The Mad Bomber (Bert I. Gordon, 1973)

First of all, this version of The Mad Bomber is called The Police Connection - so also the awesome DVD released by Code Red, but I'm having a hard time stop using the other title. It just fits the story a lot better! Anyway, Bert I. Gordon is - as you might now - one of my favorite directors. He makes pure entertainment, often with monsters or huge animals (or small humans - or huge humans), everything out of the ordinary. When the 70's came he started of with a couple of more "realistic" thrillers and horrors adn The Mad Bomber might be the best of the bunch, and it's also by itself a fine, fine thriller.

Chuck Connors plays William Dorn, a super-conservative madman who after his daughters death in a drug overdose goes completely bonkers and becomes the ultimate querulant. He hates how the kids of today have fun, he hates how women demands equal rights, he hates cops, he hates sex and... yeah, like a typical republican (which is fitting, Connors himself was a registrered republican). Now he have a new hobby - to bomb the shit out of all the nice people! At the same time a serial rapists, George Fromley (Neville Brand) stalks the city. They happen to be at the same place at the same time and Fromley sees the mad bomber (after first raping a nurse). When the cops realize this they understand that they need to catch the rapist first and make him identify the bomber! Let the thrills begin!

The Mad Bomber is SO different from most of the other movies Mr BIG made. It's dark, gritty, violent, sleazy and have very sharp and original script. I love when he makes silly monster films, but this movie proves what a splendid director he is (he's still directing and just finished "Secrets of a Psychopath" starring Kari Wuhrer!). There's no comic relief, the police procedures are meticulous (but I wouldn't say realistic) and the characters - especially Dorn and Bromley - are complex and with a certain depth. It feels like Dirty Harry or something similar, but more from the baddie's point of view. And with a lot less budget of course.

But it's foremost exploitation. It's something I guess you could have seen on the famus 42nd street. The explosions are gorgeous - shot in slow-motion and with victims flying everywhere. Maybe not gory by today's standard, but still bloody. I personally think it succeeds even more in the deconstruction of the bourgeois, conservative lifestyle. Both Dorn and Bromley clearly belongs to a culture above the poor, living good lives with wife and kids, houses - well-dressed, but somehow became fucked-up in the process of living and now roams the streets trying to blame their own bad luck on everyone else. 

I love many movies for different reasons, but I could say that The Mad Bomber is a smaller masterpiece. It's low-budget and a bit trashy (it have a lot of nudity!), but it's also so serious it becomes a lot more interesting than many other exploitation movies from the 70's. It dares to give its characters some kind of meaning, even if it's an evil meaning. 

Who would expect Bert I. Gordon to go so radical? I love that. Chuck Connors and Neville Brand are also excellent actors and brings a lot of talent into the show. Talented toughie Vince Edwards is also great as the cop trying to catch them both. 

You can't go wrong with The Mad Bomber and you MUST buy the Code Red DVD. It belongs to my list of best releases this year!

Comments

[Megatron]

"Anyway, Bert I. Gordon is - as you might now - one of my favorite directors. He makes pure entertainment, often with monsters or huge animals (or small humans - or huge humans), everything out of the ordinary."

Yes, I think you mentioned your admiration for him a few times.

"Maybe not gory by today's standard, but still bloody. I personally think it succeeds even more in the deconstruction of the bourgeois, conservative lifestyle."

Yeah, there was alot of that going on in the 70´s like Rolling Thunder(1977), Hardcore(1979), It's Alive(1974) etc.

It was fashionable then, and sometimes it comes back in cycles.

"Both Dorn and Bromley clearly belongs to a culture above the poor, living good lives with wife and kids, houses - well-dressed, but somehow became fucked-up in the process of living and now roams the streets trying to blame their own bad luck on everyone else."

That kind of ideological base is somewhat prevalent in films today.....after 2008 economic meltdown, these kind of themes seem to return, albeit not as open as before, but it´s there.

"Who would expect Bert I. Gordon to go so radical? I love that. Chuck Connors and Neville Brand are also excellent actors and brings a lot of talent into the show. Talented toughie Vince Edwards is also great as the cop trying to catch them both.

You can't go wrong with The Mad Bomber and you MUST buy the Code Red DVD. It belongs to my list of best releases this year!"

I only seen parts of this film, not the full movie, great review and thanks.