Un dénommé Mister Shatter

Shatter (1974) was the second time Shaw Brothers and Hammer Films worked together. This time around the results are not as wild and as entertaining as their previous collaboration (The Seven Golden Vampires) but it's worth your while.

Stuart Whitman plays your stereotypical all American actor (a type of role that would later be defined by two other great actors Scott Glenn and Fred Ward). He stars as Shatter, man of many skills. Like all people of his ilk, he has completed a job and all parties want him. Like all movie professionals he runs into the same problems (i.e. reneged contract, can't trust anybody, etc.). Peter Cushing guest stars as an English Special Agent as well as several Shaw Brothers' players (Lily Lee as the love interest and Ti Lung as Shatter's protectorate). Throw in Wei Lo (staff director of the Shaws) in a cameo and bit parts from Fung Hark-On and Lee Hoi Sang and viola! You have Shatter! Despite the lack of an interesting action direction (like Liu Chia Hua) the fight scenes are above average and they aptly showcase Ti Lung's skills (it's a shame that he never made it big time, his English wasn't bad and he has charisma).

Fun for all, recommended for Hammer Films fans and Shaw Brothers marks.

An African dictator is assasinated by a secret serviceman unbeknownst that he was hired by a mob rather than his government. He goes to Hong Kong to collect his fee and finds that the mob, his own government, and the African nation are all after him. Stuart Whitman plays the very tired looking Mr. Shatter. He looks like Jack Riley playing Mr. Carlin on the Bob Newhart Show! He meets up with a couple kung fu fighters, one a young man who is the best fighter in Asia and the other a young girl who falls in love with Whitman's lack of charm and exhausted looks. The film has some great fight scenes and the young kung fu expert Lung Ti is an exceptional martial arts expert. Despite the film's obvious flaws, it is a pretty good action-thriller. The acting takes a back seat to the martial arts and the great scenery of a bustling Hong Kong. Peter Cushing has a small role as a British secret service agent and his cameo is the best thing in the film. The role gives Cushing a great part as a rather sadistic, sharp-tounged man with a great sense of ironic humour. He chews his lines with obvious relish(must have been happy he got the free trip to Hong Kong when he heard he was going to be billed below Stuart Whitman in a film named Shatter!). Whitman is also bested by Anton Diffring as the banker for the mob and Whitman's chief nemesis. Diffring had a way playing men of low moral character. Hammer worked with the Shaw Brothers(they produced numerous martial arts films) and came out with a pretty entertaining film. Though not nearly as exciting or innovative as The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, Shatter still delivers some punch...and flying feet!

Stuart Whitman is an international assassin with an evocative name. After performing a hit on a corrupt African leader, he takes refuge in Hong Kong. There he soons begins an affair with Lily Li and an alliance with her brother, martial arts master Lung Ti. But Whitman does not seem to be popular, and several distinct and disparate forces, like the international crime syndicate, the dead dictator's brother, and the British government in the person of Peter Cushing (in his last role for Hammer). And other shadowy forces that want the money he collected for his work, as well as some significant photographs he holds.

This co-production between Hammer and the Shaw Brothers was a troubled production. Monte Hellman shot most of it, but there were delays because Hellman and the cameraman were ill. So Michael Carreras fired Hellman, directed what was left, and took sole credit. Like many martial arts movies in this period, there's just enough of a story to set up the fight scenes. Whitman is stalwart, Miss Li is pretty, and Cushing, as usual, gives value for money.

Part of a three film deal (only two pictures were actually made -- the other being LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES), SHATTER was intended as a copy of the hip actioners being made in the U.S. Unfortunately, much of the film involves the title character hiding out from pursuers, as he tries to sort out a killing he'd been contracted to provide, but which he'd been undercut on and set up as the fall guy for. In the meantime, the guilty parties and others are on the hunt for Shatter, and he can't be certain of his few allies.

Peter Cushing's final Hammer role, as a cynical intelligence operative who refuses to help Shatter and may have an undisclosed agenda of his own.

Very minor material and only for Cushing completists.

I have almost no memory of this film, yet I'm writing a review. Go figure!

I seem to remember Stuart Whitman as some sort of hit-man in Hong Kong. It was entertaining and badly dubbed and fairly gory; the sort of movie HBO used to fill up their schedule with when they weren't showing more traditional features and before they went off the air at midnight.

My suggestion is to read the ten other reviews and, if this long-lost and forgettable Kung Fu/Spy flick piques your interest, rent it or buy a used copy.

Enjoy!