneously combusting boats, eerie warthog relics, prophetic cats, rejuvenating geishas, and flesh-melting locker keys. I kid you not!

Explaining how all these bizarre elements connect would take too long and would also ruin the fun! Just take my word for it, "American Rickshaw" is jolly great fun IF you don't ask any questions regarding logic or sense. It's fast-paced, full of action and gratuitous nudity, and - especially towards the finale - there's also some excellent gore! Mr. Gaylord and the ravishing Victoria Prouty (in her only role ever) are amiable, but - as usual - my preference goes to the nasty, evil villains! Daniel Green, Martino's regular beefcake from "Atomic Cyborg" and "Day of the Condor" is awesome as the unstoppable killer, and good old Donald Pleasance is present again as well. I'm not sure if Pleasance fully realized what filmset he was on, but his charisma is always an added cult value.