Revenge Is My Destiny

REVENGE IS MY DESTINY is one of those little-known movies that you've never heard of until it pops up on late-night TV one day. This one's a Florida-shot thriller with a timely opening in which tough-guy hero Chris Robinson loses an eye in Vietnam before being shipped back home.

Once there, he uncovers a conspiracy plot involving his wife's death and some local gangsters, and a thriller template ensues. Sadly, that this is is forgotten film comes as no surprise; it's cheaply made and lacking in menace, and also rather tame. It feels like a TV movie with lots of padding shots of people wandering around rather than offering the thrills and spills of a cinema film of the era.

REVENGE IS MY DESTINY has some good stuff going for it, like Robinson's tough, eye patch-wearing hero; the handful of fight scenes are well staged on a low budget too. It's just a pity that the execution is pedestrian and the characters one-dimensional. With the right talents, this could (and should) have been more like the excellent ROLLING THUNDER.

Vietnam vet Ross Archer (Chris Robinson) returns from the jungle missing an eye but still pining for his wife in Florida. She is missing from their houseboat, but he quickly tracks her down. Problem is she is dead the very next day, an apparent suicide. So Archer must delve into her seedy past from the last year while he was on duty to find out what happened. Sounds like all the ingredients for a great sleazy 70s flick, right? Well, you will be sadly disappointed by this one as it is as tame as a TV movie. Robinson - who made the killer snake pic STANLEY the following year - is great as the badass eye patch sporting Archer. Sadly, he only gets a few quick moments to show off his badassery. A character this cool looking deserved a POINT BLANK style film. The mystery takes a few twists, but the execution is rather bland. And nothing will prepare you for the nightclub routine of Joe Ross as alcoholic comedian Maxie Marks. Sidney Blackmer is the crippled old man at the center of the mystery and look for Bill (BLOOD FEAST) Kerwin in one scene as a cop. Director Joseph Adler made a few films, including SEX AND THE COLLEGE GIRL, SCREAM BABY SCREAM and CONVENTION GIRLS. I'm sure they are all like this - great exploitation title with little else on display.

This 1971 "B" South Florida production is surprisingly entertaining, and a must-see for any south Florida native born before 1965.

Chris Robinson plays a U.S. Army Green Beret who is wounded in combat in Viet-Nam. The opening battle scenes which were filmed in the Florida Everglades is realistic and well-done. Robinson's character losses his eye, and returns State-side wearing a black eye-patch. Filmed at various locations around Miami Beach (South Beach in particular), North Miami, North Miami Beach, and the Everglades, the movie is an enjoyable trip down memory lane, capturing the excitement of Miami Beach in it's last legs of the "hip" era of Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin.

Robinson gives a creditable performance and he is definitely a "Big Fish" in a small pond. A king among kings, at least in the "B" film bracket. Veteran character actors Sidney Blackmer(in his last on-screen performance. He died shortly after the movie was completed) and Joe E. Ross(cult-film character actor)give their usual professional performances.

A good, entertaining, rainy-night flick.