In Praise of the Clones of Bruce Lee Part V: Bruce Do-Re-Le

 

One of the more interesting Bruce Lee clones was a Taiwanese kickboxer, who went under the nom de clone, Bruce Do-Re-Le.  Bruce Do-Re-Le was known as the "clones, clone."  All of the other clones looked up to him-one anonymous clone even admitted to copying him more than Bruce Lee.  This admission caused a scandal in the clone world and created seismic reverberations in the industry, and if it wasn’t so silly, it might have brought the clone films to a full stop.

Prior to his clone christening, Bruce Do-Re-Le was Kim Sing and appeared in four movies under his given name, BUTTERFLY WITH A BLOODY SWORD (1976), WHO IS THE KUNG FU FOX? (1977), THE TOUGH, THE MIGHTY, THE INVINCIBLE (1977) and THE GIRL WITH THE FATAL PUNCH (1978).

His first film under the alias was 1978’s BRUCE’S LAST STAND.  

PLOT:  When Bruce’s brother’s body is found washed ashore, despite the fact that he has a dozen puncture wounds, the police think that it was due to an accidental drowning, but after speaking to his brother’s girlfriend, Bruce thinks that he was murdered by a local gang, the Hyenas.

Featuring wall to wall fight scenes, including a fight on an actual wall, BRUCE’S LAST STAND delivers juicy clone goodness.  

He quickly followed that up with THE DRAGON’S FINAL CHALLENGE (1979).

Though considered to be not as good as BRUCE’S FINAL STAND, Bruce Do-Re-Le's second film, THE DRAGON’S FINAL CHALLENGE, provides some quality clone entertainment with having more nudity than a typical clone film, a blow dart wielding midget assassin and a super-powered rocket cycle.

Director Yum Y. Kim uses a generous amount of slow motion that brings to mind Sam Peckinpah or a malfunctioning camera.

Yum Y. Kim also directed EUNUCH IN THE FORBIDDEN CITY OF WOMEN (1974), THE STORY OF THE INVINCIBLE AVENGER (1975), ORPHAN WITH THE BLAZING FISTS OF FURY (1976) and DISCIPLES OF THE KUNG FU MYSTAGOGUE (1976)

Bruce Do-Re-Le returned for 1980’s BRUCE AGAINST THE UNDERWORLD.

PLOT: Bruce’s parents own a small grocery store in which they struggle to make ends meet.  Bruce returns from some time abroad with big ideas to improve the store, but he soon finds out that local underworld goons have been extorting protection money from the local small business owners and using strong-arm tactics.  Bruce returns the favor.

His co-star was Maggie O’Connell, who was, in effect, the only Linda Lee clone, as she appeared as Bruce’s wife in four films BRUCE, MY HERO (1977), THE LOVE LIFE OF BRUCE LEE (1978), THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BRUCE (1979) and BRUCE LEE:  THE WHOLE SHOCKING STORY.

His most well remembered film is 1979’s frenetic RICKSHAW SQUADRON aka RICKSHAW RAMBO (re-release title after RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II (1985).

PLOT:  The Rickshaw Squadron is a special branch of the Hong Kong police, which is feared by bad guys and most welcomed by pedestrians needing to rest their weary legs.  Bruce Do-Re-Le plays the squads leader, whose procedural methods straddle the line between legal and illegal.  The Rickshaw Squadron risk life, limb and sore feet to clean up the streets.

Not a kung fu film, per se, but a rip-roaring, high-octane chase film with more exploding rickshaws than any other film.   Has the most exciting rickshaw chases ever to be filmed.

In Praise of Fanny Banks and Gordon Bassett

 

Fanny Banks starred in two horror movies, THE SWAMP WITCH (1974) and HARRIET THE HOOK (1976), in which she played the titular characters to great effect.  The films were written and directed by her soon to be husband Gordon Bassett, a regional filmmaker from Metairie, Louisiana.  After living through the real-life horrors of an alcoholic father and a mother who served fruit cake year-round, he found solace in watching horror films.  Following a stint in the coast guard, he returned home to run a traveling spook show throughout the South, Dr. Kaleidoscope's Chamber of Creeps and Kooks.

Dr. Kaleidoscope was the nom de plume of Milton Hunter, who like Bassett, was massive fan of horror in all of its guises.  Initially a flop with audiences, Bassett and Hunter turned things around with new characters and scarier situations.

Then Bassett met Fanny, who was working at a carnival selling funnel cakes.  The two fell in love and Fanny went on the road with the Spook Show.  Fanny played numerous characters: scantily clad vampires, scantily clad slave girls, scantily clad ladies in distress, but her best loved was Isabella the swamp witch, which proved to be so popular that she became the co-host.  But Dr. Kaleidoscope did not want a co-host.  He didn’t feel that a “broad could do horror right.”   Bassett had a good relationship with Dr. K., but his new love was more important.  He sold his half of the show to the good doctor.  Through a variety of twists and turns, too boring to write about, Bassett made his first movie with Fanny starring in THE SWAMP WITCH.

PLOT:  The residence of Breux Ferry, Louisiana have been telling tall tales and spinning wild yarns about a witch who haunts the swamps and local environs.  Every year she has to sacrifice a virgin in order to retain her own youth and beauty. THE SWAMP WITCH has Banks playing one of a group of college students who tread deep into the swamps of Louisiana.  The Swamp Witch inhabits her body and uses her to murder the rest of her crew.   

The couple would travel to theaters where THE SWAMP WITCH was playing and have Fanny make appearances as the Swamp Witch and sign autographed 8x10s for the fans.

The cast also included Chief Swimming Elk, an actual Chitimacha Indian, who took up acting when he saw a performance of The Unsinkable Molly Brown in the mid-sixties.  He attended acting classes, then tried to get work, but most producers thought that he was too Indian to play an Indian.  Undaunted, he peed in their drinks, then returned to Louisiana and got a role in the SWAMP WITCH.  His only other role was as a fast talking, tomahawk throwing used teepee salesman in the short-lived television sit-com FORKED TONGUE (1977).

Chef Dorsey Brown, who plays the college professor, was an actual chef, who was hired to cater a local performance of THE FANTASTICKS.  He caught the acting bug, but soon returned to cooking.

Next up for Bassett and Banks was HARRIET THE HOOK, a titillating, yet sadistically gory telling of a ghost woman who has to kill seven human lovers during orgasm to allow her soul to rest in peace.  It provides chills in an oppressive Louisiana gothic setting.

There was talk about a third collaboration, but this third horror project never made it past the planning stages.  THE CREATURE WITH THE GOLDEN CURLS, which featured a Shirley Temple-like girl who is possessed by a voodoo curse during an island vacation and wreaks havoc amongst her stage mother and other Hollywood types.