Final Game - Die Killerkralle

Someone is going around killing blondes along a beachfront in Texas possibly with a hook. Former baseball player now detective Roy Scheider is on the case.

Heavily criticised on its release, it's not hard to see why. The story is rather lumpen, drawing us into various cliched storylines eg big political / jurisdiction issues, Scheider's forthcoming nuptials to a blonde, numerous blonde girls walking alone into isolated places when there's a killer on the loose and the killer and their rationale for the killings when it finally emerges are bonkers.

That all aside, I watched this because of my fondness for Scheider who is a real class act. Certainly after Jaws and All That Jazz, he settled into a busy career of making generally below par films like this one. He is though a star and a good actor who keeps you watching and his scenes with the Richard 'Man in a Suitcase' Bradford are fun, well written and acted. So yes it's a disappointment, an unremarkable serial killer 'thriller', but it does have its charms.

Surfing Tubi in the middle of the night, I originally turned it on mainly for Roy Schneider and Astros baseball. But when the opening credits started, I instantly recognized shots of the causeway, Flagship hotel, east beach and then a house in the east end historical district. I gave up thoughts of going back to sleep and settled in for a watch. Roy Schneider was very good with what he had to work with. Terrible accents, lame script and poor editing. But seeing an intact Balinese Room is worth missed sleep any day. Many locations are gone or don't exist in the same form. My family was in the bar business in the late 30s and war years and my bedtime stories were different, to say the least. Schneider"s character talks about his Dad also being part of this world. My extended family includes descendants of the island famous Johnny Jack Nounes. Anyone from the Gulf Coast or even other parts of Texas should enjoy it just for the scenery.

Mike Seaver (Roy Scheider) is a hard bitten detective in Galveston, Texas with a chequered past regarding authority. He likes baseball, he used to play minor league and his father worked for the mob.

When mainly blonde prostitutes start to get killed. Seaver is on the case, but his various departmental heads are not happy.

His mother in law to be is also not happy, Seaver is due to marry Roxy Bennett (Karen Young) who is half his age.

Under pressure to make a breakthrough, Seaver finds a link between each murder and the Houston Astros winning.

Peter Masterson the director was inept when it came to action movies. Night Game is a hybrid police thriller with the slasher genre.

It is all over the place, at times badly acted and written.

The finale has to be been seen for its awfulness. It is no surprise that Roxy would eventually be targeted by the killer. When she is chased by a man with a hook, she runs into the kitchen of a restaurant and not once asks for assistance.

After all, a restaurant kitchen will have chefs with knives who could had come to her aid.

Even when Seaver confronts the killer, members of the public just stand and watch. It seems no one in Texas carries a firearm!

I wondered if anyone could come along in the '80s and be more verbally blasphemous than Brian Dennehy. He seemed to be the "Babe Ruth" of using the Lord's name in vain. However, in this movie, Richard Bradford stepped up to the plate and becomes Barry Bonds! Bradford must have set the record for the most usages of the Lord's name in vain by a policeman in a Hollywood film, as well as being in the Top Ten for any role at any time. He was so ridiculous that I watched this with a TV Guardian the second time and four of his profane tirades skipped by the machine in less than seven minutes. Most of what he said, sentence after sentence, had to be edited. What a classy guy!

Too bad, because I enjoy films with sports angles, particularly baseball. It wasn't just Bradford's mouth, however, that turned me off. This entire film had Class B dialog throughout it, along with sub-par directing.

One reviewer here might have said it better than anyone with the comment, "If you liked I Know What You Did Last Summer, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and Candyman, go ahead and rent this from your local video store."

Well, that's some testimony. I didn't like those pieces of crap, either, and so this aptly belongs with them.

Who needs rain?? This "night game" should have been called in bottom of the first inning on the count of incompetence.

Roy Scheider plays a Galveston, Texas police detective trying to catch a serial killer. It seems when a popular Houston Astro pitches a winning night game, a beautiful blonde winds up dead near the beach.

This crime drama also stars Richard Bradford, Paul Gleason, Karen Young, Lane Smith and Rex Linn. This movie quickly becomes predictable, but keeps your interest to the end.