El guante

John Saxon is a down at heel bounty hunter chasing down a criminal with $20,000 on his head.

The film is, despite the lurid poster and overblown opening theme song, a character story about the life of a bounty hunter. I must admit, I was hoping for a dumb action flick with a huge guy dressed in riot gear and wearing riot gloves going on a rampage. Riot gloves are are armoured and weighted gauntlets which are used to beat people into submission. In fact the glove only really plays a big part approximately three times in the whole film. The film is pretty dull in actual fact, except for a couple of unintentional laughs. It's cheesier and cornier than Veggie Supreme pizza and not really worth watching.

The premise for this film is what drew me to rent it. A hitman is

after a killer that uses a high tech riot glove to torture his victims.

John Saxon stars in this heap of garbage and narrates throughout

the ENTIRE movie. This feature is pretty cool at first, but after a

while you begin to get irrated with him explaining the obvious.

About 45 minutes in, the movie loses any steam that it had (it had

none to begin with), and things start making absolutely no sense

at all. The theme music and soundtrack to this movie sounds like

it came from some Saturday morning cartoon, and the fighting

scenes are poorly choreographed. I would not recommend this

film to anyone with a conscience.

It's interesting to note that Ross Hagen, a man who starred in numerous trashy films in his infamous career, did the directing. The film's kinda sleazy in a few parts, and the theme song is hilarious, but the violent scenes should have been the main attraction here, and unfortunately there's little of it. John Saxon talks through the whole picture like I'm waiting for some blood to fly. The best parts I liked about The Glove are the beginning, the middle, and the end. It's O.K. as long as cheap thrills are your cup of tea. Don't let the film's ad mat entice you!

A film like this can't be rated on any normative 1-10 scale which we usually enlist to appraise the world's great cinema landmarks. This movie appeals only to the shrewder connoisseur of the halt and the lame, the distressed, and the warped. There is no scale for such a movie as 'The Glove' (except perhaps if we use negative integers or decimals).

'The Glove' has that quintessential charm of the 1970's movie. The grainy stock, fuzzy sound recording, squinty leading men, large automobiles, aimless & episodic screenplay; yes, everything right down to the sentimental piano notes in the score wordlessly 'decrying the violence deep inside man'.

The plot is simple at first. Hulking Marauder, methodically eliminating Taxpaying Citizens in a Relentless Revenge Ritual. Big and ugly in the black leather outfit (+ black motorcycle visor helmet?? yes!) has some incredible wicked strange instrument of death--fascinating in its own unique way--a bonafide 'restricted' riot-glove {sometimes used by law enforcement personnel in the course of their 1970s duties}. You can still buy these via mail-order, you know. They are fearsome devices. OK so, simple plot wrapped around an obscure piece of morbid guy-gear--true. But this film is not without character or psychology.

I say, any film with Rosy Grier is worth a look. Need I remind you of 'The Thing with Two Heads'? Now, in this movie, Grier plays his role with restraint and aplomb. Let's give him some credit. Even if just for his sheer physical size, he is interesting to watch. Combine that with his wispy, faint-hearted voice (in this film, philosophizing about 'defining boundaries' and 'the cyclical nature of violence' and you have the basic ingredients for a memorable cult film. In one scene he even plays guitar.

In fact, he is jovial throughout most of the flick. It's perfect. He plays the anti-hero well, and by the end of the movie, fully manages to evoke a twinge of sympathy. Makes an engaging contrast with our growing suspicion that of course, it is him committing these brutal executions.

The violent scenes we witness (as the film develops), fyi, are not boring at all! Lovable Aldo Ray (another big guy, remember him from 'Battle Cry'?) getting "the Glove treatment" while he is trying to instead cage some nooky in the shadowy back seat of what looks like a Chevy LeSabre. Coitus interruptus! Fantastic. 70's film-making at its seamy best.

Another great 'Glove revenge' scene: a revisitation of that old stand-by of the 70s thriller--masked assailant and victim thrashing around in a brightly-lit bathroom, with the shower curtain flailing wildly around and the light strobing. Ending with victim seeping blood over white grouted porcelain tile. Classic.

As for John Saxon: he is fine in this movie. He does his best. Makes it look sincere as he can. He has a secretary he is pursuing, debts to pay, a young daughter to raise, a great old Caddy convertible to keep up--this is a sensitive guy. You can see he is not really that into the violent side of his work. This is a character that has some delicacy, not just the usual 70s slob cop/bounty hunter/detective.

Saxon's character is soft-spoken--shrewd--and good at his job, where his job requires brainwork. Where it requires the strong arm stuff--well, we see that he gets by. But here's where the psychology comes in: Grier (the suspect) is not just a dumb ex-con and through their game of cat-and-mouse he gradually works on Saxon and makes Saxon at least see Grier's motives for the crazy glove killings.

So the interplay between Saxon and Grier is basically where it's all at in this film. And of course that fiendish glove. You just gotta wonder what its like both to hit someone with that thing and also to get hit by it. Anyway, Grier, tired of being chased, forces Saxon to give him a fair fight. And he gets it. And that Glove is used one last time.

Guys, a good fight scene like this deserves our esteem. Take another look at what's going on. Would you accept the terms of the final fight as laid down by Grier? You can at least see how smart he is, by arranging it just in this manner? Its clever resolution to what would be, in any other movie of the same stripe, just another shootout.

This movie is worth recalling in any retrospective of twisted B-violence flicks. I personally, will always recall 'The Glove' with some fondness.

I saw this awhile ago, but I thought of it again after watching the film "Death Walks at Midnight" which also features a giant metal glove used as the murder weapon. The titular glove in this one, however, is not spiked and is used entirely on male victims who really deserve it, and is wielded by ex-football player turned preacher Rosy Grier. Grier plays an innocent man sent to prison, who takes revenge on the men who sent him there using a stolen "high-tech weapon" (the glove). John Saxon, playing a cop for the thousandth time in his career, is the man who tries to stop him and recover the glove. Both characters are pretty sympathetic and as I recall the films ends happily. That's probably one of the reasons it wasn't very successful and remains pretty obscure today. It lacks any real exploitative elements--the violence is pretty tame and there's no sex or nudity. Even the blaxploitation elements aren't too strong here. But if you're not expecting too much, it's worth a look.