The Mad Bomber
The Mad Bomber
R | 01 April 1973 (USA)
The Mad Bomber Trailers

Los Angeles detectives Minelli and Blake must track down a serial rapist who may know the identity of a mentally disturbed bomber.

Reviews
GamerTab That was an excellent one.
Claire Dunne One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.
Woodyanders Bitter and hard-nosed Lt. Geronimo Minelli (a terrifically tough performance by Vince Edwards) requires the assistance of scuzzy no-count rapist George Fromley (gruffly essayed with growly gusto by Neville Brand) in order to identify and arrest vengeful mad bomber William Dorn (a marvelously cantankerous portrayal by Chuck Connors). Writer/director Bert I. Gordon keeps the entertaining story moving along at a brisk pace, maintains a resolutely gritty, sordid, and cynical tone throughout, and delivers several scenes of gruesome violence as well as a pleasing plethora of tasty gratuitous female nudity (special props to Ilona Wilson as Fromley's eager to please wife for happily letting it all hang out in her creepy hubby's skeevy home stag movies). Moreover, the three leads all have a field day playing their colorfully wacky characters, with Connor's furious tirades against obnoxious folks who make him angry in particular providing the film's most hysterically campy moments. Michel Menton's right-on funky score hits the get-down groovy spot. A real trashy treat.
Scott LeBrun William Dorn (Chuck Connors) is an angry and disturbed man. Frustrated over the drug overdose of his daughter, he decides to strike back at anyone whom he's imagined was responsible for her death. But what he really wants to do is punish society at large. He'll even leave bombs at feminist gatherings. Determined to nail this paranoid villain is grouchy, hard nosed detective Geronimo Minelli (!) (Vince Edwards), the kind of guy who does anything it takes to get his man. That includes working with the one man who can identify Dorn, and HE turns out to be a rapist! George Fromley (Neville Brand) is loathe to cooperate with Minelli until he realizes what the cop is capable of.Producer / director / screenwriter / cinematographer Bert I. Gordon (a.k.a. Mr. B.I.G.) is better known for his "giant monster" flicks of the 1950s, but this endlessly amusing pile of garbage that he's created deserves to be just as well known. He brings the sleaze in a major way; his movie is slow at times and crude, but undeniably a real hoot. Fans of 1970s exploitation will be delighted to note the abundance of nudity (provided by Ilona Wilson as Fromley's wife) and the wonderfully graphic gore. Of course, it's the acting that really brings this one to life. Edwards is good as the unrelenting protagonist, and Brand is a very effective creep. Hank Brandt, Christina Hart, and Ted Gehring co-star, but it's Connors who will command most of your attention. With an array of truly priceless facial expressions, he's a hysterically nutty bad guy. The icing on the cake is a music score by Michel Mention that's sometimes entertaining but is also hilariously AWFUL at other times. The movie establishes Dorn in a great way right up front, as he chastises a stranger for littering on the sidewalk.Well worth seeing if you like your cop thrillers to be on the trashy side.Seven out of 10.
Theo Robertson This film called THE MAD BOMBER tells you all you have to now . The title sums it up . He's a bomber and he's mad and he ain't gonna take it anymore . It's rather sleazy exploitation which is something of a shame because one would have hoped for more along the lines of a DIRTY HARRY or a TAXI DRIVER type of film This is a shame because you can empathise to an extent with Chuck Connors anti-hero who sees the world collapsing and become a strange place and sets about setting the world to rights via dynamite . Come on people we've all been there and some people don't listen to reasonable arguments unless they've been blown to bits . Let's not judge the anti-hero of Geronimo Minelli . Having a name like that couldn't have been easy and if not excuses his behaviour at least explains it Or does it ? You can find yourself identifying very easily with Travis Bickle in TAXI DRIVER if you're honest but Scorsese's film was a journey through the alienated male psyche . Here it isn't the case because Heronimo is a sociopath played and written to the hilt . Just because Geronimo rants and raves then quickly changes his tone and asks for a cheese sandwich doesn't make him multi-layered it just makes him something of a cypher or plot device Everything about THE MAD BOMBER is over done which isn't surprising . It isn't helped by the fact that there's two bad guys , one being the bomber and the other being a serial rapist and for a relatively mainstream film with a well known lead in the shape of Chuck Connors some of the violence is rather disturbing
tavm I've just seen on Google Video what-according to the other comments I've read-was the edited version of The Mad Bomber. Chuck Connors plays the title character who's trying to avenge his daughter's death from a drug overdose on the city of Los Angeles. Vince Edwards is the cop trying to stop him. And Neville Brand is the rapist who witnesses Connors at the mental hospital he sneaks into. Supposedly there were actual scenes of nudity, graphic rape, even more intense explosions. What I saw seemed sufficient. While there are some slow spots such as Brand's having to identify Connors through various face recreations with Edwards in the police headquarters, there is enough tension to keep things going. Writer, producer, director Bert I. Gordon does seem a bit heavy-handed in his approach and many of the minor characters are mostly stick figures for plot contrivances. Still, fairly good performances by Connors, Edwards, and Brand. Update:6/23/13-I just watched on YouTube one of the cut scenes from this movie, a scene when the Brand character is watching film of a nude woman doing flirty poses that he gets off on. The rating stays.
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