Wednesday, April 27, 2011

SHATTER - David Lindup - "Call Him Mister" (1975)

Now this one is a little bit different, it's an action adventure crossover brought to you by the combination of Hammer Studios and Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers, and called simply "SHATTER, Shatter, Shatter, Shatter"

.....and there's no hopping vampires either!

There's an African dictator by the name of Ansabi M'Goya in town just in time to be assassinated! Ansabi was played by Yemi Ajibade who was in a couple of other Hammer flicks like "The Devil Rides Out," and "The Witches."

Things sure do change fast once a person is out of the public eye, it's all hookers and champagne!

Shatter steps in to spoil the party, nothing personal, it's just a job!

The uncredited hooker is really cute!

Cool leading man Stuart Whitman is Shatter! Stuart might not look that tough, but he was actually a pretty good boxer when he was in the U.S. Army in the 1940's, having racked up some 30 odd victories! Stuart Whitman has had an incredible career that didn't really include much horror or sci-fi over the years, but the first two uncredited roles he ever had were in two of the biggest sci-fi classics ever, as a man just standing around in "When World's Collide" and as a sentry in "The Day The Earth Stood Still," both in 1951! He was also Sergeant Walters in 13 episodes of the TV series "Highway Patrol" with Broderick Crawford! In the 80's he was in "The Monster Club," Demonoid: Messenger Of Death," and "Invaders Of The Lost Gold!"

For some reason I keep reading this as "Cool World Hotel!"

Shatter stuff!

Anton Diffring is the Big Cheese Hans Leber, the master of this puppet show! You gotta be super cool to use a phone like that! You walk into an office and a guy is using a phone like that, then he's either The Boss or insane, and maybe both! We'll always honor Anton for his roles in "The Man Who Could Cheat Death" and "Circus Of Horrors" if not for his phone skills!

Pull my finger, Hans Leber!!

I think I'll pass on that offer, Mr. Shatter!

No, No, No, this is not one of those kind of films! A very awkward moment for Shatter!

Time out for some well deserved product placement, and kill two birds with one stone!!

The fantabulous Peter Cushing has the role of British Secret Service agent Paul Rattwood, and quite the rat he is! Can you believe Peter Cushing was only in 129 titles, it seems like he played Van Helsing or Baron Frankenstein that many times alone! This would be Peter Cushing's last Hammer film!

This is Lily Li, as Mai-Mee, or the gal who comes to Shatter's rescue! Lily was also in "The Oily Maniac!"

Now it's Shatter's turn to be in the center of the bullseye!

The very James Bondsy music in "Shatter" was written by a Mr. David Lindup who also composed the music for 6 episodes of the late 1960's TV cartoon show "Spider Man!" His music has also been used on "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "The Ren and Stimpey Show!" He also did a lot of orchestration and arranging, and his son Mike is in the UK band Level 42!

The cat behind the bar is Lung Ti as tough guy Tai Pah. Lung Ti's career started in 1969 with a movie called "Return of the One Armed Swordsman!" Since then he's been in a fistful of flicks, and has one currently in production called "Two Knives" where he plays a charcter that's the same as my favorite Chinese restauant, Chen Yeng! Hey barkeep, bring us over a couple of Tsingtaos please!

Mild-mannered bartender by night, and martial artist instructor, champion, and all around bad ass the rest of the time!

Tai Pah and Shatter chum up and go downtown to catch some of the local action. Much better than MMA, there's no wimpy cage to protect the fans, they've got a drummer who can put down a tight drum roll at just the appropiate times, and they have a great menu during happy hour!

Jeez, I get acrophobia just by looking at this picture!! Yikes!!

Shatter gets in a lot more trouble!

In the end, it all falls into Tai Pah's ass-whuppin' lap quite nicely, and Hans Leber gets a chance to see if he can fly! "Shatter" should not be confused with the highly touted 1985 First Comic with the exact same name, by Peter B. Gillis and Mike Saenz that was heralded as THE first comic book created entirely on a computer, but it's really a tie because the lesser known team of Brian J. Riedel and Gary Wray actually completed a 12 page indie comic on my buddy Bill Ellis's computer, entitled "Click-A-Mouse" the same year!

3 comments:

TABONGA! said...

Looks like photo 5 is Tabonga in one of his low budget robot helmuts!

Prof. Grewbeard said...

i thought that low budget robot helmut looked familiar!

Osterreich said...

Awesome photos...

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??