Huo bing

I wasn't expecting much from DUEL FOR GOLD when it started but this is a film that gets better and better as it goes on. It starts off with stock swordplay and an elaborate heist to steal a gold shipment, but what follows afterwards is where this gets really exciting. It's also an extraordinarily bloody production, with limbs being lopped and all kinds of impalings taking place. Not a huge cast here, but Shaw fans will spot Lo Lieh and Ivy Ling Po in decent roles. Very fine for a second-tier production.

It begins with a view of my favorite location in the Shaw Brothers movie land, the seven story pagoda near Tiger Hill. The helpful narrator explains the back story. Two female acrobats are putting on quite a show in town. It is just a diversion to steal the gold.

That's the whole story, same as in the title. Various rascals are after the gold. I always liked this basic story line. There are no real good guys or bad guys, just a bunch of scoundrels. As a viewer, you pick your favorite scoundrel and hope he survives at the end. There is unlimited opportunity for plot twists, double crosses and back stabs. This movie does all that and very well.

Out of the 100 minute run time a full 33 minutes are spent fighting. Except for the final fight all the fights are short and sweet. There is a lot of acrobatics too, mostly tumbling. These fights are as good as they get for 1971 and I liked every action sequence.

The final fight takes place near the seven story pagoda. One weird thing is the narrator returning when literally everything "dies down". It has a kind of like "Rashomon-ish" post script to the movie.

My copy was an unfortunate choice. It is a DVD labeled as Bonzai Media. The video is perfect resolution and wide screen. The audio is problematic. There is background noise in parts. For the most part it is English dubbed by good voice overs. Then at times the dubbing drops and is replaced by subtitles. I was able to understand and follow the story anyway. It all just leaves me puzzled how the movie ended up in this condition and labeled for retail sale.

Wildly bloody Shaw Brothers martial arts film about a disparate group of thieves all plotting against each other in a race to snatch a cache of gold. Think "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" but replace the slapstick comedy with a lot of violent swordplay. Lo Lieh plays one of the shady swordsmen and is fantastic, but I was most taken with a pair of deadly sisters also trying to get the gold. Overall, the story and characters in this picture were more interesting than most martial arts films and the action was also quite well done, which makes this Shaw Brothers production a must see for martial arts film fans.