Stunt Rock

Brian Trenchard-Smith takes the exploitation part of the “exploitation movie” literally in this film about an Australian stuntman, Grant Page (real-life stuntman Grant Page playing himself) who’s in LA to do the stunts for a fictional TV series "Undercover Girl", starring Monique Van De Ven (a Dutch actress playing herself). He falls in with his cousin, a member of a rock band called Sorcery (an LA band playing themselves) whose stage show is a rock opera about a duel between The King of the Wizards (Paul Haynes) and The Prince of Darkness (Curtis Hyde). Meanwhile, magazine reporter Lois Wells (Margaret Gerard, who had previously appeared with Page in Death Cheaters,1976) becomes interested in Page for a story she’s doing on why people do the jobs they do.

Scripted by the director with someone called Paul-Michel Mielche Jr. (who has never been heard of since) as a film Stunt Rock barely deserves the title. With cheap production values, a story-line barely above rudimentary and consistently bad acting, Trenchard-Smith pads out his meagre fare with many clips of Page in action (including The Man From Hong Kong 1975, and the aforementioned Death Cheaters, both directed by Trenchard-Smith, Philippe Mora’s Mad Dog Morgan, 1976. and the original 1974 Gone In 60 Seconds). These interpellations constitute easily the best part of the so-called movie, along with Sorcery, who aren’t too bad if you like '70s art-rock in full flight.

God knows who would have wanted to watch this in its day but for those with a taste for retro cinematic cheesiness this is worth adding to the collection.

Available from: Madman

 

Want something different?