I, the Jury (1982)

the audience applauded

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

After hearing about this Neo-Noir for a number of years,I was pleased to get hold of a rare UK Pre-Cert Video of the title.Once the Video arrived,I decided to search around for info about the movie,and I was disappointed to discover that 5 minutes had been cut from the UK release of the film.With recently having picked up auteur film maker Larry Cohen's gritty Blaxploitation flick Black Caesar,I decided to search around for more title which he has been involved in.Along with discovering that Cohen had written the screenplay,I was thrilled to discover that Fox Archives has recently put out an uncut version of the film,which led to me getting ready to finally judge the film.The plot:Working for years with fellow cop Jack Williams,Mike Hammer is horrified to find that Williams has been brutally killed.Wanting to go after Williams killer,Hammer is surprised to find his fellow officers giving him "warnings" about looking into things that are best left hidden. Delving into Williams personal life,Hammer discovers that he and his wife went to an upmarket "sex clinic." Visiting the clinic,Hammer confronts sex therapist Dr. Charlotte Bennett and her "assistants",who he discovers have been recording all of their discussions/sessions with clients.As Hammer pushes the police aside to fully uncover the strange sexual world that may have led to Williams death,a killer,(backed by people who want to keep Williams private life private)declares himself the judge,jury & executioner for Bennett's assistants and Mike Hammer. View on the film:Before I get to the film,I have to mention that Fox Archives has delivered a terrific improvement on the rusty UK Video print of the movie,with the widescreen picture being sharp and catching every dirty street corner of the title,and the clear audio allowing the viewer to hear Bill Conti's synch-Jazz score shake with every gunshot. Originally hired to direct until he got sacked due to going $100,000 over budget in the first week of filming,the screenplay by Larry Cohen places this adaptation of Mickey Spillane at the cross roads between the sun-set Neo-Noir and the steamy Erotic Thriller.Sending Hammer off to follow in the footsteps of his former partner,Cohen hammers Hammer into a decaying Neo-Noir world which is kept hidden by an alluring shell,which contains sex therapists secretly recording their clients deepest desires,and cops trying to put all their dirty money links onto a serial killer.Made before the sub- genre would hit the mainstream,Cohen ties the Neo-Noir with a wonderfully deranged Erotic Thriller edge,as a sadistic killer with "mummy issues" makes his victims look like mannequins,whilst Hammer uncovers the "sex therapy" to be a fashion house-style mansion,packed with alluring,but deadly femme fatales.Rushed into the movie after Cohen was given the boot,director Richard T. Heffron & cinematographer Andrew Laszlo (who also worked on the first Rambo movie in the same year) give the film a stylish,rough and tumble Neo-Noir appearance.Filmed on location,Heffron and Laszlo,scan the burnt-out streets with excellent whip-pans and tracking shots which inject the title with a menacing atmosphere,as Hammer and the mysterious killer close in on each other.Picking up on the genre-crossing mood of Cohen's screenplay,Heffron brilliantly mixes Hammer's gritty Neo-Noir beat with ravishing naked girls and a psycho sexual killer.Before closing the case on a brittle Noir note,Heffron slams Hammer into '80s Action,thanks to Hammer having to take control of the law by taking on the gangs of dirty cops,which leads to the dark underbelly of the city being ripped across the screen,as Mike Hammer declares himself the jury.

Oh the 70s was a great time for crime features… although "I, the Jury" was made in the early eighties it had me thinking it was from the 70s like some sort leftovers that found itself in the wrong decade. And hey that's not a bad thing at all. Originally it looked like it was cult-filmmaker Larry Cohen's project, as he penned the screenplay and was to direct to only be replaced by Richard T. Heffron (Futureworld). This is another adaptation of novelist's Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer character. Private detective Mike Hammer looks into the case to seek revenge when he learns of the killing of his one-armed ex-army buddy. What he digs up about his mate's death, is something quite big."I, the Jury" is a tough as nails, lean and steamy pulp crime / film noir feature that's sexually charged (an opened orgy sequence) and brutally violent (a ghastly slit throat) amongst a rather seedy backdrop. Filling in the role as the iconic Mike Hammer is a fittingly hardboiled, but wry Armand Assante. Surrounding him is a bunch of attractive, but formidable ladies in the shape of Barbara Carrera and Laurene Landon. Also you got the likes of Paul Sorvino, Alan King, Geoffrey Lewis and Barry Snider pitching in with good performances. Cohen's story remains exhaustively captivating; by always being on the move in what is a complicated web of conspiracies and leads. The dialogues are bold. Sometimes contrived in its actions, but it does open up a can of worms. Heffron's steadfast direction is economically staged with moments of thrilling engagements and brooding passages that he's not afraid to bare flesh, but at times it felt like I was watching a long-winded TV episode. Bill Conti composes a titillatingly smoking blues score, which installs a whirlwind of emotion.

***WARNING SPOILERS*** Mike Hammer, Armand Assante, taking time off from his grueling and back breaking job as a divorce investigator to find who's responsible for the murder of a Vietnam army buddy of his Jack Williams, Frederic Downs, and bring him or they to justice; Mike Hammer-style.Jack a private investigator who lost an arm in Vietnam seemed to be on to something when he was murdered. Mike gets a clue from his widow Myrna, Margaret Amato, on what Jack was doing up until the time of his death. Going to a Manhattan sex clinic where Jack was a patient in Hammer finds the clinic manager Dr. Bennett, Barbara Carrera, anything but helpful. It's then that Mike figures that Jack was undercover there as a patient and uncovered something that cost him his life, but what was it?It later turns out that the sex clinic is a front for a rouge element of the CIA thats working together with the New York Mafia smuggling weapons and at the same time using the patients in the clinic with sever mental problems as programed assassins. Having them go out and murder those who are on to the clinics real purpose and at the same time having those killings written off as simple sex-related crimes by the police. The operation is run by former US Army Special Forces colonel Romero, Barry Snider, who's tactics in Vietnam were even too much for his superiors in the business of breaking down or turning enemy combatants to be cooperative. Hammer doesn't realize that he's being used by the US government to bring down this operation and at the same time he's on his own doing it. Since those in government don't want it to come out that it's an unofficial CIA/Mafia endeavor since it would lead to the many sponsored covert CIA/Orginized Crime actions over the years. Mike Hammer does his job, even though he doesn't seemed to get paid for it, with brutal and deadly efficiency. Taking everything the rouge CIA/Mob group could dish out and putting them out of business in grand fashion at the conclusion of the film. Hammer does this in a one man shoot-out at their secret headquarters where he finishes off both mob boss Charles Kelecki, Alan King, and his gang of CIA/Mafia henchmen. Mike now has just one loose end to tie up to finally close the case on the death of his friend Jack and he'll do it with a smile a kiss and a gun. Armand Assante is very good as the brutal, but at the same time added a lot of humor in his role, private eye Mike Hammer. His actions at Dr. Bennetts office and her sex clinic run mansion in suburbia were hilarious and Barbara Carrera was both sexy and deadly as the dragon-like lady Charlotte Bennett. Carrera together with Assante had the most super charged sex scene in the film that made all the orgy sequences in the movie pail in comparison.Besides both Alan King and Barry Snider being in roles as the mob boss and rouge CIA operation chief Paul Sorvino was in the movie as Mike's friend in the NYPD Det. Chambers. Det. Chamber knew what the US government was planing in having him do their dirty work but was too scared to tell him until Hammer found it out for himself.

This actually a combination of two Spillane books "I the Jury" and "The Body Lovers" This is not a great film, but good. The action and plot are pretty good and Assante gives a decent performance, but the thing that I remember the most is just how damn sexy Barbara Carrera is in this movie. I watched this movie with my mom on cinemax one night when I was in junior high school and I had to sit with a pillow on my lap. She blows away Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. She's very tempting at the end when she confronts Mike Hammer and he's got to make a life and death decision. This movie belongs to her. She has been good in other movies, but this is her best performance. It's worth watching for any fan of Barbara Carrera and sleazy action movies