An appropriately blunt and ugly final film for Hollywood B-movie legend Phil Karlson, who had a surprise blockbuster hit on his hands nearing the end of his career with White Lightning or Death Wish at the drive-in. Joe Don this time starring as a far less heroic figure, an ambitious nightclub owner/card-shuffling gambler with a sadist streak within him that is brought to the surface when he’s in the wrong place at the wrong time, witnesses some high level drug-dealing corruption that goes from the sheriff’s office, to the DA’s, to the mayor’s (and onward!), ends up in prison as a cop killer, and proceeds to stew in and be hardened by his rage and desire to inflict vicious eye-for-an-eye savagery on all those involved.

Among his more memorable exploits: an animalistic concrete garage brawl (featuring shin-breaking and eye-gouging), various violent prison hijinx like using a broken mop as a spear in a shower fight with a guard, turning around and kicking a dude who shanks him in the back while collecting baseball gambling bets and then talking to a cockroach while in solitary (“The whole world’s never been able to wipe you out… What’s your secret? Indifference? Or do you hate back just enough to balance the scales?”), even more variety of torture, ear-maiming and dog-mauling as he climbs further up the conspiracy ranks, and a hit-gone-wrong sequence that results in one of the most dangerous-looking stunts involving a train smashing into an exploding car (and stuntman) that was as insane as d. All of this cruel and crude violence dished out with the casual attitude of a handshake business transaction and a sly southern grin, one that perfectly suits Baker’s meaty screen presence and mugging, and Karlson’s career-long dedication to depicting violence as a reality of life we shouldn’t flinch or look away from. Highly recommend reading any interview with him where he brings up one of the many insane fights he'd gotten into during his life.

Full discussion on ep 384 of my podcast SLEAZOIDS.