Fureur aveugle

... This would be unwatchable. Hongkongsploitation at it's utter worst. Terrible story, acting and dialogue along with one of the top ten stupidest plots - blind guys robbing a bank - this is just trash from beginning to end. Now I've watched some bad movies in my time, the creeping Terror comes to mind, but this is just not even funny!

Caught a double feature of this & The One Armed Executioner at the New Beverly Cinema last week and what a treat it was. Both films are very cheesy, yet seeing them on 35mm film at a theater as awesome as the New Bev was an absolute delight. The plot is ridiculous, the acting is terrible, the production is hokey... but in all of that lies the charm. It's a total throwback 70s exploitation flick worth of a Tarantino grindhouse vibe. The print shown was fairly rough, and the color was often quite warm... a few choppy edits... but it totally works for this kind of film. The audience totally got into it and it was enjoyed by all. Definitely recommend for a good bad movie. The freeze frame as the credits roll is just perfection.

Men-on-a-Mission film, but with blind men being recruited and trained to pull off a daring bank heist. I was quite tickled that when introducing each of the men, we get a flashback to how they became blind. It's a strange hybrid of Filipino exploitation and blaxploitation that stars D'Urville Martin as one of the blind guys, who are joined by a couple of blind Asian martial artists and another dude. The training scenes are fun, and the heist itself is surprisingly good. It's what happens after the heist, where the film loses its way, but it's still pretty fun. Fred Williamson gets top billing, but he only has a cameo, reprising his Jesse Crowder role from DEATH JOURNEY and NO WAY BACK. Fred also gets to do the climactic fight in the film, set on the roof of the International House of Pancakes. I was interested in checking this film out because there was a Video Archives Podcast episode where Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avery raved about how great this movie was. I'll give them that it's unique and pretty fun, but it's not a grindhouse classic. It's more of a curiosity.

Ever see a film that you knew deep down was bad, but you were able to suspend your usual beliefs about what a good movie should be and enjoy it anyway? Meet BLIND RAGE, a low-budget '70s anti-masterpiece.

The plot is highly original, if not ridiculous. Five blind men are assembled to rob a bank in broad daylight. Why? Because who would ever suspect blind men of robbing a bank? (Well, there's a bit more to it than that, but I won't spoil it for you). The group of visually-impaired thieves (no, you've never heard of any of the actors) is carefully trained in a mock bank by the lovely Sally (Leila Hermosa, who later landed a coveted role in the highly acclaimed BONGGA KA DAY). But can they pull it off? Well, this is a dumb '70s movie, isn't it?

BLIND RAGE isn't rife with so-bad-it's-good humor, but it certainly has its moments. I'll never forget the badly-dubbed scene where one of the blind dudes breaks up an attempted sexual assault by another. In a voice with about as much emotion as Eeyore before coffee, our hero orders the aggressor to "Get off her... sex hungry bastard." Then there's the hilarity of desperate producers trying to pass this off as a Fred Williamson actioneer. They don't tell you that Freddy doesn't show up until about the last 20 minutes (though he is vintage cigar-chomping Williamson once he finally arrives).

If this review has at all piqued your interest in BLIND RAGE, you're definitely a candidate for enjoying it. (Though you'll probably have to scour eBay to find it).

Banker Johnny Duran (Charlie Davao) gets in on a bank job offer from criminal Lew "My friends call me Wilbur" Simpson (B.T. Anderson) that is too bad to be true. Simpson wants to have five blind men rob a bank of $50 million dollars. Why? See the above quote. Well, I guess that settles it. They assemble the global blind crew - Triad member Lin Wang (Leo Fong), US gangster Willie Black (D'Urville Martin), magician Anderson (Dick Adair), Filipino Ben Guevara (Tony Ferrer) and blind matador (!!!) Hector Lopez (Darnell Garcia) - and get trained by teacher for the blind Sally (Leila Hermosa) in a bank mock up. Seriously. The job goes off perfect before Ben is suspected ("Hey, I've got this blind guy in my files") and provides cinema's quickest ratting out of partners ever. Everyone expect Duran is killed in a huge explosion (their next grand idea was to sneak into the airport by hiding inside a gas tanker actually carrying gas!). Duran makes it to Los Angeles at the 70 minute mark where Jesse Crowder (Fred Williamson) is waiting to take him down.

Makes the bank robbing dogs concept in THE DOBERMAN GANG (1972) look credible in comparison. You have to love any film that adopts such a ridiculous concept and follows through on it. I mean, there is seriously a line where Duran says, "Alright, let's start by synchronizing your Braille watches." The crooks could have had the same success rate and saved some time if they just barged in with guns a blazin' rather than take the time to train a bunch of blind guys. The film is all over the map - literally, as they shot in the US, Mexico, Japan and the Philippines. I'd love to hear the financing stories on this. Williamson shows up as an afterthought, only appearing on screen for about ten minutes. Director Efren C. Piñon also worked with Leo Fong on ENFORCER FROM DEATH ROW (1978).