The Dynamite Brothers (USA, 1974) 90 min color DIR: Al Adamson. PROD: Marvin Lagunoff, Jim Rein. SCR: John D’Amato. STY: Marvin Lagunoff, Jim Rein. MUSIC: Charles Earland. DOP: R. Michael Stringer. EXEC-PROD: Sam Sherman. CAST: Timothy Brown, Alan Tang, Aldo Ray, Carol Speed, Don Oliver, James Hong. (Independent-International Pictures)
Although Al Adamson will always be remembered (ie- vilified) for his earlier “cut and paste” horror films (not least the infamous Dracula Vs. Frankenstein), made with his producing partner Sam Sherman (with their incoherent plots and the casting of once-great Hollywood veterans), his films actually improved in later years. The Adamson-Sherman team would cash in on any popular trend of the day, such as the biker genre (Satan’s Sadists, Angels’ Wild Women) or the Blaxploitation craze (Mean Mother and Black Heat). The best of their Blaxploitation films is The Dynamite Brothers, also one of Adamson’s best films overall. While his legacy will forever have a reputation for the slapdash horror pictures, this gives evidence that he did have talent.
This is an enjoyable 1970s spin on The Defiant Ones, with the additional of some martial arts (cashing in on another 70s craze). Timothy Brown (soon to appear in Robert Altman’s Nashville) is a black convict named Stud Brown (they couldn’t come up with a less original name?) who gets handcuffed together with Chinese immigrant Larry Chin (charismatic martial arts star Alan Tang), by the corrupt cop Burke (played by Aldo Ray, when he was still in the Screen Actor’s Guild). After a brazen escape, Stud helps Chin find his long-lost brother. It turns out that those responsible for his brother’s disappearance are also foes of Stud’s pal, Smiling Man (Don Oliver), who runs a drug syndicate, but mostly hangs out at some dimly lit bar with a lot of wood paneling. Smiling Man is fighting a turf war with the evil Tuen (familiar face James Hong), and Burke is in the middle of it all.
Of course, because this is the 1970s, anyone who stands in Larry Chin’s way invariably knows kung fu. In short, The Dynamite Brothers is two genre pictures for the price of one, but offers little more than the conventions typical of either Blaxploitation or kung fu pictures. Even so, it is a lot of fun to watch. It helps too that these characters are written as more than just goofball caricatures. Larry’s past is represented in blood-red tinted images which continue to haunt him. Stud’s brief, doomed romance with a mute girl named Sarah (played by Carol Speed, of The Mack and, uh, Avenging Disco Godfather) is actually effective. Also, light years before every Hollywood action movie featured the tired gimmick of the corrupt cop, this movie has a couple of scenes with Burke, alone with his girlfriend, wondering how he got himself into this mess, and grimly realizing that he cannot escape it.
Despite conventions here and there, The Dynamite Brothers is nonetheless surprisingly ambitious. There is actually a not bad little twist which ties in all the red-tinted flashback scenes. All the secondary plots of drugs and gangs nicely come together as all parties duke it out at Tuen’s mansion. Plus, it benefits from the charismatic performances of the two leads. Alan Tang is actually a pretty good actor as well as a karate star, and it’s too bad that Timothy Brown’s career never took off after Nashville (at least he also starred in another Adamson opus, Mean Mother). On the strength of this picture alone, it’s time to give Al Adamson another look.
This film was originally released on Rhino VHS, and can now be seen on the exhaustive Severin Bluray set, Al Adamson: The Masterpiece Collection.