MVD Entertainment Group has tabbed Mar. 17 as the
DVD debut date for actor/filmmaker Tom Stern’s 1971 action gem, Clay
Pigeon.
We can only speculate as to why it took so long for
this film to finally reach the DVD marketplace (rights, etc.), but to fully
understand how the film got made in the first place, you have to go back to
1969 and Hells Angels ’69,
which was written by and starred Tom Stern.
After appearing in both The
Devil’s Brigade and Angels
from Hell the previous year (1968), he then
wrote the script for Hells Angels ’69 and
teamed up with Jeremy Slate (Stern and Slate had worked together in The
Devil’s Brigade), who had, in turn, established
himself with Tom Laughlin’s The Born Losers in
1967 and Mini-Skirt Mob in
1968 as an “outlaw” type (it didn‘t hurt that he had worked with John Wayne in
both The Sons of Katie Elder and True Grit) and
together they delivered a drive-in gem.
Tom Stern took the money — and fame — from the biker
flick and parlayed it into a production and distribution deal (with MGM) for Clay
Pigeon. He
produced, starred-in and took over the direction at some point.
Stern plays Joe Ryan, a Vietnam War vet who returns
home (a hero) and drops-out. Long-hair,
hippy, Hollywood, he could easily fit in with the street people of Quentin
Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.
Busted for some minor shenanigans, Joe is approached
by Federal Bureau of Narcotics (predecessor to the current-day DEA) agent Frank
Redford (Telly Savalas) to go undercover in an effort to bust drug lord Henry
Neilson, aka: Tallin (Robert Vaughn).
When Joe refuses, Redford sets him up by putting out information that
he, Joe Ryan, is actually the mysterious Tallin.
Joe goes on the run, Tallin and his crew go after
him … as do the cops who don’t know that it’s all a double-cross set-up. Meanwhile, the shifty Redford just sits back
and waits for things to play out.
Brutal.
First time on DVD, Clay
Pigeon from MVD Entertainment Group on Mar. 17 has
to be on your must-see list.
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