Bullet Points: Out on Bail
Some action stars have a charisma that radiates off the screen. Some action stars are physical marvels that make them appear larger than life. Some action stars possess amazing athletic abilities…. and then there is Robert Ginty.
My latest Robert Ginty experience came in the form of 1989’s Out on Bail…
- Riding the Rails: The movie begins with John Dee (Robert Ginty, The Exterminator) rolling into town like a hobo on a train. John immediately has trouble with a railroad official, although trouble is probably overstating it, since John deals with the official swiftly then moves on. John then attempts to thumb a ride and the only ones to stop are the local sheriff, Sheriff Taggert and one of his deputies. John matches the description of a man who assaulted a railroad official (go figure), so they bring him in. At the police station, John is asked why he drifted into their little Tennessee town, John says he is looking for work. Taggert tells John there are no jobs to be had and that unemployment is at 20%… he then gives John some money to get himself something to eat and be on his way. But to make sure we all know he’s not a benevolent man, he decides to keep John’s pocket watch despite the sentimental value that it has for John.
- Dine and Death: John orders a coffee and some hot chili… perhaps a sign that things are about to heat up. Two guys come in the diner looking for trouble and causing even more when they start shooting up the place. John manages to avoid death (and save his waitress’ life to boot). John then manages to take out the gunman and when the gunman’s accomplice takes off, John gives chase commandeering a motorcycle! And when the chase comes to an end, John gets a bag filled with money off the guy he was chasing and soon finds out that this dude and his trigger happy friend were in cahoots with Sheriff Taggert!!
- No Vacancy: After his busy day, John Dee is looking for a place to lay his weary head and he looks no further than the local hotel, run by widow, Sally Anne Lewis (Kathy Shower, The Further Adventures of Tennessee Buck). When he gets to the hotel, there are two guys checking in and harassing Sally Anne at the front desk. Unfortunately for John, the harassers were getting the last two rooms available… that is until John steps in and comes to the aid of Sally Anne convincing the two guys that they should probably stay somewhere else for the evening. An appreciative Sally and her young mute son, Jimmy, then show John to his room. Later, John decides to pop in at the town’s “entertainment center” which features strippers and gambling and booze. And we all know what happens when action heroes go into a bar… John gets into a bar fight and ends up arrested. This makes sense because you can’t be out on bail until after you’ve been arrested.
- Deal or No Deal: Now being arrested is never a good thing… being arrested in a corrupt town is even worse, especially when your public defender, Otis T. Smiley (Sydney Lassick, Body Slam) is in cahoots with Sheriff Taggert… a Sheriff that really wants to know where the bag of money is. After being tortured and drugged by the police department, John Dee signs a confession… BUT, Smiley comes to John with a deal. If he agrees to do something for the Sheriff, they will let him jump bail… and all he has to do is kill Stephen Wilkes! Wilkes is a mayoral candidate who is looking to clean up the town, which is bad news for Taggert and the incumbent mayor. John Dee takes the deal, heads back to his hotel room, where he has some “quality time” with Sally Anne. Then John Dee does something that caught me off guard as he does what he has agreed to do for Taggert, he shoots Wilkes during a televised debate! But all is not as it appeared and what really happens catches the corrupt officials of this little Tennessee town by surprise and that leads to a cemetery shootout between John Dee and Sheriff Taggert!
As I noted in my intro, Robert Ginty certainly was not the most charismatic or physically impressive action star, but he sure could play the hell out of an “everyman” character. That’s probably why Out on Bail worked so well. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about John Dee, we really don’t know anything about his past… but what we do know as the movie progresses is he has a good moral compass and would stand up for himself and others when he had to, something the crooked bastards running the town found out the hard way.
If you are looking for an easy way out of this review, check out these Bonus Bullet Points…
- AKA: Out on Bail was released as Run Tiger Run in Germany and as Exterminator IV in Spain. I could not help but wonder what Robert Ginty movie Spain released as Exterminator III and the answer was Ginty’s other 1989 movie, The Bounty Hunter.
- Familiar Face: Len Sparrowhawk (American Ninja 2 and Going Bananas) played Mayor Oscar Farley. The minute I found out that Sparrowhawk was in Out on Bail, I knew it had to be filmed in South Africa.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Kathy Shower join Robert Ginty in the shower, then Out on Bail is the movie for you. If you ever wanted to see Robert Ginty join Kathy Shower in the ginty, you are shit out of luck.
