5 Questions: Killing American Style

Before the cult classic Samurai Cop and one of my personal favorites Young Rebels, writer/director Amir Shervan gave the world 1988’s Killing American Style.

After watching an Amir Shervan movie, some people might ask “How do movies like this get made?”. But I had some other questions on my mind after watching Killing American Style…

#1. Where exactly was the prison located?

American Killing Style opens with a daring daytime robbery of an ice cream truck company. The head perpetrators of this heist are Tony Stone (Robert Z’Dar, Dead End City) and Tony’s running buddy Lynch (John Lynch). Both Tony and Lynch are pinched by the cops for the robbery and it isn’t long before we see the two crooks on a bus headed to the hoosegow.

Unless this prison was located in the middle of backwoods California, I have no idea why the prison bus was taking a dirt road in what looked to be the middle of nowhere. Fortunately for Tony and Lynch, some of Tony’s kin, brother Jessie (in drag) and Uncle Looney, fake an accident along side this dirt road, which enables them to ambush the prison bus and guards and bust Tony and Lynch out… but things don’t go completely to plan as Jessie ends up with a bullet in his abdomen.

Now Tony and his band of not-so-merry men need a place to lay low and a place where they can get Jessie some much needed medical attention… that place ends up being the home of John Morgan.

#2. Did the ranch used in the film actually belong to the guy who played the kickboxer bully’s father?

When Tony, Lynch, Looney and Jessie happen upon the ranch that John Morgan (Harold Diamond, Picasso Trigger) and his family call home, John was at his son’s kickboxing class… leaving John’s wife and sister or sister-in-law as sitting ducks (or sunbathing ducks to be exact) when the bad guys show up.

But let me get back to the kickboxing class, after the class is over John’s son finds himself being challenged by the class bully. John steps in and tries to diffuse the situation between the kids, but things just end up escalating when the bully’s father challenges John to step into the ring with him. The bully’s father was played by a man credited only as J.R. The ranch that served as John Morgan’s home in the film has the initials J.R. near the front door. Coincidence? Or did J.R. get the part as the bully’s father, because he was allowing Shervan to shoot most of the movie in his home? Or maybe it was the home of another actor in Killing American Style, Joselito Rescober?!?

Bonus Question: Couldn’t they have named Harold Diamond’s character John Roberts instead of John Morgan so it made sense that the initials J.R. were on the front of John’s house??!

#3. Was Joselito Rescober the best casting choice possible for the character of Dr. Fuji?

When John and his son return home, they are shocked to find that their home has been invaded by the likes of Tony Stone and his henchmen. John obviously doesn’t want any harm to come to his family… so when Tony demands John go to a nearby clinic and bring a doctor back to tend to his brother’s bullet wound, John complies.

The doctor in question is Dr. Fuji… played by the very not Japanese, Joselito Rescober. Joselito was an Amir Shervan favorite playing Fernando in Young Rebels and the Costa Rican Waiter in Samurai Cop, but he was an interesting choice to play Dr. Fuji, to say the least.

There was no storyline purpose for the doctor to be a Japanese man in the movie and the only Japanese that Dr. Fuji spoke was when he said “sayonara”.

#4. How shitty was that motel?

After retrieving Dr. Fuji, John’s next errand to run for Tony was to pick up a bag of money from Tony’s step mother at a seedy motel.

I have stayed at some cheap motels in my day, but they all look like The Ritz compared to the shit box motel this whole exchange goes down in. The carpets were absolutely filthy. All the rooms had the closet doors ripped out, but the closet rods intact. There was furniture jammed into the cubbies that were originally designed to be a closet. There was also a painting of a skeleton on a motorcycle and an indistinguishable picture hanging in one of the rooms.

Looking at these disgusting motel rooms on my television screen made my skin crawl and made me want to take a scalding hot shower or possibly soak in a bathtub filled with Purell.

#5. Who takes a bath in the middle of a home invasion?

One time I would not soak in a bathtub filled with Purell would be in the middle of a home invasion. While I certainly support bathing/showering on a daily basis… if you find yourself the victim of a home invasion, personal hygiene falls on the list of priorities. But not if you are John Morgan’s wife… who not only decides to take a bath, but also does so after John is laid up in bed after an altercation with Tony and his crew… so there’s nobody there who can stop one of these convicted criminals from sneaking into the bathroom and having their way with her.

And that is exactly what happens when a horny Lynch creeps into the bathroom and the movie goes into cringiest of cringeworthy scenes… I was happy when Mrs. Morgan would get her revenge on Lynch later in the film, but this was a tough scene to watch and it seemingly went on forever.

Bonus Question: Who had the best sales pitch at the cat house?

I would be remiss if I did not mention that the legendary Jim Brown was in Killing American Style. Brown played Lt. Sunset, the cop hunting down Tony Stone and his goons. At one point, the hunt leads Lt. Sunset to a cathouse owned by Tony’s step mom. The moment Sunset steps foot in the establishment the employees all try to entice him to partake in their services. But which of these professional ladies and their beverages of choice had the best sales pitch?

• “Hi, I’ve got champagne. Everything inside of me bubbles.”
• “Hi, I have soft drinks. Everything about me is soft.”
• “Hi, I’ve got the hard stuff. Because I love it hard”