The Devil's Eight (1969)

Good movie but grossly overrated

Good concept, poorly executed.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Rugged no-nonsense federal agent Ray Faulkner (played with delightfully growly macho gusto by Christopher George) recruits a motley bunch of chain gang convicts to assist him on his war against a nefarious moonshine ring run by the formidable Burl (Ralph Meeker in top slimy form). Director Burt Topper relates the entertaining story at a snappy pace, maintains an engaging breezy'n'easy tone throughout, and stages a wild barroom brawl, several car chases, and the energetic climactic shoot-out with aplomb. The neat script by William Huyck, John Milius, and James Gordon White presents a cool and colorful array of characters as well as a nifty premise that's impossible to resist. The lively acting by the stellar cast of familiar B-pic faces helps a whole lot: Fabian as the moody Sonny, Larry Bishop as reluctant peacenik Chandler, Tom Nardini as scruffy mechanic Billy Joe, Ross Hagen as the gruff Frank Davis, Leslie Parrish as the sweet Cissy, Robert DoQui as merry hipster Henry Reed, Joe Turkel as the weaselly Sam, Ron Rifkin as eager rookie agent Stewart Martin, and Cliff Osmond as dim-witted lackey Bubba. Lynda Day George pops up briefly in a small uncredited role. Richard C. Glouner's sharp cinematography makes snazzy use of fades and dissolves. The jaunty and flavorsome score by Michael Lloyd and Jerry Styner hits the rousing spot. A really fun flick.

The Devil's 8 (1969) ** (out of 4) THUNDER ROAD crashes into THE DIRTY DOZEN in this drive-in flick from AIP. A federal agent (Christopher George) is sent to break up a moonshine business so he recruits six convicts to help with each of them being pardoned if the mission is a success. THE DEVIL'S 8 isn't nearly as fun as one would hope but the cast is good enough to make it worth sitting through at least once. The biggest problem here is that the direction is so weak that there's never really any excitement built up in the story. There's no adventure to the mission that the guys are going on and there's really no suspense anything going wrong. I'm sorry but you can't have people going into a battle and you never once fear that there's something that could go wrong and put them into harm. Another problem is that there's simply no energy to be found so at times it's a real chore just staying interested in what's going on. At 98-minutes the film runs a bit too long and I think there were several scenes that could have been trimmed to help the flow of the picture and make it drag less. The one thing that does work here are the performances with George being a lot of fun as the leader of the group. I've always enjoyed George as a character actor and I thought he gave a good performance here and as usual he's just got a certain charm when it comes to playing a tough guy. The supporting cast includes Fabian and Tom Nardini, both who are good but so are the rest of the players. THE DEVIL'S 8 is mainly going to appeal to those who enjoy watching low-budget rip-offs of bigger and better movies. This thing is far from perfect but it's decent entertainment if you've got nothing better to do.

a guy in a blue Dodge,and guy out side the car training the guys with a hand grenade. He tells the guy in the car to go to the end,and drop it into the barrel. The guy complains,and the trainer guy "Pulls the pin",and says "Shut-up...you've got 10 seconds"! I remember them raiding the still. Was made in 1969 I thought the movie was older than that.There was a lot of good "Moonshine" movies that are now classics of the film noir "Thunder Road","The Roaring Twenties" with James Cagney,and Hunphry Bogart. I consider this movie a classic.Christopher George went on to do TV shows.Was a good actor. does anyone know if this is on DVD?

the feds are after moonshiners, who are very well organized, and recruit some good 'ol boys to fight fire with fire...lots of action, fair amount of humor, and some killing's to give it a dose of reality, keep this flick rolling along most satisfactorily.terrific cast, especially a sarcastic, mean spirited Ralph Meeker...likable Ross Hagen....charismatic Tom Nardini and very appealing Leslie Parrish....believe it or not, this film has a wonderful soundtrack, including a very catchy theme, several songs that relate to the ongoing action and one that is sort of a spin off of thunder road, but is much better...i had the album on an LP (33rpm) and really enjoyed listening to it.This film seems to have disappeared...i haven't seen it anywhere in many years....