AN IRONIC SORT OF END

Enter The Ninja (1981) is actually a decent enough movie, especially when you consider the appalling quality of the majority of films of this type. Franco Nero is a slightly leftfield but ultimately rather good choice as the Western Ninja Warrior, but the addition of Christopher George as the main villain is a masterstroke. 

George's Charles Venarius is a multi-millionaire playboy who lives in a penthouse with a harem of beautiful, adoring women he is training to be a synchronised swimming team. Venarius is flamboyant, camp, spoiled, petulant, ruthless and totally incredulous that his numerous minions can't seem to do anything right, including dispose of one lousy Ninja. 

When Venarius finally meets his end, at the sharp points of Franco Nero's throwing star, he meets it wryly, simultaneously amused and amazed that anything as vulgar and ordinary as death could touch someone as wonderful as he believes himself to be. 

INESCAPABLE OBSESSION

I don't want to get into the weeds on this one, but I now only watch American TV Movies from the 1970s, and there's nothing you or anybody else can do about it. 

There are hundreds of these damn things, and all human life is here. Genre themes dominate, particularly horror, espionage, sci fi (in contemporary settings) and natural disasters, lots of them, from fire to floods to avalanches, earthquakes, swarms of killer bees and Bigfoot. They usually run for about 70 minutes and are only now available in faded recordings that are spread across a number of platforms. Very few of them are loved and cared for; only a small proportion achieve genuine greatness or, in some cases, even quite good-ness. However, as we've already established, that's all I watch now, so I'm forced to just make the best of it.

If I were to try and evidence some of the attraction, let me draw your attention to Escape, a Movie Of The Week originally broadcast by the ABC network on April 6th, 1971. It's about an escape artist / private detective / bon viveur / all round good guy called Cameron Steele who battles a badly scarred mad scientist who has developed a virus that will turn humanity into slaves. The Bond-like supervillain operates out of an amusement park, and his secret lair is under the ghost train. The climax of the movie takes place on the roller coaster. It's fantastic, and if you don't want to see it based on that brief description I wash my hands of you.

Star Christopher George is in lots of TV movies (and some entertaining b-pictures). He's believably tough without being macho, charming without being slick, and he keeps on top of things nicely. I'm rather fond of him and his steady presence, and the fact that he didn't speak English until he was 6 (he was born in the USA to  Greek immigrant parents) makes him even more likeable. 

More TV Movies soon. I've told you twice already, that's all I watch now.