Hell Raiders

American International's "Hell Raiders" is a real anomaly in the jaw dropping career of grade Z director Larry Buchanan, its January 1968 shooting date making it the last of his 8 Azalea Pictures titles, and the only one not of the horror/science fiction genres. While Buchanan acknowledged that these would be the films he would be best remembered for he clearly had little affinity for their subject matter, displaying even less flair for this actionless WW2 adventure. It remains a mystery as to why Samuel Z. Arkoff decided to do a color remake of AIP's 1958 black and white war picture "Suicide Battalion," starring Mike Connors and John Ashley, rather than another science fiction title, shot in Texas like most of the others (non union). Some sources cite this as a lost film, since turning up on Encore's Action channel, plus a DVD release in a boxed set of obscure war films. The uncredited script was penned in 1958 by AIP regular Lou Rusoff, Arkoff's brother-in-law, dead at age 51 by 1963 (his last film was "Beach Party"). The drab story is simple: Major Ronald Paxton (John Agar) and Captain Brad Stevens (Richard Webb) lead a band of 6 volunteers on a suicide mission to destroy a deserted Allied headquarters in 1944 Italy, a lakeside location with barren trees revealing an autumnal landscape, previously used by Buchanan in 1967's "Mars Needs Women." Inept filmmaking at its most visually unexciting, compounded by a constant barrage of offscreen gunfire and explosions, all obviously dubbed in post production (nearly every gun that fires, no bullets are seen). Five minutes of actual black and white war footage is woven into the first half hour of exposition, followed by the soldiers partying on leave in a deserted town for 72 hours (though lasting another 25 minutes, it only SEEMED like 72 hours!). The actual mission finally begins at the 55 minute mark, and is no better than anything that came before. In what turned out to be his last starring role, John Agar, veteran of Buchanan's earlier "Zontar the Thing from Venus" and "Curse of the Swamp Creature," is at least professional, but like all the other characters is strictly one note. Richard Webb and guest star Joan Huntington, busier on television than in lower budgeted fare, supply the other two thirds of a laughable romantic triangle (once Agar kisses her goodbye, she's never seen again). Buchanan regular Bill Thurman, perhaps best remembered by non horror fans as Cloris Leachman's inattentive husband in 1971's "The Last Picture Show," easily stands out in a showy part as Tex, forever a private, looking after the younger members of the squad. Jeff Alexander, also seen in Agar's prior Buchanan ventures (plus 1973's "Horror High"), only gets a minute or two as an unnamed German captain, disappearing just when it seemed we would get a slimy villain to spice things up. By far the worst performance comes from Annabelle MacAdams, the acting pseudonym for Azalea's regular dialogue director Annabelle Weenick, best remembered for her villainous asylum director in 1973's Texas-filmed "Don't Look in the Basement," helmed by former Buchanan editor S. F. Brownrigg, all wide eyes topped by brunette wig, mangling the English language as an Italian brothel madam. It's no wonder there are few comments on this obscurity, little seen even in its heyday (I did catch it during the 80s on Cleveland station WJW-TV), and easily the most forgettable title among Larry Buchanan's still popular Azalea features, strictly for completists only (I'm sure Larry would not disagree).

B movie director Larry Buchanans' made for TV remake of 1958's "Suicide Battalion" may be best left to Buchanan completists (if there is such a thing). Overall, it's too low budget to work, and Buchanan fails to ever make it genuinely interesting or exciting. Even the action scenes are nothing great. The running time is brief as it is (78 minutes), and would have been even shorter had there not been so much use of stock footage. This viewer would be hesitant to say that the film is actually worth sticking with, but helping somewhat is at least one colourful performance, by Texas native Bill Thurman (best known as Coach Popper in "The Last Picture Show") - playing, appropriately enough, a character named Tex.

The story is about a squad of demolition experts sent on a volunteer WWII mission to ensure that the valuable documents left behind in an abandoned headquarters do not fall into enemy hands. That means blowing them up GOOD. Unfortunately, it takes over 55 minutes into this movie before the mission even begins! Until then, there's just too much talk and a needless romantic subplot between intrepid Ronald Paxton (47 year old John Agar, in what sadly turned out to be his last starring role) and a war correspondent named Laura Grant (played by gorgeous Joan Huntington). Richard Webb ("Out of the Past") co-stars. Lovers of schlock from this period will note the presence of Jeff Alexander ("Curse of the Swamp Creature", "Horror High") as a Nazi and Annabelle Weenick ("Don't Look in the Basement") as a goofy Italian madam who teaches her prostitutes how to speak English.

If you're curious about this one, I would advise going in with VERY low expectations.

Four out of 10.

Bad script, bad production values, bad editing, bad dialogue, bad plot, bad historicity, bad sound effects, bad music, you name it, this movie has it including every war movie cliche and stereotype you can think of. The only thing in this movie that isn't bad is the acting--and that's because it doesn't rise above the level of level of hideous. So incredibly bad on every level that it's unintentionally funny. Great to sit around and laugh at with your cronies and plenty of beer. Or whatever else.

This is a truly terrible movie. Because of the cast, I gave it a try but gave up after ten minutes. The principal cast including John Agar and Richard Webb were much too old for their roles, 47 and 53 respectively. The lengthy opening documentary about the course of the war was pointless and inaccurate. What did the war of the bombers flying from England have to do with EOD (explosives experts) fighting in Italy? EOD are often brave soldiers but who would ever call them Hell Raiders?

I would have ended there, but IMDb wants ten lines. OK, I reiterate:

This is a truly terrible movie. Because of the cast, I gave it a try but gave up after ten minutes. The principal cast including John Agar and Richard Webb were much too old for their roles, 47 and 53 respectively. The lengthy opening documentary about the course of the war was pointless and inaccurate. What did the war of the bombers flying from England have to do with EOD (explosives experts) fighting in Italy? EOD are often brave soldiers but who would ever call them Hell Raiders?

"Hell Raiders" was one of several movies American-International Pictures commissioned from low budget movie maker Larry Buchanan to be released on television. Having seen this film as well as a couple of others made from this agreement, I am not surprised that A.I.P. didn't put their name on the finished product. To call this a cheap movie would be a kindness; there is almost nothing in the way of "production values" on the screen. But the movie suffers from far more than a shabby look. Though the movie only runs 77 minutes long, it is relentlessly padded, such as with liberal use of stock footage, but also with nothing else of significance happening. The mission for the title squad doesn't start until about three-quarters of the movie has passed! And it's not worth the wait - the "action" sequences have absolutely no excitement or bite. Only for those who want to see John Agar at his lowest point in his career.