Order of the Eagle

My review was written in June 1989 after watching the film on AIP video cassette.

"Order of the Eagle" is a better-than-average pic from the Action International stable, headed directly to U. S. video stores.

Actor William Zipp also wrote and produced this story of Eagle Scout Casey Hirsch who gets a real-life test in earning his title survival badge when he finds secret computer disks inside a plane wreck.

They contain the codes for a prototype Star Wars defense design, which corrupt businessman Frank Stallone wants back at all costs to protect his government contracts. David Roger Harris and David Marriott are the ruthless henchmen who go after Hirsch. The boy is protected by Zipp and other good Samaritans.

Clean-cut pic pays more attention to story values than others of its ilk, with intersting final scenes to round off the tale (rather than mindless action footage and the non-endings of so many recent videos). Acting is fun, buttressed by unusual casting of tall, pretty tomboy leading lady Jil Foor as Zipp's girlfriend.

William Stromberg's musical score, with its echoes of Bernard Herrmann's work, is a decided plus.

Written by and featuring the hugely energetic, appropriately named, William Zipp, 'Order of The Eagle' also stars dishy crooner, Frank Stallone, who is on estimable form as the dastardly Mr. Quill, corrupt head of a shadowy tech firm whose employee absconds with a heavy-duty computer disc which excitingly heralds a wonderfully entertaining, robustly made, incident-loaded, mountain top chase, wherein keen eagle Scout Greg (Casey Hirsch), dutifully undertaking his order of the Eagle badge accidentally stumbles across the remnants of a crashed plane which contained the valuable missing disc! Opening it triggers a homing device, giving the precise location for, Quill to dispatch an especially vicious Goon squad to retrieve it, menacingly headed by deliciously nasty, gravel-voiced Leo (David Roger Harris).

When diligent Eagle Scout, Gregg finds himself in a tight spot, fatefully captured by Quill's unsophisticated henchmen, only the exceptionally resourceful and uncommonly fleet-footed ex-army Mountain man, John Billings (William Zipp), with his myriad combat/survival skills will be able to MacGyver him out of it! Thomas Baldwin's 'Order of the Eagle' is a bracingly good, unashamedly boisterous boy's own B-Movie adventure which delivered more than enough pulse-racing action and explosive gun play, as these crass, city slicker assassins are resolutely put through their paces by the deadly pugilistic prowess of the estimable backwoods warrior and all round gnarly skull-rocker, Billings!

There's a punchy, righteously, Chuck Norrisian vibe to this blazingly heroic, William Zipp fight flick and, 'Order of the Eagle' is resolutely NOT deserving of its current obscurity! This serviceable backwoods actioner is enlivened by William Stromberg's fist-pumpingly propulsive score and pretty protagonist, Jill Floor was not only quite beauteous to behold, she had quite the eagle eye deftness with ballistic weaponry herself! Right on!!! And it would be greatly remiss of me if I failed to mention the gonzo Ninja home invasion sequence at the beginning, which excitingly proved to be a mean spirited introduction to the tough actioner's ultimate bad guy Jack LaRouse (David Marriot). For a relatively unknown, unfairly bargain binned, deceptively thrill-packed rump-kicker, 'Order of The Eagle' provided some top flight B-Kicks, soaring high above the earth-bound mediocrity of many more turgid B-Action titles of the same era!