“Search & Destroy/The Glove” Drive-In Double
Feature (Dark Sky Films/DVD-Video)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Films: C
Dark Sky
continues their fun series of Drive-In Double Feature DVDs with two more late
1970s corny action thrillers, both 1979 in this case. With shades of Vietnam, Search & Destroy was produced by the creators of the TV game
show classic The Joker’s Wild, Jack
Barry & Dan Enright, recovering from the 1950s game show scandal. Two ex-soldiers (Don Shroud and Perry King) from
an elite unit discovering their comrades are being picked off one by one.
Don
Enright, Dan’s son, wrote and co-produced this goofy film that never works, no
matter its ambitions. However, that is
the point of including it here, with mixed action sequences at best. Director William Fruet was best-known for his
high-profile exploitation/sexploitation flick The House By The Lake (aka Death
Weekend) with Brenda Vaccaro in what was a racy Straw Dogs knock-off with touches of Texas Chain Saw Massacre thrown in for the outdoor sequences. He seems lost here, though the script does
not help. George Kennedy, Tisa Farrow
and Pank Jong Soo as the killer also star.
Actor-turned-director
Russ Hagen went for domestic terror as Rosie Greer goes on a killing spree
wearing The Glove, and only John
Saxon can stop him! Starting with its
goofy opening theme song and cheap-looking credit sequences, you know you are
in for a bad film and with Joanna Cassidy, Keenan Wynn, Aldo Ray, Joan Blondell
and Jack Carter, one that almost redeems its badness. It is barely the better of the two films, but
not by too much.
Both are
here in anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 and look aged, but are just solid and
film-like enough to enjoy. Both are also
in Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono, sounding a little better than expected for their
age, but not much. The cinematography
and music are not much to write home about in either case, though Robert O.
Ragland (Abby, Grizzly, Trouble Man)
turns in a workable score that helps The
Glove to be more bearable.
There are
no direct extras tied to the film, but like the other double features in this
series, you get trailers (often of product from Dark Sky on DVD) before both
films and classic trailers to promote the concession stand and let you know
about coming attractions, et al. Even
when the films don’t work, these compilations always do, making these Drive-In
Double Features work. You can read about
another such double feature release, this time with two Spy genre films, at
this link:
“Assassination In Rome/Espionage
In Tangiers”
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4926/“Assassination+In+Rome/Espionage
- Nicholas Sheffo
