The Dion Brothers (1974)

A Disappointing Continuation

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I used to catch this quirky product of the 1970s late at night on KTRK, Houston's ABC affiliate. I could never let this little gem go by without trying to catch a little of it and usually couldn't let go of it once I started.Stacy Keach is the more "sophisticated" of the two Dion brothers, simply because he has chosen to sample the world outside their West Virginia coal mining community. He quits his factory job and returns to lure his bumpkin brother (played wonderfully by Waxahachie, Texas native Fredric Forrest) into a scheme to establish a seafood restaurant. The trouble is, the restaurant is to be financed via an armored car robbery with a gang that includes Denny Miller and Richard Romanus. Romanus double crosses the group and the Dion brothers take out after him. Yeah, Margot Kidder shows up but so does stuntman, director, writer & actor Hal Needham in an uncredited role as a guy in a bathtub.

I try to describe this movie to people or ask them if they've seen it and I always sound like a wombat. I just remember laughing myself wet the last time I saw it, sometime around 1985. I remember Stacey Keach or Frederick Forrest threatening some guy with a live lobster, and I remember the guy in the bathtub more annoyed than scared when they were dipping the plugged-in razor in the water. "I don't even know those guys!!" he wails as they leave. No, they don't make them like this anymore, and it's shameful. I truly think Tarantino might have been inspired by this movie when he and Clooney played the Gecko brothers in "From Dusk Til Dawn', only these brothers were A lot more fun. Pitiful, too, if it is locked away in some vault. It's the kind of movie that would turn up on FLIX at 4AM on a work night. And that's not a BAD thing...

Man! I saw this flick when it first came out in '74. Was watching "Apocalypse Now" the other day and recognized Frederic Forrest (Chef). Then I remembered that he was in some movie with Stacy Keach and Richard Romanus where he portrayed Keach's younger and, shall we say, "less worldly" brother. One part that sticks out was when he met Richard Romanus' character--it was funny in that it was the first time Forrest's character had met a Hispanic person who wasn't Mexican. The movie is definitely "must see" material. Hopefully it will be out on DVD soon

Another one that slipped by the radar of most anyone. This little B produced gem is so full of new ideas in an old genre and so absolutely refreshing and inventive, that a dreadful feeling about the lack of cojones in today's cinema slowly overtakes your body. The final set piece is so innovative in its setting and style that it prefigures everyone from Tarantino to John Woo. Oh, and if you think "dying lines" are all cliche, wait for the dying line of FF. A piece of dialogue that could have torn you with laughter will take your heart. A true pleasure. Seek it and see it. You won't be sorry.