Death Promise

I always keep my promises on writing about movies like this, and it pays off. Usually, there isn't much specific detail I can give you because it's your basic low-budget format containing elements tried before. This one is pure 70s as it gets! DEATH PROMISE is a grade-Z actioner that has a few things going for it. Sort of like THE KARATE KID being ahead of its time. While typical, it sets in an urbanized locality that perfectly explains the nature of it all. The sensai can't act very well, and sounding almost like Mr. Rogers. A couple of infamous, shocking moments may give you severe bullemia, including a bag full of hungry RATS tied onto a guy's head! Other times, you will be truly amazed by how often a microphone hangs on the top of your TV screen! You can see it jerking and moving, and it's highly noticeable! It also has the downright FUNKIEST sounding opening-closing theme music in movie history, thanks to a soul group named Opus! Not many of you will be able to look for this movie. If you do, I hope you're not lying and saying to everybody that you have! That's a promise.

Death Promise is a 1977 action film starring Charles Bonet as Charley Roman. Charlie and his best friend Speedy (played by Speedy Leacock) live in a slum where the landlords are trying to force the residents to move out. They use methods that progress as the movie moves forward ending in a tragedy. This cause Charlie and Speedy to see revenge on everyone who was involved. The movie is very low budget and has crazy plot twists and turns. Many of the actors are not the greatest but this movie will make you laugh. There are fight sequences at the end which i could not stop laughing at the "martial arts" sound the fighter were making. This film has been released by Vinegar Syndrome in 2021 with a very nice transfer. Also the title track is pretty cool.

Mindless fun guaranteed with this low-budgeted & trashy Kung-Fu exploitation flick set in NYC. Back in the mid-to-late 70s, martial arts movies were so popular that they didn't even need to come from the East, or star Bruce Lee clones, as long as they were featuring sufficient violent drop-kicks and hard random battle-shrieks. The plot of "Death Promise" sees a bunch of rich and obnoxious apartment block proprietors bundling their forces - and their wallets - to chase the "poor" tenants out of their ramshackle buildings, so that they can invest in more prestigious projects. The tenants, led by Roman Sr., refuse to leave, even when the power or water is cut or when rats are deliberately unleashed in the hallways. When Roman Sr. Is killed in a cowardly attack, his young fighting-talent son Charley promises to avenge his father's death, but first he must complete a long and intense spiritual training.

Admittedly "Death Promise" is mostly very entertaining because it's so bad. The script appears to have been improvised whilst shooting, with lots of random stuff happening and a twist-ending that everyone - literally everyone - is able to predict. The "landlords" are delightfully stereotypical villains, including a mafia-type Italian, a corrupt judge, and a drug-dealing black guy. Director Richard Warmflash (with such a name, he ought to direct adult flicks) keeps it amusing and fast-paced thanks to inventive killing methods, a groovy soundtrack, wildly choreographed Kung-Fu sequences, an authentic chemistry between all the bad actors. Not for everyone, but good fun for trash/exploitation fanatics.

This is a spectacular crappy movie that I saw back in the early 80's on a double feature with a Jim Kelly film called Death Dimension. The song has stayed in my head for over 25 years. Something like "Death Promise, I'm gonna get you ,Death Promise..." 6 months ago I'm looking around in a video rental place and they have a bin full of movies for 75 cents, a buck, a buck 25. I saw it and couldn't believe it. Bought it and showed it to my wife saying to her that it is part of my childhood. She almost passes out from laughing out loud. Her favorite scene is the bag full of rats and the sucker put behind the bull's eye. PFFFFFFFFFFT!!! If I see this on DVD I'll pass out from shock. Notice the people looking straight at the camera, totally unprofessional, but heartwarming to me.

I really like the energy put into this movie from the principal actors! Charles Bonet and Speedy Leacock play "brothers," best friends who are championed by the father of Bonet's character, Bob O'Connell. They band together to battle the greedy landlords, who are intent on evicting their poor tenants in favor of cashing in on a real estate development deal. Before long, things go awry and Bonet embarks on a personal vendetta to avenge his father. Some of the story is ridiculous, much of it is incompetently made and the acting ranges from nearly adequate to downright agonizing. (Check out that somnambulism on display from Thompson Kao Kang.) Nonetheless, I enjoyed nearly every minute of this! Bonet and Leacock come across with chemistry that makes their friendship seem genuine and by the time they team up with Sup Kim (Bill Louie), I was full of warm fuzzies for all the diverse, Enterprise-style humanity going down. If you want to watch some exciting and impressive displays of martial arts, check out Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan or Jimmy Wang Yu. If you want to watch some feel-good, American chop socky, you won't do much better than "Death Promise."