Massacre em São Francisco

My review was written in September 1981 after a Times Square screening:

Filmed in 1973 but just released domestically to cash in on the presence of currently hot chop-socky star Chuck Norris in the cast, "Slaughter in San Francisco" is a curiosity item representing an early by Raymond Chow's Golden Harvest ("Cannonball Run", "The Big Brawl") to shoot a film in the U. S. Entirely lensed on the West Coast", "Slaughter" nevertheless retains all the defects of a Hong Kong entry (atrocious dubbing and sound effects, tinny score, zoom-crazed camera and wooden acting). Martial arts fans may feel ripped off by the presence of supposedly "starring" Norris in a supporting role.

Clearly designed for the Far East audience, pic is set in a mythical "Daly CIty" (supposedly near S. F.) where the police are so ruthless they will kill suspects who refuse to confess. This exaggerated parallel world has all the Caucasian cast members portrayed as evil, including Norris, who looks and dresses much the same as in his familiar heroic roles, but is cast here as a mean gang leader so nasty that he tries to rape his brother's fiancee.

Don Wong is the nominal Chinese hero, an ex-cop out to avenge the murder of his Black partner. Norris' gang is responsible and after numerous 20 against one kung fu battles for Wong, the agile thesp finally goes up against Norris in a well-shot finale. If his fans can last out the tedium until this point, they may get a kick out of seeing invincible Chuck get soundly thrashed.

This movie is so bad I couldn't stop laughing. I've seen it like a dozen times because I find new screw ups every time! Why is there sirens in the police station? Why do the bad guys follow the cops while driving in front of them? How come punches, kicks, chains, 2X4's etc all make the same thump noise? The Best part: Chuck Norris's fake hairy chest. It looks like a vest. That can't be real. Plus why is Chuck dubbed? Does he even speak chinese?

Yes it's a low budget martial art film, but the fight scenes, particularly the big boss finale with Chuck and the hero aren't bad with acrobatic moves a plenty. Also of note are the many driving scenes in Daly City specifically Westlake including DC City Hall (the main characters are DCPD not SF), Westlake Shopping Center, Marjorie Tobias Elementary, Southgate Ave, and other locations just outside SF including local residences. Additionally, movie was obviously making a point about racist cops which was ahead of its time. Nice work featuring the Great Highway, and Twin Peaks. (Notice the poor air quality over SF at the time in that scene)

After seeing this flick, the voices of everyone (African American, Caucasian, and Oriental) were dubbed. Even the sound effects were trashy, like the constant "police sirens" sound effect during the police precinct scenes, as well as the sounds of the cars firing up, which sounds like a 4-cylinder import, not to mention the bull-whip sound effects when someone is punched or karate-chopped.

They should have had the Caucasian and African American voices heard normally, instead of some British accented voice-over. LOLs, when hearing an African American sounding like a Brit, as well as the dubbing of Chuck Norris' voice. The only thing worth hearing is the 70's score, common with the blaxploitation genre.

A suspended San Francisco cop (Wong) is sloving the case of the murder of his african american partner who was beat up by chinese. Then at the end of the movie,he had a fight with Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris voice is not heard on the movie, it was dubbed by British people. I wish it had his real voice in the flim.

I like it.

I give it a *****.