Death Journey (1976)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

Fred Williamson

Writer:

Abel Jones (writer)

Release Date:

May 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama

Tagline:

ASSIGNMENT: Bring in the informer...3000 miles in 48 hours...ALIVE! The MOB says "NO WAY!" Crowder says "TRY AND STOP ME!"

Plot:

Fearful that their star witness might be murdered, two attorneys hire a protector to bring him from Los Angeles to New York...

Plot Keywords:

Witness | Train | Ford Mustang | Car Chase | Airport

Cast

Fred Williamson	...	Jesse Crowder
Bernard Kirby	...	Finley
Art Maier	...	District Att'y Virgil Riley
Lou Bedford	...	Assistant D.A. Jonas
Heidi Dobbs	...	Agent
Stephanie Faulkner	...	Agent
Ed Kovins	...	Stern, the mouthpiece
Patrick McCullough	...	Jack Rosewald, gang leader
Emil Farkas	...	Karate Instructor
Sam Coppola	...	Detective Johnson
Geoffrey Land	...	Judge
James B. Campbell	...	Judge
D'Urville Martin	...	Detective Don
Tony Brubaker	...	Gas Station Attendant
Jack Oliver	...	Detective Don

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Company:

Po' Boy Productions

Movie Connections:

Followed by The Last Fight (1983)

Jesse Crowder, Ladies' Man!!!

The bizarre opening of this wild blaxploitation flick unfolds via a series of shaky two-shots of guys plotting a "Sting", conveyed totally in hasty telephoto... Combined with an ultra- simplistic script and loopy faux-funk background music, you soon realize this is either a Grade-Z masterwork or an amazing amateur accident... and a masterwork it is! Hated by Williamson fans and "Jesse Crowder" fans alike, this rude, crude abomination is one of the leanest, meanest, and greenest films to fall into that delicious genre called blaxploitation. At 20 minutes, we're into a love-making scene twixt super-dude Crowder and a spooky white chick. In fact, Crowder loves an awful lot of women in this throwaway flick, many of them who appear to be stoned. One turns out to be a hit-woman, so Jesse tosses her out of a speeding train to her death! Completely at home in a very 70s macho world of girls, fools and stretch limos, Jesse struts around the whole flick with his silk shirt wide open, showing us his gleaming chest, and smoking these skinny little cigars, the quintessential stud. This hilariously inept film is shockingly amateur, like something rejected from the a Teenage Movie Awards. There's lots of driving scenes, and some badly staged fistfights and shootouts. There's a bathtub electrocution scene that's so badly shot in shaky close-up, you really can't tell what's going. The endless funky music track sounds like outtakes of B.T. Express ("Do It Till You're Satisfied"). Ambiguous ending is a real "huh?" The exciting poster art for the film, depicting men fighting on the roof of a racing streamliner, is of course nowhere to be seen in this woeful cheat of a ripoff. Hallelujah! Yet after you witness this train wreck, you will accept no imitations, for you will know: Jesse Crowder IS "The Ladies' Man"!