Mr. No Legs (1978)

Sadly Over-hyped

Good concept, poorly executed.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is not the hilarious, silly exploitation freak-show that the distributor of this decent crime thriller would have you believe. The actual title of the film is "Gun Fighter," and not the silly "Mr. No Legs." The story involves a drug smuggling ring down in Florida, where corruption and disloyalty runs rampant. There is a guy they call 'No Legs,' who is anything but a clown being played for laughs. He is actually a sadistic assassin, who seems to derive great pleasure out of torturing and killing whoever gets in his way. He has these automatic machine guns built into the arms of his wheelchair, and the whole thing is quite surreal and over-the-top. The guy reminded me of Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth from "Blue Velvet;" yes, he was that ruthless and deranged. In fact he is kind of a sick bastard. I notice a lot of people search out this oddball film, hoping for some laughs, but it isn't nearly as silly as the packaging suggests. What you will get instead, is a mildly interesting crime thriller about a drug smuggling deal that goes wrong. Most of the acting was pretty decent, and it was nice to see the familiar faces of Lloyd Bochner and Beau Hopkins in such an obscure production. I do think it's a shame that the distributor felt the need to re-name it with such a silly title. If they used the real title, "Gun Fighter," it might have reached a larger audience. Recommended for fans of 70's crime films and oddball Grindhouse productions..

After thirty five years of searching for this movie I finally found it! I was an extra in the movie, the girl selling drugs from the catering truck. After years of joking about being in a movie to my son and family,I can now show them my thirty seconds of my show business career. I enjoyed watching it and remembered the fun of that day. Filming for the scene I was in was in Tampa, Florida at the Lowry Park Zoo,in 1975. Originally I was told that the name of the movie would be Pushers Die Hard or Killers Die Hard, it was not decided. Thanks to the internet and searching the actors, Mr. No Legs, was found. It may not be a classic but what a story to tell the grandkids, grandma sold drugs off of a catering truck.

'The Amazing Mr No Legs' is certainly a very interesting title and despite the low budget of this production, you would still be forgiven for thinking that you're in for a fun eight five minutes of entertaining exploitation. As the title suggests, the main focus is on a man with no legs. This double amputee is an enforcer for a drug lord who gets involved in a plot involving the murder of two people and ends up with the cops after him. The low budget is always obvious and the film is very amateur. There's not a lot of variety in what goes on and the film doesn't even make good use of its title character. He gets involved in a few fights and things and it's a strange sight because he has no legs but the novelty soon wears off. The gangland plot isn't that interesting either and it would seem that director Ricou Browning thought that his central gimmick would be enough for the film to fall back on. The Amazing Mr No Legs, like a lot of crime films, finishes with the common car chase - and the one here must surely be a contender for the most overlong car chase ever filmed, as it goes on and on. Overall, this might be worth a look for my fellow cult collectors; but I wasn't exactly impressed by it.

Mr. No Legs tells the tale of crime kingpin & drug lord D'Angelo (Lloyd Bochner) who has the hard as nails Mr. No Legs (Ron Slinker) as his bodyguard & as a gangland 'enforcer' who shoots first & doesn't bother to ask questions later. It's Mr. No Legs job to keep D'Angelo's drug business running smoothly so when one of his drug pushers Ken Wilson accidentally kills his girlfriend Tina when she discovers a load of D'Angelo's heroin in his apartment Mr. No Legs decides to just kill Ken as well & dump both of their bodies. Unfortunately Mr. No Legs didn't count on the fact that Tina's Brother Andy (Ted Vollrath) is in fact a cop with the local department, Andy & his partner Chuck (Richard Jaeckel) set about discovering Tina's killer & that means getting close to D'Angelo's drug operations which Mr. No Legs isn't happy about & believe me you don't want to make Mr. No Legs angry as I doubt you would like him when he's angry...Directed by Ricou Browning (probably best 'remembered' as the creature from The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), how do you go from being a monster in a classic horror to making an obscure film like Mr. No Legs?) & also known as The Amazing Mr. No Legs here in the UK this is one unique film that doesn't quite hit the giddy heights that it could have but none-the-less provides a certain fascination & entertainment value. The script by Jack Cowden plays the material 100% straight, is a bit on the slow side during the first 40 odd minutes & has very little of interest apart from the main title character Mr. No Legs, for most of it's duration Mr. No Legs is a standard implausible 70's cop film (in fact you could say the story doesn't have a leg to stand on, ha, ha, ha) about busting up a drug business with little to recommend it except that for some bizarre reason some absolute genius thought it would be a good idea to have a man with no legs to be the films main bad guy, he has shotguns in the arms of his wheelchair, throwing stars & retractable blades. I've never seen anything quite like it that's for sure. Unfortunately Mr. No Legs isn't actually in the film that much, he dies at least 20 minutes before the end & he only has one proper fight scene which comes as a disappointment. I don't know why but I always thought Mr. No Legs would be the hero, you know fighting against all the odds & defeating all the bad guys in his fully equipped wheelchair & when he turned out to be the bad guy I was a bit surprised as I think the film would have worked better with him as someone to root for.Director Browning was obviously working on a low budget & the infrequent action scenes vary, some are very good & well choreographed while other's are slow & sluggish. I must mention the pretty cool car chase at the end which lasts for the whole final 15 minutes, Browning probably didn't have much to work with but he sure tried to put as much action on screen as he could. My favourite scene in the film is when Mr. No Legs is facing up to someone who wants to kill him, Mr. No Legs climbs out of his chair & puts his fists up to the guy even though without legs Mr. No Legs doesn't reach past his waist! There are several other priceless, strange, funny & bizarre moments in the film but not really enough.Technically the film is a bit rough around the edges, it's reasonably well made but it isn't going to win any awards with bland music, cinematography & production design. The acting is pretty poor, there are lots of dodgy hair-dos & moustaches while the actor who plays Chuck the cop is a William Shatner look-a-like.Mr. No Legs seems to be a pretty obscure & hard to find film which to be brutally honest is no great loss to the world, harsh but true. There are some neat car stunts, a few nice fight scenes & some truly memorable sequences featuring Mr. No Legs as the toughest & meanest guy in the film even though he hasn't any legs. I'm not sure whether to give it a 6 or 7, I think I'll give it 7 just because I genuinely think the filmmakers tried & it's generally good fun.