Serpent-5

Late 50's teen idol Desmond (FABIAN) and his comical manager (CASEY KASEM) gets mixed up with a corrupt disco owner/music manager Cybill who wants to sign Desmond up for a contract only to use him for a opening act for a new disco singer (MICHAEL BLODGETT) on a new DISCO inside a airplane. Fabian sings 3 new songs (not disco) in this very lost gem. In fact, his song "movin' on" sounds like a 1973 song, not 1978. Do not believe on other reviews of this film, THIS FILM DOES NOT CONTAIN TOP 40 HITS, this film contains original songs and music. Any film with Casey Kasem playing a Horny manager and King of Kustomizer George Barris in it, it's should be out on DVD! BTW, the scene the previous reviewer mentioned are NOT IN THIS FILM. no Manilow, no Jefferson starship, but we do get Shabba-Doo the Breakdancer in it!

Oh my god! Yvonne De Carlo, Aldo Ray, Cesar Romero and the return of the great Cornel Wilde in his last role! Well, I have been wanting to see this film ever since it was advertised on the Variety back in 1985 because of the incredible cast, but the 19 year wait was a let down. Yvonne DeCarlo and Cesar Romero played judges in a divorce case and only appeared for 30 seconds (!). aldo ray (who was doing tons of these type of movie) must have talked Cornel Wilde (who was not doing "Z" films) to do a 2min scene (a comeback!) with him, because they both appear in a police scene that look like it was off another film. Wilde who usual do film with political messages or quality work looks tired and looks as if he might have thought this was a student film or something different to be involved in this type of film. All 4 talents are tacked in on a direct-to-video feature about a divorced loser who robs a bank to pay for his child support/alimony payment.

he meets up with another loser who also has the same ex-wife problem. they both agree to help each other by meeting the other's wife and kill them, but they fall in love with other's ex's instead. some sex scenes look edited as if this might have been a hardcore adult film once. the photography looks like outdated 16mm film stock, sort of like those late 70's adult film was shot in. sharon kelly only speaks one-line in a pointless cameo, and look for Robert Z'dar billed as Robert west playing Dan the psycho ex-boyfriend. Seeing what the director made in the past, it must be a ambitious attempt to break into the mainstream films, but a little too late for this film didn't even get any sales on most major countries. I hope to see a English language release of this one day, but with DVD business these days most people will complain over the photograph of the film for it's really grainy.

Only if aldo ray and cornel wilde got out of the police station and did some detective work to add credibility to this film. real shame it's wilde's last film.

I was fortunate enough to see this film, and it is one of the best 70's style revenge film, but also wisely uses screen time to build up the plight of the lead character, and also has some great "revenge" sequences.You can see why Columbia pictured decided to release this. The film starts with the lead, Kiel Martin (Gary Conway) in a train, and how he gets beat up and kicked off a train for helping a black soldier buy a drink (it was no-no back then) as this shows what a decent character he is, but how he can't seem to escape violence since earning a silver star in the War.

Through a chain of events (some of them rather rushed, so I assume it was either explained in the original script or that scene was cut out for time) he is hired by a gangster (Michael Dante) to go after the gangsters who blinded him, and in return, give him the cash needed to save the farm! And thru a pulsating music score by Hugo Montenegro, he dispatches them one by one! It is more similar to ROLLING THUNDER in the nihilistic feel revenge genre, and only weak point of the film is Gary Conway, who is rather bland, and too "city" to be really convincing as the title character. Still it is a classic for it's era,and not to be missed by any fans of this genre. Just dont expect it to be in vain with todays action films ,as the unavailability of this title for 26 years has caused this film to be in so many peoples must see list,that their expectation level must be really high, so I am afraid they might be rather disappointed with what to expect of it.

Just enjoy the more "character driven, and that character reaches to the point of revenge" films of yesteryears, then you will agree, THE FARMER is right near the best of them, like ROLLING THUNDER, FIGHTING MAD and BREAKING POINT. In fact, I think Fred Williamson might have been influenced by this film, as his film MEAN JOHNNY BARROWS is very very similar in the storyline department with THE FARMER. He also hired Dante in THE BIG SCORE so he must have really liked THE FARMER.