H-Bomb/Review
From The Grindhouse Cinema Database
< H-Bomb
Believe it or not, there was a time when Hollywood stars appeared in Thai films. Yes! It was the 70’s-80’s when most of the Hollywood studios refused to released their films in Thailand because of “tax wall”, so at the time we had only a few choices between Thai flicks, Chinese flicks, and B-movies from U.S.A. or Italy. And the only way to saw Hollywood actors/actress in Thai cinema was either hoped that they would appeared in another exploitation flicks or see them in Thai movie.
The stars that appeared in Thai flicks included Greg Morris (from Mission: Impossible), Robert Ginty (from The Exterminator, which was the massive hit film in Thailand at the time), Sam Jones (from Flash Gordon), and, for today’s review, Olivia Hussey and Christopher Mitchum.
H-Bomb (or in the Thai name, ตัดเหลี่ยมเพชร) is an actionsploitation film from 1975 (yes, I said 1975 not the 1971 because IMDB information is wrong). The plot is, like most of the Thai actionsploitation films at the time, about a group of people that have to stop the evil plan from the terrorist organization. So, to cut a long story short, it’s James Bond’s villain combine with Reb Brown flick and starring Hollywood actor/actress with Thai actor/actress!
I just watched this film last night on cable channel, and I have to say that the only best things in the film are Olivia Hussey’s sexiness and the climax scene which two trains crashed into each other and exploded. Because the rest of the film is, well, kinda suitable for Godfrey Ho to do another “cut-and-paste” flick or being riffed by MST3K and SpoonyOne. Sometimes it might be stupid, but I kinda enjoy it because I’ve watched a lot of Thai actionsploitation films.
To sum up, it might be worthwhile if you wanna see these two actors in Thai film. But if you wanna watch good action film, well done plot and has nothing to complain about, I’m afraid this is not the one for you.
P.S. In case if you wondering why I know so much about Thai cinema history, I’m Thai.
Nuttawut Permpithak hails from Thailand. He spends his free time watching exploitation films (or any films from the past) writing articles, taking photos and reviewing films for GCDb.
