SHATTER (aka CALL HIM MR. SHATTER)
Directed by Michael Carreras & Monte Hellman
Written by Don Houghton
Cast:
Stuart Whitman .... Shatter
Lung Ti .... Tai Pah
Li-Li Li .... Mai-Mee
Peter Cushing .... Paul Rattwood
Anton Diffring .... Hans Leber
Yemi Ajibade .... Ansabi M'Goya/Dabula M'Goya
Liu Ka Yong .... 1st Bodyguard
Pei Chi Huang .... 2nd Bodyguard
Liu Ya Ying .... Leber's Girl
Wei Lo .... Howe
James Ma .... Thai Boxer
UK - 1974 - 90'
Produced by Hammer Films & Shaw Brothers
<p align="justify">SHATTER was part of a three-picture deal (only two were actually produced) that Hammer Films made with Hong Kong's The Shaw Brothers. The Shaw Brothers were the leading producers of Martial Arts films at the time, and there first collaboration with Hammer brought on THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES, a successful fusion of kung fu and Dracula/vampire themes. SHATTER was more or less a straight action film with martial arts tossed in as a selling point.
Stuart Whitman (who was also Amicus' first choice for the lead in THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT) plays Shatter, a middle-aged American hitman who kills an African leader and his assistant during the bloody pre-credit sequence. Shatter flies to Hong Kong, at which point we are introduced to his "wah wah"-beated funky theme song ("Shatter... Shatter..."). It's there that he expects to collect his payment for the job, but what he finds out is that he wasn't hired by the U.S. Government, but rather the mob. Now it seems like everyone in Hong Kong is out to do in Shatter, so he teams up with a good-hearted kung fu expert (Ti Lung) and his "massage" artist sister (Lily Li as Shatter's love interest) to get some answers and collect his dough.
Filmed entirely in Hong Kong without the benefit of a studio, SHATTER has an undeserved bad reputation mostly from disgruntled Hammer fans only obsessed with the studio's gothic horror endeavors. While flawed and sometimes looking uninspired, the film still has plenty of action and the Hong Kong streets provide a nice setting for the espionage. Despite often being called tired-looking in the role, Stuart Whitman is perfectly cast as Shatter, a likable but rugged loner who can be calm and cool one minute, and vicious and vengeful the next.
In a "special guest" role, Peter Cushing (in his last Hammer feature) plays a slimy British secret service agent suitably called Ratcliff. Wearing a trenchcoat and for a change not donning a flowing hairpiece, Cushing does the most with the small, undemanding part, playing him sarcastically nasty and sucking on candy balls rather than his trademark cigarette (his intense interaction with Whitman is a highlight). Villainous vet Anton Diffring is a crooked banker, and you just have to look at him to know he's up to no good. Ti Lung shows off his skills in several fight scenes (sans the usual chop-socky wailing and sound effects), and although they're well done, it's more or less affable fluff to keep things lively.
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AVI File Details
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Name.........:
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Filesize.....: 700 MB (or 717,438 KB or 734,656,512 bytes)
Runtime......: 01:29:35 (161,096 fr)
Video Codec..: DivX 5.0
Video Bitrate: 986 kb/s
Audio Codec..: 0x0055(MP3) ID'd as MPEG-1 Layer 3
Audio Bitrate: 100 kb/s (50/ch, stereo) VBR LAME3.90.š
Frame Size...: 640x336 (1.90:1) [~15:8]
