Jump to content

The order of Bruce Lee films you saw


BillyLo

Recommended Posts

  • Member
45 minutes ago, shukocarl1441996347 said:

For anyone interested, these are the (Bruce Lee) double bills I personally saw in the good old cinema showings:

The Big Boss/Demons of the Mind

The Big Boss/Something about Greek Resistance Fighters in WW2

The Big Boss/One Armed Boxer

The Big Boss/Game of Death

Fist of Fury/Tower of Evil

Fist of Fury/Via Singapore

Fist of Fury/Hapkido

Fist of Fury/The Amsterdam Kill

Fist of Fury/Way of the Dragon

Way of the Dragon/Back Alley Princess

Way of the Dragon/Electra-Glide in Blue

Way of the Dragon/Fist of Fury

Enter the Dragon/Cleopatra Jones

Enter the Dragon/King Boxer

Enter the Dragon/Freebie and the Bean

Enter The Dragon/Schizo

Enter the Dragon/Death Race 2000

Game of Death/ Some Documentary about Earth Wind and Fire

Game of Death/The Big Boss

(1974 to 1980)

 

"Something about Greek Resistance Fighters in WW2"- Escape to Athena maybe? Also its weird how Enter the Dragon was never paired with another Bruce Lee movie in the double bills you saw😂

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
Chu Liu Hsiang

ENTER THE DRAGON

THE BIG BOSS

FIST OF FURY

WAY OF THE DRAGON

GAME OF DEATH

I had  seen about 300 Shaw movies before I really ventured into non Shaw movies (apart from 90s wuxia), so I watched Bruce Lee's movie rather late. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
shukocarl1441996347
49 minutes ago, Josh Baker said:

"Something about Greek Resistance Fighters in WW2"- Escape to Athena maybe? Also its weird how Enter the Dragon was never paired with another Bruce Lee movie in the double bills you saw😂

No it wasn't Escape to Athena. It was some dubbed War movie. Can't remember the name but god can I hum the tune from it as it popped up every 5 mins!

Yeah, I found it strange that Enter was never paired with another Lee film. There were other double bills out there where it was paired with Black Belt Jones, The Dragon Lives (bloody awful film) and Magnum Force.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
2 hours ago, Josh Baker said:

"Something about Greek Resistance Fighters in WW2"- Escape to Athena maybe? Also its weird how Enter the Dragon was never paired with another Bruce Lee movie in the double bills you saw😂

Guns of Navarone, maybe ? Or its sequel ?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
shukocarl1441996347
3 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

Guns of Navarone, maybe ? Or its sequel ?

No not Guns (great film), I don't know what country produced it but it was foreign with a no-name cast, I can remember the tune but nothing else. I wasn't really watching it to be honest, just hoping the bloody thing would be over asap!

If anyone out there has any clue?...

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
shukocarl1441996347
20 hours ago, Josh Baker said:

"Something about Greek Resistance Fighters in WW2"- Escape to Athena maybe? Also its weird how Enter the Dragon was never paired with another Bruce Lee movie in the double bills you saw😂

Had a think about the pairing of Enter with the other Lee films and came up with this conclusion: Up to 1977 Cathay films UK handled the distribution of Boss, Fist & Way and they were still making lots of money for them and none of those three were billed with each other at all. They probably didn't want to split the takings with Columbia-Warner who handled Enter. When EMI took over from Cathay they probably decided to double bill (they had Game as well at this point) the films to squeeze the last bit of money out of theatrical showings. Of course home video was just a short time away and thus the end of the theatrical runs.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
7 hours ago, shukocarl1441996347 said:

Had a think about the pairing of Enter with the other Lee films and came up with this conclusion: Up to 1977 Cathay films UK handled the distribution of Boss, Fist & Way and they were still making lots of money for them and none of those three were billed with each other at all. They probably didn't want to split the takings with Columbia-Warner who handled Enter. When EMI took over from Cathay they probably decided to double bill (they had Game as well at this point) the films to squeeze the last bit of money out of theatrical showings. Of course home video was just a short time away and thus the end of the theatrical runs.

That makes total sense. I remember coming across a radio advert on youtube for a UK double bill of Way of the Dragon/Fist of Fury, and in the description it said it was from 1980, so that lines up with what you said 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Enter The Dragon was once the second billed movie on a cinema double feature with Bruce Li in The Dragon Lives being the main attraction :smile

  • Like 3
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
On 1/12/2021 at 1:24 AM, Josh Baker said:

That's a disgrace lol- what parts were missing?

Plus arent cinemas supposed to do a test run of their prints before they show them?

Huge chunks were missing at random places thruout it , you didnt even see Bond kill Drax , it was cut shortly before he kills him lol (and no , not due to censorship)

Speaking of january '74 : Enter was shown in Germany , Way was shown in Italy (also Tiffany Thiessen born that month , met her in '18)

Big Boss shown in Spain/Germany , around easter '73

BB in France , 17.5.73

BB in Italy - june '73

FoF in Germany - june '73 (just 4 weeks before Lee died......the leaflet is dated "august 1973" so it prolly went to print just when Lee died) :(

FoF in France , 2.8.73 (just 2 weeks after Lee died)

Edited by Coliseum1972
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
6 hours ago, Coliseum1972 said:

Huge chunks were missing at random places thruout it , you didnt even see Bond kill Drax , it was cut shortly before he kills him lol (and no , not due to censorship)

Speaking of january '74 : Enter was shown in Germany , Way was shown in Italy (also Tiffany Thiessen born that month , met her in '18)

Big Boss shown in Spain/Germany , around easter '73

BB in France , 17.5.73

BB in Italy - june '73

FoF in Germany - june '73 (just 4 weeks before Lee died......the leaflet is dated "august 1973" so it prolly went to print just when Lee died) :(

FoF in France , 2.8.73 (just 2 weeks after Lee died)

What a pocket of time to be alive... see Bruce's first two films in the cinema where somewhere in the world (Hong Kong) Bruce was actually still alive and breathing, and then see his second film again just two weeks after he died...how weird I cant really comprehend it as someone born long after his death.

Did Bruce have as much of a legendary status in June '73 as he did after he died?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

Enter the Dragon (in cinema)

Way of the Dragon (in cinema)

Fist of Fury (Betamax)

Big Boss (Betamax)

Game of Death (VHS)

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
Cognoscente

Enter the Dragon (a BBC 2 airing)

Game of Death (Polygram VHS release)

Fist of Fury (ditto)

The Way of the Dragon (ditto)

The Big Boss (ditto)

The Polygram videos were released in 1997. This was during a time when I didn't have access to the internet or magazines, so I had no expectations of what the movies would be like. I didn't even know that there was supposed to be a nunchaku in four of the movies. I thought he was holding a club in the cropped still at the back of the GOD video.

Because Bruce Lee: The Legend was listed at the back of each video as just The Legend ("collect all six Bruce Lee titles"), I thought that it was going to be a movie. Watching Game of Death for the first time was fun because the closing credit montage made me wonder which scene came from what movie. It was fun trying to guess what the plots were.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
DragonClaws
On 4/29/2021 at 9:28 AM, Cognoscente said:

The Polygram videos were released in 1997. This was during a time when I didn't have access to the internet or magazines, so I had no expectations of what the movies would be like. I didn't even know that there was supposed to be a nunchaku in four of the movies. I thought he was holding a club in the cropped still at the back of the GOD video.

Because Bruce Lee: The Legend was listed at the back of each video as just The Legend ("collect all six Bruce Lee titles"), I thought that it was going to be a movie. Watching Game of Death for the first time was fun because the closing credit montage made me wonder which scene came from what movie. It was fun trying to guess what the plots were.

 

I used to think the same, having no Bruce Lee knowledge when first viewing/purchasing his films on VHS. The heavily censored Polygram tapes had this printed on the back of their covers 'Stills used for illustrative purposes only, and may not depict actual scenes featured in the film'.

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
Cognoscente

It's kind of like that disclaimer that they use for toy adverts when we see toys on prop-heavy sets.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member
On 5/25/2020 at 3:36 AM, BillyLo said:

When it comes to the more controversial decisions made, such as altering the story, I am more forgiving than some because I understand that the film had a very troubled production and very few people were interested in assisting Chow in his efforts to release a "complete" Game of Death. Many people forget or perhaps didn't realise that Bruce's co-star, Chieh Yuan had also passed away in 1977. James Tien refused to reprise his role and even if he had, it would have been even more difficult since they would need not only a double for Bruce but also Chieh Yuan, which would have made the film even more confusing.

The strange thing is that the April 1975 issue of Golden Movie News gave the impression that James Tien was getting prepared to complete the movie.

april 75 gmn.jpg

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Member

God, I feel really old:

The Big Boss (Original Rank white cover release) 1983

Fist of Fury (Original Rank white cover release - UNCUT) 1983

Enter the Dragon (ITV broadcast - UNCUT) December 1984

Way of the Dragon (Original Rank white cover release) 1985

Game of Death (Second Rank Cover release) 1986

If you want a laugh, these were all on Betamax. I really struggled to get Game of Death but I got there eventually. I've since tracked down all the old Rank releases and have them in good condition. I also have a great pre-cert copy of Enter the Dragon.

I'll add in the following:

Game of Death 2 (Original big box Rank release) 1987

Bruce Lee The Legend (Original big box Rank release) 1987

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use

Please Sign In or Sign Up