Death Machines (1976)

User Rating:

2.8/10   

Director:

Paul Kyriazi

Writers:

Joe Walders (screenplay) &
Paul Kyriazi (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

June 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Tagline:

The Ultimate Exterminators . . .

Plot:

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:

Assassin | Serum | Martial Arts | Injection | Police Detective

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

Also Known As:

Death Machine

Runtime:

USA:93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:M | USA:R | UK:15 (edited version) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Stockton, California, USA

Company:

Crown International Pictures

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 (1975) 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.

Movie Connections:

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

Soundtrack:

Devil By the Door

Very Bad But Strangely Watchable

I'm from Texas so I thought I knew big hair, but the female villain in this movie had humongous hair. Whenever she was on the screen I couldn't concentrate on anything but her hair. Take about stage presence! There seemed to be a lot of people with hearing problems in this movie also. There was a traffic warden writing out a parking ticket who somehow didn't notice the owner plunging toward the car screaming at the top of his lungs until he hit the car. Then there was a guy in a phone booth who couldn't hear a huge bulldozer coming at him until it was 5 feet away. All the hit men in this movie seemed a bit deaf, no one had to sneak up on them. The one handed 'hero' of this movie was so whiny and ineffective that it was funny. The bar-fight was pretty funny. There is a priceless scene where the hero and his girlfriend just had sex and judging from their expressions, it wasn't good for either one of them. It made me laugh out loud. This movie is on the 50 Movie Pack Martial Arts set if you want to see a lot of bad movies (with a few decent ones).