Sunday, March 2, 2014

The Devil's 8 (1969)

Director: Burt Topper

Writers: Larry Gordon, Willard Huyck, John Milius, James Gordon White

Composers: Michael Lloyd, Jerry Styner

Starring: Christopher George, Fabian, Tom Nardini, Leslie Parrish, Ross Hagen, Cliff Osmond, Larry Bishop, Robert DoQui, Ron Rifkin, Joe Turkel, Baynes Barron, Lada Edmund Jr., Margjorie Dayne, Roy Thiel, R.L. Armstrong, Rlaph Meeker, Charles Bail, Lynda Day George

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The Eight... you'll love or hate!

Plot: A federal agent rounds up eight convicts to help fight a vicious moonshine gang.

My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Why only 8?  Because a dozen would have added more money to the budget and it's slightly less obvious that they're re-telling THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967) but destroying a big time moonshine outfit instead of killin' Nazis.  Slightly.  OK, so I don't mind ripping off another movie as long as it's fun.  This one is OK but I'm docking a point for the absolutely horrible music.  There's a hokey theme (that sounds way too much like the country/bluegrass tune, Rocky Top, released in 1967) that gets played, and I'm not exaggerating here, probably at least 40 times.  They do mix it up every once in a while by playing the tune in a minor key which hardly helps.  What's worse, the picture ends with the song sung for the first time.  It's awful, just awful.  If it weren't for that it wouldn't be that bad of a picture.  The music ruined the picture for me.  It's not a great film to begin with but it would've been a reasonable time at the drive-in if it were paired with something better.  It's on Netflix streaming right now but please don't waste your time.

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