The Rejected 7

[shaolinkng7]

In Chris Poggiali's article on WNEW's Saturday afternoon Drive-in Movie, he mentions that seven films from the second Black Belt Theater package never aired on the channel. Considering how many times some films were repeated, and how Drive-in Movie was expanded to a four hour block in 1983, the only conclusion is that these films were rejected by the programmers at WNEW or MetroMedia. Drive-in Movie premiered on MetroMedia in May of 1980. The original concept was to feature grindhous films, rotating between biker films, Hammer horror, teen comedies and martial arts films. World Northal had just syndicated their first Black Belt Theater package when MetroMedia was planning Drive-in Movie. At first Drive-in Movie stuck with rotating film genres, airing no more than one martial arts film a month. But it soon became apparent that the martial arts films were attracting more viewers, and they began airing twice a month, then three times a month.

In 1983 rival station WPIX acquired their own package of martial arts films which aired as Fist of Fury Theater. A mix bag of films that included garbage like True Game of Death and minor classics like Cantonen Iron Kung Fu. WPIX aired their films at 1pm on Saturdays on a weekly basis, specifically targeting the viewers of WNEW by giving them something to watch in the two hours before Drive-in Movie began. And on the weeks that Drive-in Movie was not airing martial arts films, WPIX hoped to retain the martial arts fans so they would watch WPIX's 3pm movie block instead. WNEW immediately countered by expanding Drive-in Movie to 4 hours, beginning at 1pm with a weekly martial arts film, and at 3pm more martial arts films on a weekly basis. For many months the idea of rotating other genres into Drive-in Movie was out. They were now exclusively airing martial arts films. The counter strategy worked. Black Belt Theater had better films, including exclusive access to the Shaw Brothers library. WPIX had some good films, but had little idea as to which were good and which were crap. The first film they aired was True Game of Death which credited Bruce Lee as the star, but only had archival newsreel footage of Bruce Lee edited in. This was followed by a series of other films with Bruce Lee in the title and Bruce Li in the cast. It would be weeks before they got to their first John Liu film, and by then viewers had made up their mind that Fist of Fury Theater was only offering substandard crap. WNEW constantly beat WPIX in the ratings, and by the end of the year Fist of Fury Theater was no longer on the schedule. Soon after Drive-in Movie reverted back to it's original 2 hour 3pm block.

Drive-in Movie was now exclusively films from Black Belt Theater, and on a rare occasion taking a break to air the odd horror film. They were also contractually obligated to air the SFM Holiday Network in that slot a few times a year. In 1984 MetroMedia acquired the broadcast rights to many Golden Harvest films, including nearly the entire adult films of Bruce Lee. ( but excluding Enter the Dragon which was owned by Warner Brothers and eventually syndicated to WPIX in the late 80s ). At first these films were kept separate from Black Belt Theater. The Bruce Lee films were all aired during prime time on week nights. WNEW saw this as a major event. But eventually movies from this package ended up on Drive-in Movie, beginning with a couple of Jackie Chan films and eventually the Bruce Lee films shown every week until they ran through all of them. For whatever reason, MetroMedia only had the Golden Harvest films for a year before the broadcast rights expired. They chose to concentrate on the Bruce Lee films, airing only Winners and Sinners and Young Master from Jackie Chan. Other films are rumored to have been part of the Golden Harvest package, including Wheels on Meals, Project A, Dragonlord, Dreadnaught, Magnificent Butcher, Warriors Two, Prodigal Son, Dual to the Death and one of the versions of Zu. Supposedly MetroMedia never got around to airing these because they had such a short window on the Golden Harvest films that they wanted to air the Bruce Lee films as much as possible. But so far this is just rumors, and it is more likely Golden Harvest only sold MetroMedia their Bruce Lee films, tossing in the two Jackie Chan movies to make an even 8. The short window for airing the movies suggests this was more of a one year network deal rather than a syndicated film package.

Drive-in Movie continued to acquire Black Belt Theater packages. In 1986 they also aquiered a package of Cinema Shares films that appear to be separate from the Black Belt Theater packages ( They continued to air late nights well into the late 90s, long after the rights to the Black Belt Theater packages expired. ) This was proof that WNEW wanted to rotate as many martial arts films into their Drive-in Movie slot as possible. So why did they refuse to air seven of the films from the Black Belt Theater 2 package? The first package had a modest 13 films, something Drive-in Movie ran through after a year, and other stations airing the films on a weekly basis ran through in three months. The second package offered twice as many, 26 films. There was such a demand that World Northal even went outside of their own catalog, acquiring the broadcast rights from other distributors. By 1983 WNEW was airing two martial arts movies on a weekly basis. In order to keep things fresh they would need as many new films rotated into the schedule, especially with WPIX airing their own movies. And yet, WNEW chose not to air seven movies. Why?

Was it a matter of quality? I am not sure that the programmers at WNEW knew the difference between Shaw Brothers and the other studios. Or even between a Shaw Brother pot boiler and one of their major productions. And if quality was the issue, then why did Kung Fu Conspiracy ( 1974 ), the one Black Belt Theater film that somehow bored the crap out of me each time it was on, air so many times? It could not possibly been a censorship issue. All the movies in the Black Belt Theater catalog went through the same censor, Larry Bensky. What was it about these seven films that made someone say "Not on my channel!"?

18 Fatal Strikes ( 1978 )

After the success of Snake in the Eagle's Shadow ( 1978 ), Hong Kong studios began rushing out their own Kung Fu comedies. 18 Fatal Strikes has to have been the first to go into production, released the same year. It has almost the same plot as Eagle's Shadow, but this time with a fugitive Shaolin abbot being hunted by the villainous Eagle's Claw Clan. This dates the film back to the end of the mid 70s Shaolin Temple cycle of martial arts films. First Films even managed to snag Dean Shek from the Eagle's Shadow cast, and here he gives one of his best performances, given the rare chance to play the hero in a comedy instead of the uptight teacher. The film may be slow going, but kicks in to a solid revenge thriller with decent fights in it's final third. Since Jade Claw ( 1979 ) which did air on Drive-in Theater was the same identical sub-genre of martial arts comedy, I can not see why this film was rejected.

The Incredible Kung Fu master ( 1979 ) ( a.k.a. They Call Me Fat Dragon )

And yet another Kung Fu comedy from First Films that was rejected from airing on Drive-in Movie. It had a decent enough plot, and featured Sammo Hung taking the place of Simon Yuen as the unorthodox martial arts teacher.

International Assassin ( 1976 ) ( a.k.a. A Queen's Ransom )

And why would this film be rejected? The one thing WNEW loved was when well known actors starred in one of the Black Belt Theater films. Believe it or not, David Chaing, Fu Sheng, the Venoms and the rest of the Shaw Brothers actors were still unknown the first few years of Black Belt Theater. So when they got a movie with the likes of Chuck Norris ( Slaughter in San Fransisco, 1974 ) they aired promos for it weeks in advance as if it was a huge event. They promoted George Lazenby in Stoner ( 1974 ) about a month an a half in advance of airing, reminding us every week that a Kung Fu film starring one of the James Bonds was going to air soon. So why reject a major Golden Harvest film with George Lazenby, Angela Mao and Jimmy Wang Yu? In fact, this is the only Jimmy Wang Yu film that was turned down by Black Belt Theater. They even aired A Man Called Tiger ( 1973 ), a movie with so much nudity and violence that Larry Bensky needed to edit it down to 70 minutes. It was Black Belt Theaters only 90 minute film, which meant that Drive-in Theater needed to fill 30 minutes after it ended. And, predictably, the edited version was much worse than the original.

Manhunt ( 1978 )

Another rejected movie from First Films. In fact, of all the rejected films, two were from Golden Harvest, the rest were all from First Films. You would think that WNEW had something against the studio First Films, except that I doubt they even knew he difference between the Hong Kong studios. And they did air two movies from First Films, one being The Tattoo Connection ( 1978 ) which aired four times. That put it among the films that got the most airplay. This is one of the films I have not yet seen, but the plot seems simple enough. Another one of those films where the bad guys try to obtain a list of all the rebel leaders.

Master Avenger ( 1980 ) ( a.k.a. Master Killers )

And another rejected First Film. This time though, perhaps MetroMedia had a good reason not to air this. While I myself have never seen this film, just about every review calls it the worst of the Eagle's Shadow clones. But they also say that the ending has one of the best fights ever filmed. The question is, was anyone at MetroMedia previewing these movies and deciding which ones were too awful to air? The problem is that WNEW had a history of airing really bad movies, and in fact had aired some really bad BBT films such as Kung Fu Conspiracy many times.

Revenge of the Patriots ( 1976 ) ( a.k.a. The Ming Patriots )

This is one of the better movies offered by First Films. It had an easy to follow plot. A group of rebels smuggle a princess and the last will of the final Ming emperor through Manchu controlled territory, while being pursued by a Quing prince and his army. It had fights choreographed by the great Lau Kar Leung, and seemed to have a budget close to the average Shaw Brothers film. And it starred Bruce Li!!! This is the most confusing thing about Drive-in Theater rejecting this movie. For those who do not remember, Bruce Li was the king of syndicated martial arts movies in the early 80s. Every company that syndicated martial arts films made sure they had a handful of Bruce Li films in their packages. Black Belt Theater offered about four of them. Fist of Fury Theater aired three of his films, and Cinema Shares another four Bruce Li films. And it was not just his Bruceploitation films that got airplay. He went by his real name Ho Chung Tao for The Three Avengers ( 1979 ), but was still credited as Bruce Li for the television broadcast of the movie. He was treated as if he was one of China's biggest movie stars, simply because he had a name that was ever so marginally recognizable. But that is what television stations wanted. Actors that had some name recognition. Which is why it is a mystery why Drive-in Movie would skip airing a film starring Bruce Li.

The Shaolin Plot ( 1977 )

Another film I have not yet seen, has a cast that includes Sammo Hung, Casanova Wong and Chan Sing, and was produced by Golden Harvest. How bad could it have been?

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

Well you can watch Shaolin Plot on Youtube-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvkRTxIz2xw

There are several different uploads. I recall it was pretty good. I friend of mine did not like those "ming ching" movies, and I kind of wonder if that was an issue? Could they have preferred bashers and Bruce Lee/Clones to Ching dynasty movies? Looks like almost all were shapes movies, as well.

[shaolinkng7]

A friend of mine did not like those "ming ching" movies, and I kind of wonder if that was an issue? Could they have preferred bashers and Bruce Lee/Clones to Ching dynasty movies?

WNEW did not seem to have any preference on any of the eras. They aired all of the Shaw Brothers films in their BBT packages, many which had shaolin students and monks avenging the burning of the temple. That would include Five Masters of Death, Death Chambers, Fists of the White Lotus, Men From the Monistary and even lesser films like Shaolin Abbott. Films dated prior to the burning of Shaolin like the Master Killer series also aired. They also aired films from other eras, like the Boxer Rebellion and another featuring Marco Polo. There were three films featuring Wong Fei Hung, which was around the late 1800's, and films like Boxer From Shantung and Duel of the Iron Fists which were roughly the early 1900s.

The Shaolin Temple was a very popular subject, thanks to the Kung Fu television series with David Carradine. I would think any film with Bruce Lee or Shaolin in the title would have aired just for the subject recognition.