Summertime Killer review
From The Grindhouse Cinema Database
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A young boy watches as his father is beaten and drowned by two mobsters. Flash forward 20 or so years later, the boy is now a man and Ray Castor (Christopher Mitchum) is out for blood. He begins tracking the men responsible for his father's death down one by one. His skills as a motorcycle daredevil aid him on this quest. While Castor is on his revenge spree, Captain John Kiley (Karl Malden) begins investigating the murders of the various high level mobsters. Before Kiley can make any real progress, Castor hops a plane from the US back to his homeland of Spain and Kiley follows. Castor's hits go off easy, until he tries to assassinate the top dog Alfredi (Raf Vallone) and he accidentally misses his mark. Alfredi's men spot Castor and chase after him on horseback. Castor nearly gets cornered, but luckily with his slick bike-riding skills he gets away. Since this hit has gone bad, he has to go with Plan #2: Kidnap Alfredi's beautiful daughter Tania (Olivia Hussey) and hold her for ransom. Castor locks Tania up in his houseboat far out in the center of a large lake. It's not long before Castor and Tania begin falling in love, which of course complicates matters even more. Meanwhile, Captain Kiley is hot on Castor's trail. Will he get Castor before the mob does?
Summertime Killer is by no means an outstanding crime film. It has some fun motorcycle stunt scenes, but other than that there's really nothing in the movie that breaks out in the excitement dept. It's still a well made, watchable genre exercise with some decent acting by the main cast. The score by Luis Enriquez Bacalov contains certain cues that sound similar to the ones in Milano Calibro 9. Film fans will also notice the iconic main score which showed up in Quentin Tarantino's 2003-04 revenge opus Kill Bill.
Peter Roberts is the co-founder/editor-in-chief of the Grindhouse Cinema Database (GCDb) and contributor to the GCDb's sister site Furious Cinema. A Massachusetts native, he is an avid film fan that has been immersed in the world of entertainment and pop culture his entire life. He is a professional digital media designer and educator.
