Bullet Points: The Glove
With a career that spanned six decades, John Saxon was in every type of movie or TV show imaginable. The two movies that immediately come to my mind when I think of Saxon prove that point… the martial arts classic Enter the Dragon and my personal favorite Freddy movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.
One John Saxon movie I had no knowledge of prior to Matt Spector giving me the heads up that it was streaming on Tubi was 1979’s The Glove.. a movie I immediately added to my watchlist based solely on the poster!
- Not So Rosey: It does not take long for “the glove” to come into play in The Glove or for the audience to find out that Victor Hale (Rosey Grier, The Thing with Two Heads) has something against prison guards. We see Hale suit up in his riot gear, including the all-important riot glove. Rosey Grier is already intimidating as hell naturally, but you put him in riot gear and he becomes a human wrecking machine. This is something one poor prison guard is about to find out. The guard just got off duty and is about to hook up with a married woman in his car, when Hale rains on the guards parade, pulling the guard from the car beating the crap out of him and dismantling the guard’s car too, all while the cheating woman screams bloody murder.
- Formerly Known As: Sam Kellog (John Saxon, Enter the Dragon) is a former minor league short stop, a former cop and a former husband. The one highlight in his life is his daughter Lisa, but his ex-wife is threatening to take Lisa away from Sam since he is so behind on his alimony payments. Sam works as a bounty hunter, but he never gets asked to hook the big fish… instead he finds himself doing penny ante work like going after check bouncers and elderly bookkeepers who were caught skimming money off their boss… with the threat of losing his time with his daughter, Sam convinces his boss Bill Schwartz, played by Keenan Wynn who will always be Harry from The Mechanic to me, to let him go after a dangerous one… Sam ends up having to shoot the guy to bring him in, but he does bring him in and now Sam is ready for more…
- There’s Always a Bigger Fish: Sam ends up getting a tip from his cop buddy, Lt. Krueger, about a case that involves an off the record $20,000 reward! But Krueger then informs him that the man he’ll be hunting is Victor Hale, wanted for using a riot glove to beat the crap out of prison guards! And the hunt is soon on. Sam’s first stop is to visit Victor’s grandmother… it is there he sees what is left of Victor’s sister, who was violently abused by a pimp… a pimp that Victor got even with and that act of vigilante justice is what landed Victor in prison. And while in prison that is where the guards abused Victor with a riot glove… so now we know why Victor hates prison guards.
- Mr. Telephone Man: When Victor gets word from his grandmother that a bounty hunter was looking for him, Victor calls Sam Kellog and tells him to layoff. Victor says he has one more thing to do (kill another prison guard in a bathroom) and then he is skipping town and none of it concerns Sam. But Sam doesn’t see it that way, while he can understand why Victor is doing what he is doing, Sam is in this for the money and to make sure he doesn’t lose his daughter. When Sam (or hound dog as Victor refers to him) doesn’t relent, Victor meets with him face to face and challenges him to throw down his gun and fight like a man. To even the odds a bit, Victor allows Sam to wear THE GLOVE! Will the glove be enough to bring the big man down? Or will Victor destroy the smaller Sam? Or will something completely unexpected happen?
If different equals good in your book, you will probably love The Glove. It was unlike any other movie I have experienced and squashed most of the preconceived notions I had from looking at the poster and reading the synopsis.
Saxon and Grier both carried their share of the load and were both grounded and reality based characters. Aside from attacking prison guards, Victor Hale is a super nice guy and Sam Kellog is a loveable loser so it was definitely not the super bounty hunter vs. crazed killer movie I was expecting going in. Still worth a watch if you are a fan of 70s cinema and/or the stars John Saxon and Rosey Grier.
If you were expecting to read some Bonus Bullet Points going into this review, you will get what you expected…
- Familiar Faces: Michael Pataki plays fellow bounty hunter Harry Iverson, Iverson wants in on the Victor Hale action and wants it so bad he agrees to a 70/30 split in Sam’s favor. I’ll always remember Pataki from his work in Rocky IV and Remo Williams… Jack Carter (Arena and The Octagon) plays businessman Walter Stratton. Walter hires Sam to catch his thieving bookkeeper and invites same to play poker so he can hustle back the money he just paid Sam to do the job and then some with some help from his driver, Sheila (played by Joanna Cassidy) …but that doesn’t stop Sam from wanting to be romantically involved with Sheila.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see John Saxon beat the crap out of Nicholas Worth and then throw him in a swimming pool, then The Glove is the movie for you. Side note… I want to see ANYONE beat the crap out of Nicholas Worth (or run him over with a car), who is easily one of the most dislikable actors I have ever watched on screen.
- Directed By: The Glove was directed by Ross Hagen. I was familiar with some of Hagen’s acting work in movies like Commando Squad, Action U.S.A. and Blood Games, but had no idea he also dabbled in directing, starting with The Glove.
- Missed Opportunity: The Glove starts off with a theme song sung by Ernie Andrews and it sounds like the love child of a Blaxploitation theme and a James Bond theme. As good as Ernie Andrews was, I couldn’t help but think it would have sounded so much better if Mr. Lou Rawls performed it.
