The Glove (1979)

Just perfect...

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Actor & director Ross Hagen does not glamorize the travails of a modern day bounty hunter in his movie "The Glove" where John Saxon squares off against a rotund Roosevelt Grier. Later, Steve McQueen made "The Hunter" about a real-life bounty hunter. Hagen carefully establishes the characters of each individual and the irony implicit in the way that our hero triumphs in the end gives "The Glove" a sense of realism. A large African-American male dons a padded outfit and pulls on a glove. The glove weighs in at five pounds of lead and steel. They call it a 'riot glove.' He attacks a prison guard with his girlfriend as they are necking. He smashes the windshield and tears the doors off the Ford Pinto. Occasionally, when he is beating up the guard, Tiny (Aldo Ray of "The Green Beret"), the villain misses his victim and rips out a headlight. Meanwhile, the girlfriend screams in terror at this one-man army. The scene shifts to our bounty hunter hero, Sam Kellogg (John Saxon of "The Unforgiven") who provides us with a synopsis of his life and his careen. He was once a baseball shortstop before he became a bounty hunter. The person who means the most to him is his daughter. Several scenes show the depth of the bond between father and daughter. Probably the best is when Saxon is doing one-legged push-ups with his daughter on his back. We learn that our hero is divorced and has a hard time making ends meet. His ex-wife threatens to stop letting his daughter Lisa (one-time only actress Misty Bruce) visit him. A former policeman, Sam never wants to button himself in blue again. Instead, he takes the hard knocks as a bail bondsman. As a long-suffering hero, Sam wins our sympathy for his dire straits. He tangles with a couple of homosexuals in his first bust. Bill Schwartz (Keenan Wynn of "Laserblast") gives him jobs, but warns Sam to be careful. Sam learns from Bill that his old friend, Lieutenant Howard Kruger (Howard Honig of "Airplane 2, The Sequel"), has a lead for him. Kruger explains that Victor Hale has jumped bail. He is only worth peanuts. However, he reveals that this sometime-jazz musician has aroused the wrath of the Prison Guard Association and these fellows have put an unofficial $20-thousand on his capture. Kruger shows Sam an example of the riot glove. He briefs him (and us) about its notorious history. The protest riots in the early 1960s spawned it and it was later used in prison. Neither application worked, and the lawmakers outlawed the glove. According to Kruger, Hale stole the glove from his first victim. Sam poses as a journalist and interviews Victor's mother. She is an old lady who lives with her daughter. The daughter was slashed up by a pimp and Victor killed the pimp. Victor wound up in prison where the guard pummeled him with the glove. When we finally meet Victor, he is living in a rented apartment. Hagan elicits sympathy for him as a character because of his background and his vigilante justice in the case of his younger sister. Later, we see him teaching a black youngster how to play the guitar like a blues master. Forty seven minutes into the action, Victor calls Sam and suggests that he leave him alone. Sam explains that Victor represents a $20-thousand pay day. Victor assures him that he will be gone before Sam can locate his whereabouts. Sam keeps a tape recording of the telephone conversation. He tracks Victor down to a blues nightclub and barely misses him. As Sam is cruising away in his Cadelliac, he receives a phone call from Victor. Victor invites him over to his apartment house. Sam sneaks up the fire escape. Victor hands him the glove, but Sam is still no match--even with the glove--for the gigantic Victor. Earlier, Sam's old partner, Harry Iverson (Michael Pataki of "Death House"), was waiting for him to arrive home. Harry wants in on the Victor Hale deal. Meanwhile, Victor agrees to escort Sam downstairs so his friends in the apartment house won't hurt him. Harry surprises them as they enter the stairway and he shoots Victor four times. Victor's friends mob Harry and kill him. Sam ends up receiving the bounty and being reunited with his daughter.Clocking in at 90 solemn minutes, "The Glove" qualifies as an average thriller with strong performances by a sturdy cast.

Stocky ex-felon Victor Hale (amiably essayed by hulking pro footballer Rosey Grier of "The Thing With Two Heads" fame) goes around Los Angeles, brutally mashing up crooked prison guards who beat him up in jail with a lethal steel riot glove. Out to bring him in is dour and divorced no-nonsense bounty hunter supreme Samuel Kellog (a nicely rough'n'tumble performance by longtime favorite veteran tough guy actor John Saxon, who really sinks his teeth into a juicy lead part), who desperately needs the substantial bounty placed on Hale's head to settle his domestic woes with his bitter ex-wife.Clumsily directed with a certain endearing ineptitude by seasoned trash movie thespian Ross Hagen (who later helmed the not half bad medical sci-fi/horror effort "B.O.R.N."), with typically accomplished cinematography by ace exploitation feature cameraman Gary ("Satan's Sadists," "The Toolbox Murders") Graver, a groovy score by Robert O. ("Evils of the Night," "Deep Space") Ragland, and a simply stupendous campy sub-"Shaft" R&B theme song ("You can't escape/From the kiss and rape of the Glove"), "The Glove" makes for a whole lot of irresistibly cheesy low-budget grindhouse junk fun. It's meant to be more of a bleak and low-key character study than a straight-out exciting action item. The scenes with the macho Kellog attempting to bond with his estranged daughter are pretty damn funny (I especially dug the moment where Kellog does push-ups while his adorably diminutive daughter sits on his back!). Kellog's ersatz Humphrey Bogart hard-boiled narration provides plenty of solid amusement as well (sample line: "I felt like someone kicked me in the stomach and left the shoe there"). Moreover, the sporadic badly choreographed fight scenes are likewise quite unintentionally hilarious, with the definite gut-busting highlight being Kellog's tussle with a guy in a meat packing plant (the guy smacks Kellog with a big bloody side of beef!). The stand-out B-picture cast qualifies as another substantial asset: the lovely Joanna Cassidy as a classy secretary Kellog becomes romantically involved with, the always delightful Keenan Wynn as Kellog's cranky loudmouth boss, Jack Carter as a stuck-up rich jerk, Michael Pataki as Kellog's ruthless sleazeball rival, Nicholas Worth (the raving psycho Vietnam vet photographer killer in "Don't Answer the Phone") as a gay blank check dropper Kellog tosses into a pool, and Aldo Ray as an ill-fated prison guard. All in all, "The Glove" rates highly as a most entertaining oddball drive-in movie hoot.

Oh God almighty, what a weird film this is! It starts out with ahorrendous theme song (with a singer that sounds like EnglebertHumperdink!), and it follows a grisly attack by a huge soul-brother with a glove that can kill with even a flick of its finger! John Saxon is the only saving grace for this movie as a smooth-talking bounty huntertracking the glove-man. Everything else, well, let's put it this way: it's like Ed Wood deciding to make a sleazeball action movie from thelate 70's and early 80's. That's how bad the film is!!

It's interesting to note that Ross Hagen, a man who starred in numerous trashy films in his infamous career, did the directing. The film's kinda sleazy in a few parts, and the theme song is hilarious, but the violent scenes should have been the main attraction here, and unfortunately there's little of it. John Saxon talks through the whole picture like I'm waiting for some blood to fly. The best parts I liked about The Glove are the beginning, the middle, and the end. It's O.K. as long as cheap thrills are your cup of tea. Don't let the film's ad mat entice you!