Back on DVD!

Amazingly, Kill And Kill Again is back in a new 30th Anniversary Special Edition release, remastered in 16x9 widescreen and with special features!

According to Amazon.com, the DVD release date was August 21, 2012 which actually makes it a little late for its 30th anniversary (having been released theatrically in 1981), but who cares?

Special features include an (audio) interview with James Ryan, an on-camera interview with John Crowther, and an "isolated music track from the original 3 track mag sound."

That last item is of particular interest to this blogger. Though a lot of the stock music used in the film has been identified from the KPM music library, there are a few tracks and bumpers still outstanding. Hopefully, this item will provide new information on the soundtrack.

A copy of the release has been ordered and should arrive within a few days. After viewing the widescreen presentation and additional features, a full review will be posted.

Available copies can be ordered here.

Misprint identified!

Back in December 2009, a blog article was posted about an odd image--completely unrelated to KKA-- appearing on the back cover of the DVD case.

Today, during an episode from Season 10 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a very familiar-looking scene presented itself:

This screenshot is taken from MST3K's screening of Final Justice, starring Joe Don Baker. The two women are actually dancers performing in a Maltese "gentlemen's club" called Smugglers' Tavern.

While this still offers no explanation for how the image was mistakenly printed on the packaging for KKA, sheer happenstance has solved a big part of this little mystery.

Special thanks to Tom, Mike, and Crow!

Boots and boomerangs

Two more discoveries from the KPM recorded library...

When the team first infiltrates the New Babylonian compound and Steve discovers the abandoned laboratory, he hears someone moving on the other side of a door, he dives and rolls--slamming his boots on the floor (so much for stealth!)--and nearly breaks Kandy's neck.

The brief track played before the dramatic revelation of who was behind the door is Ill Omen by David Lindup.

Shortly after,  Hotdog is poised to bag a New Babylonian citizen and appropriate his clothing for Kandy to wear--using only the boomerang from his bag of tricks.

The musical track heard here is Acquital, also by David Lindup.

Although the film's soundtrack might not all have come from one source (it remains to be seen at this point), Igo Kantor clearly borrowed heavily from KPM library composers.

Fortunately for fans and aficionados of library music, many classic tracks from KPM are available for individual purchase through iTunes, including both of the above-mentioned tracks.

Music from the alley on the left

More background music tracks have been identified.

As Steve is walking through the rows of makeshift homesteads in Gypsy Billy's trailer-park-slash-shanty-town, we hear a short cacophony of various musical excerpts intended to sound as if coming from a number of different radios or record players.

One is another selection from the KPM recorded library titled, "I Gotta Get The World Off My Back" by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, and is currently available from iTunes as part of the KPM 1000 Series album The Sound of 'Pop'.

Another is the triumphal march from Guiseppe Verdi's grand opera Aida.

Then & Now

The Holy Grail has been found!

Fantastic breaking news for this blog which no one ever reads...

Thanks to Chris Hadley over at the Film Score Monthly forum, the musical coup de gras from the KKA soundtrack has been identified and located.

The brief bumper track heard following the fight sequence between The Team and the New Babylonians in the white box truck...and then the longer selection heard during the descent of the parachutists...are variations of a theme by composer Keith Mansfield which can be found on the KPM library music album titled, Olympiad 2001, released in 1978.

The specific selections are:

Track 17, Olympic Champion Fanfare 3 (0:17)
and
Track 18, Energy and Movement (1:15)

Other variations appear on a previous album, Olympiad 2000 (1977) which includes the track World Champion, known better as the opening theme music for the televised coverage of Wimbledon.

Music track identified!

In the never-ending quest to identify the elusive stock music used for the film's soundtrack, one selection has been ID'ed thanks to the iPhone SoundHound app.

The track played when The Team is driving the back roads to Ironville, and again in full during the closing credits, is titled, "Times Square," by composer Laurie Johnson. It currently appears on the album. "...With A Vengeance."

The album and the individual track are currently available for purchase on iTunes.

Thank you, SoundHound. What a revelation!

KOBK available again!

At present, Kill Or be Killed is available for instant viewing on Netflix.

After years of digging around for an available copy of the film in any playable format, I finally got to watch it in all it's...er, um...glory.

Personally, I have to say I believe KKA is far superior in its entertainment value, but it was great to finally see what was likely its impetus.

UPDATE 10/2012: It appears at this time KOBK is no longer available through Netflix. However, with a little research, viewing may still be possible through secondary market or underground sources.

Profile in Style: Gorilla

Early in the film, Gorilla tells Steve how he was banned from pro wrestling for biting the ears off his opponents when he won (maybe Mike Tyson saw this movie as a kid too!). So amongst a group of mostly martial artists, his is a style of simple brute force.

The Signature Modus Operandi


Choke yo' punk ass!









And chokin' yo' punk ass!










Come here so I can choke yo' punk ass!









Surprise! Yo' punk ass is choked!







The Nutcracker


How's that size 18 in the crotch feel?







The Head Butt


That's gonna leave a mark!








The Moe Howard Head Knock


Oooh, a couple of wiseguys!








The Fake Arm Bar


Yeah, I'm pretty sure the human
arm is meant to bend that way.







The Helicopter


A little cliche, but always good for a laugh.







The School Yard Showdown


Nothing like a good old-fashioned game of "mercy"







The Passive-Aggressive


Hey, Gorilla. Did you happen to notice a bunch of people fighting all around you?

Minor Character Spotlight: Gas Station Attendant

Cast in the role of "Gas Station Attendant," South African actor Deon Stewardson made his on-screen debut in KKA.

Stewardson appears as a New Babylonian "citizen" who sprays blue potato fuel everywhere when the mind control drug begins to wear off. He then runs away from the Chief Guard and is quickly subdued by a cadre of no less than five guards and receives a "reinforcement" injection from a male nurse who seems to magically jump into the scene from nowhere.

While Stewardson landed a number of acting jobs throughout the 80s and 90s, he is best known for his current role as Anders Du Plessis on the British television series Wild At Heart.













photo source: www.deonstewardson.com

Owned!

According to Amazon.com, KKA has been discontinued by the manufacturer and is now only available on the secondary market where I see sale prices starting at $58 for a new DVD copy and $37+ for a used one

Not that I'm surprised it's off the primary market and will no doubt never see a Blu-Ray pressing. It just wouldn't be in enough demand to warrant it.

Amazon also tells me I purchased my copy in September of 2003 for $9.95...I guess I really lucked into it at the time.

Finding it currently out-of-print leaves me wondering about who owns the film rights now. The original copyright belonged to "The Again Corporation," which doesn't materialize on a Google search to much of any degree. I'm guessing that was perhaps just a company formed by the filmmakers at the time on paper only to shoot and distribute the film.

The DVD jacket (as well as the opening video tag at the beginning) lists the copyright--as of 1998--belonging to Liberty International Entertainment, Inc., which appears to be just a second or third-rate media company.

One interesting item to note on their packaging for the DVD is the appearance of a completely unrelated image on the back of the jacket:










Some might remember the early days of soft-porn titles in the video store which had this kind of comical censorship on the packaging with feminine nipples covered by tiny black dots.

I cannot imagine how or why this image (honestly, appearing nowhere in the film--not the scene, not even the "actresses") wound up on the packaging. Somebody in the graphics department was either careless or bored.

If any of you in the fan community have information on the current ownership of the title and/or the origin of this curiously misplaced image (in the spirit of Whose Line Is It Anyway, 1,000 points to anyone who can identify the movie it's actually from), please post a comment.

UPDATE: The source of the still image has been identified. Please see here.

The Objective

Dr. Horatio Kane (John Ramsbottom) - The captive scientist and whiny old man.

Other than his part in KKA, no further references to John Ramsbottom have been found.

UPDATE: a second film credit has been discovered for John Ramsbottom, appearing as an actor in the 1989 independent Canadian short film, Lend Me Your Ear, written and directed by producer Howard Dancyger. The film was screened at the Montreal Film Festival and was awarded a Certificate of Merit at the Chicago Film Festival.

The Bad Guys

Wellington Forsythe, III aka "Marduk" (Michael Mayer) - The evil billionaire and would-be world dominator.

Along with his twin brother Joseph, Mayer starred in the role of Little Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy.







Minerva (Marloe Scott-Wilson) - The lackey and generally pointless presence.

Following a few more minor film roles after KKA, Scott-Wilson became a self-described singer and fine art painter.







Truck Driver (Malcolm Dorfman) - The chief thug and fighting goon.

An alumnus of both Kill movies, Sensei Malcolm is an 8th Dan of Shotokan karate. He joined the JKA dojo of Stan Schmidt in the late '60s and today operates Dorfman Karate with his son Shane, 6th Dan.





Chief Guard (Ivor Kissin) - The enforcer and bully of the Ironville citizenry.

Other than an appearance in one episode of a West German television series and a possible role in an obscure movie titled, Spoor, no information is currently available on Kissin.






The Optimus (Eddie Dorie) - The fighting nemesis and wearer of the white boxers.

Dorie's film credits consist solely of the Kill movies and no other information is currently found when researched. He was likely a member of the South African JKA chosen simply for his size as an imposing presence.

The Good Guys

Steve Chase (James Ryan) - The alpha dog; contract operative and all-around badass.

It was the cinematic diptych of Kill Or Be Killed and Kill and Kill Again that launched Ryan's on-screen career. In addition to acting, Ryan authored a book titled, Screenwriting from the Heart and has taught as a Professor of Playwriting at the Actors Studio School of Drama at the New School University in New York.

Online research yields little, if anything, about his martial arts background--training, discipline, style, etc. Perhaps he was only trained for his roles in KOBK and KKA.

Note: James Ryan discusses his martial arts background in the audio interview on the 30th Anniversary S.E. DVD.  --Ed.


The Fly (Stan Schmidt) - The gentle warrior; martial arts master and monk.

Though his acting career pretty much begins and ends with KOBK and KKA, Stan Schmidt is a world-renowned practitioner of Shotokan karate. He trained under the Japan Karate Association, eventually forming a JKA chapter in his native South Africa. He also founded the College of the Open Hand.

In addition to his starring roles, Sensei Stan was also a coordinator for the fight sequences in the Kill movies.


Gypsy Billy (Norman Robinson) - The washout and "ex-champion of the world."

With two on-screen appearances to his credit (both in the Kill movies), Shihan Norman is a highly-regarded martial artist--recognized as 8th Dan in Shotokan karate. He trained in Japan with Stan Schmidt in the early '60s and is currently the chief instructor of Japan Karate Shotokai South Africa.

Robinson also coordinated fight sequences for the Kill movies.



Gorilla (Ken Gampu) - The muscle and lovable giant.

In addition to his role in KKA, Gampu has a lengthy CV with notable appearances in movies including Zulu Dawn, The Gods Must Be Crazy, and The Air Up There. Before his discovery as an actor, Gampu was a physical training instructor, teacher, salesman, interpreter (speaking seven South African dialects in addition to English and Afrikaans), law clerk and a police officer.

Ken Gampu died in November 2003 of natural causes.



Hotdog (Bill Flynn) - The fearless prankster and keeper of nunchucks.

The role of Hotdog was Flynn's acting breakthrough. He subsequently starred in numerous stage and television roles and also enjoyed a lengthy career as lead singer in two rock and roll bands.

Bill Flynn died in July 2007 of cardiac arrest.




Kandy Kane (Anneline Kriel) - The sex kitten; undercover CIA operative and feminist pain-in-the-ass.

With KKA as one of her three on-screen appearances, Kriel is better known as Miss World 1974, representing South Africa. She actually placed second in the competition, but inherited the title when the original winner was forced to resign due to the discovery that she had an 18 month old son.

In addition to her film roles, Anneline Kriel also recorded the single, "He Took Off My Romeos" which appeared on the South African Pop Chart in 1981.

"...know anything about a town up this way called Ironville?"

How many of us who found ourselves in junior high or middle school in the early eighties remember when HBO was a single, premium cable channel and at one time repeatedly showed a movie titled, Kill and Kill Again?

How many of us at the time thought it was the coolest bad-ass karate movie ever?

Okay, so in retrospect it's now a laughable flick with a severely underdeveloped storyline and a cast of caricatures. It's basically a showcase of martial arts choreography for the sake of martial arts choreography.

But, it's still pretty freakin' cool, even if just for its nostalgic value.

Created by South African filmmakers as a pseudo-sequel to the 1980 movie Kill Or Be Killed (aka Karate Killer and also Karate Olympia), the movie "reunites" a crack team of covert operatives recruited to infiltrate a secluded community of townspeople under the pharmacological influence of a billionaire megalomaniac self-named "Marduk" and to rescue a kidnapped scientist whose potato-based creation is the source of Marduk's mind-controlling influence over the town of Ironville, re-named New Babylonia in accordance with his utopian vision of world domination.

I decided to create this blog in hopes of attracting and encouraging input from other fans of this terrible and awesome movie.
Anyone and everyone with an appreciation of this movie, please feel free to comment and add to the general knowledge base of the film. I am by no means an "authority" on the film, its making, and especially not the martial arts styles it demonstrates.

So I look forward to learning more from those of you more knowledgeable than I.

Eee-yah!