By Geno McGahee
In 1980, a movie was produced that had a big impact on me and my childhood. FLASH GORDON was a box office flop, but it was a unique film with great visuals and a hero that kids could look up to. Sam J. Jones played the lead in the film as Flash Gordon, an American football player, that goes into a new world and has to take down a bad guy. I didn’t know much more about the career of Jones beyond this film to be honest. I thought that maybe the box office bust somehow ended his career, but he was active and made some action films. One of them was the 1993 mobster action film “FIST OF HONOR.” OK, the title needed some work, but at least the movie is good.
As I watched this film, I kept thinking where the hell I knew the guy from. Then I could hear the Queen title tune for FLASH GORDON playing in my head. This guy in FIST OF HONOR was a miracle. So, the movie became more interesting, knowing that Sam J. Jones had a career after 1980. As many of you know, he’s had a recent resurgence in popularity due to his appearances in TED and TED 2. It may lead to a FLASH GORDON sequel if they play their cards right.
Dino Diamond (Harry Guardino) is the head of a mob family and has recently made a truce with the Malucci family, headed up by Victor (Abe Vigoda). The deal is in jeopardy when Tommy Bones (Raymond Martino) kills one of Victor’s boys when he finds him screwing his wife. Dino has Tommy killed in a great way. Two shots, but one of them launches him into some flour and bread. He lies dead and covered in flour. It was a good action movie death.
Outside of the normal criminal activities, Dino enjoys putting on fights where his fighter takes on a fighter that represents another family with some money on the line at the end. Fist Sullivan (Jones) represents the Diamond family as a fighter but also as a collector. A lot of this film features him collecting money from unwilling debtors. In fact, every single one of them refuses to pay and need to get roughed up by the hero.
Despite the working relationship, Dino has some animosity toward his fighter. Fist unknowingly stole his girl, Gina (Joey House), which comes into play later on. Fist and Gina are super happy together and are planning on starting a life with a new house and without ties to the mob. She knows that Dino is a heartless bastard with the worst hairpiece ever seen. He’s such a hot head, none of his men will tell him how bad his hair looks.
Dino sees great opportunity in screwing over the Malucci family and the investigator, Detective Johns (Bubba Smith), informs him that he’ll need a patsy to blame for any murders that the Diamond family commits. The patsy is Fist and when they send Tucci (Nicholas Worth) to plant evidence, Gina gets killed in the process. Fist goes to prison but the Malucci family is ready to bail him out for one final showdown.
Nicholas Worth was in another one of my childhood films that I would like to mention. He was the weasel in SWAMP THING and he’s the weasel here. Sure, that’s all he ever played, but he played the role well. He also did a fine job in BEST OF THE BEST II. He passed away at 69, but he was the right guy if you needed a heavyset jerk sort of character. I’ve always enjoyed his work.
One of Fist’s friends, a young girl named “Alex” (Ali Humiston), who lives in the apartment complex, has looked at the fighter as a mentor. She has an abusive stepfather and spends most of her time on the fire escape. While there one night, she witnesses the murder of Gina and can identify the guy that did it. Humiston did a great job in this. Actually, she and Jones worked very well off each other.
The movie wraps up pretty well…well, (spoiler) any movie that has the bad guy tied to a chair and lit on fire has to be good. There were just a few elements that hurt this movie in the end. The biggest problem that it had was the fight choreography. It was messy and unbelievable. As much presence as Jones had, it was hurt by the questionable fight scenes. Another problem that I had was that Fist never took care of the stepfather that was beating up Alex. I would have loved to see Fist kick him down the stairs or throw him over the fire escape to his death.
FIST is absolutely worth a watch and it appears that Sam J. Jones has made several action films around this time that I will be looking for. This is a pretty good lower budget action film with a lot of notable actors participating and a formula that works. I highly recommend this one for the fans of action films. It has enough to keep you interested and amused.
Rating: 7/10
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