Death Machines (1976)

An evil Oriental Dragon Lady injects three martial arts fighters with a serum that turns them into zombie-like assassins, and she sends them out against her enemies.

Director:

Paul Kyriazi

Writers:

Joe Walders (screenplay), Paul Kyriazi (screenplay),

Stars:

Ronald L. Marchini, Michael Chong, Joshua Johnson

Cast

Credited cast:
Ronald L. Marchini	...	White death machine (as Ron Marchini)
Michael Chong	...	Asian death machine
Joshua Johnson	...	Black death machine
Mari Honjo	...	Madame Lee
Ron Ackerman	...	Lt. Clay Forrester
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Edward Blair	...	Policeman
Bob Cori
Philip DeAngelo
Chuck Katzakian	...	Mr. Gioretti, crime boss
John Lowe	...	Frank Thomas
George Neal
Ray Rustigian
Frank Wilbur

Storyline

An evil Oriental Dragon Lady injects three martial arts fighters with a serum that turns them into zombie-like assassins, and she sends them out against her enemies.

---

Plot Keywords:

serum | martial arts | assassin | hand to hand combat | violence | 

---

Taglines:

The Ultimate Exterminators . . .

---

Genres:

Action | Drama

---

Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

Crown International Pictures

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

June 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

Death Machine

Filming Locations:

Stockton, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Crown International Pictures, MPI

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original Asian killer was to be Kung Fu kata champion Eric Lee. But Sam Peckinpah had invited him to work on The Killer Elite shooting at the exact same time. So Eric took the smaller part of the karate instructor who's dojo is raided by the killers.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
[three martial arts fighters kill their respective opponents]
Madame Lee: They will do nicely.

---

Connections

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 4 (1997)

---

Soundtracks

"Devil By the Door"
Lyrics by Terry Chambers
Sung by Denny Brooks

User Reviews

Endearing Kung Foolishness

"Death Machines" is a wonderfully precocious bit of bad movie nonsense, director Paul Kyriazi really lets a scene play out to it's conclusion, however unpleasant. There is a scene were two idiots destroy the world's crummiest dive bar. Kyriazi captures the dull poignancy of this act of stupid violence, it's an idiotic, mean thing to do, but at least they care enough to do it.

The story involves a Dragon Lady (Mari Honjo, in a one shot performance of a lifetime Carol Burnett could not touch) who are developing some machine like marital arts killers for use by an evil syndicate, problems arise when the killers learn to think for themselves. There's a pair of refreshingly plain lovers who are only trying to find a little happiness in a world where Death Machines come along and run right over you. A not by the book cop tries his best against all odds.

it's really hard for me to imagine how someone could not enjoy "Death Machines." It is quite cheap, and the final freeze frame suggest they just ran out of time and money and couldn't finish the credits.