The Revenger

My review was written in July 1990 after watching the film on AIP video cassette.

Frank Zagarino makes a sympathetic and muscular film noir hero in "The Revenger", a direct-to-video feature originally titled "Saxman".

He plays a jazz artist whose ax is the alto sax. In helping a ne'er-do-well old friend he gets involved with some thugs led by Oliver Reed who are making snuff films. Zagarino recruits his old war buddy Jeff Weston to fight against Reed.

Film climaxes in okay martial arts fights and a corrupt cop subplot. Tacked-on finale is too cheerful to be true.

Reed's hamminess and male chauvinist routine is both convincing and entertaining, while Zagarino continues to impress as the B-movie's anser to Jean-Claude Van Damme. Pic suffers from some weak dubbing of the supporting cast and other telltale signs that it was shot in helmer Cedric Sundstrom's native South Africa rather than its purported southern California setting.