I wrote this, my first work for magazines, after seeing the martial arts film FIRECRACKER in May, 1981. Produced by Roger Corman, through his New World Studios, FIRECRACKER is an amalgam of feminism and the martial arts wherein a Karate instructor named Suzanne Carter (portrayed by Jillian Kesner) travels to the Philippines to look for her missing sister, Bonnie. Now, Bonnie is a freelance writer who was researching death bouts in Manila when she disappeared. Suzanne eventually learns that Bonnie is dead and confronts her killer, but not before she, herself, is stalked and nearly raped and murdered by two thugs whiom she kills in retaliation.
During its showing in the theater, FIRECRACKER was the focus of conversation at the university where I was studying for my MA in Communication. As we agreed it deserved it's "R" rating, most thought it was pure exploitation while I would refer to an actual murder/rape I covered while a reporter in Birmingham, Alabama.
(While my editor "spiked" my story for "the violence," and acknowledging FIRECRACKER was fiction, after my research on that rape/murder case, I felt gratified to see an instance where a woman in a similar situation could turn the tables on her attackers.)
Summer rolled around and everybody forgot FIRECRACKER to follow their own pursuits. Then, as I was scanning a magazine rack in a drug store for a magazine that might accept some of my freelance work, I found a publication I had never seen before.
Martial Arts Movies!
Seeing that title brought my discussions about FIRECRACKER back to mind so I wrote the editor, asking if she would be interested in an article on that film. She replied sayiing she couldn't justify coverage of one film but asked "is there enough use of martial arts in Corman's films" to justify such a piece?
I had learned that New World Studios had imported a Chinese and Japanese film each in that genre (SEVEN BLOWS OF THE DRAGON, 1972, and SHOGUN ASSASSIN, 1980, respectively) when the publisher of Martial Arts Movies decided to change the title and format to Action Films Magazine.
Fortunately, in my research on Roger Corman, I had learned that, aside from his reknowned adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe, among other achievements throoughout his career, he had produced and directed an ongoing number of films with female protagonists who totally control, or only temporarily relinquish control of, events to their male counterparts.
My article "Roger Corman's Tough Women Films" appeared in the premiere issue of Action Films Magazine, November, 1982.
As I republish this work through Kindle, I would like to make three corrections: a) in my memory of FIRECRACKER, my relating of a seduction involving Suzanne and the man she eventually learns is her sister's killer did not quite follow the sequence I drew, b) in their death match, Suzanne gives a better showing than I describe, but he still has the upper hand for most of their fight, c) aside from THE OKLAHOMA WOMAN, Corman had a female protagonist in another Western in the same year, 1956, called GUNSLINGER.
In the early 1970's an actress named Cheri Caffaro starred in a series of films featuring Ginger, a "female James Bond" whose R-rated exploits, while more extreme than those of the British Secret Agent, show a woman in control of her enviornment.
In 1977, New World distributed her film TOO HOT TO HANDLE, in which she portrays Samantha Fox, a female assassin who stalks a Manila syndicate.
(Ms. Caffaro graciously consented to a background interview for my article. I believe mine is one of the few magazine pieces to incorporate an interview with her)
After the publication of my article, I learned that FIRECRACKER was a remake of a Corman "Blaxploitation" effort from 1974 titled TNT JACKSON (starring Playboy Playmate Jeanne Bell).
Today, the home video company Shout! Factory has released FIRECRACKER, TNT JACKSON and TOO HOT TOO HANDLE in a DVD package (along with other Corman works).
During its showing in the theater, FIRECRACKER was the focus of conversation at the university where I was studying for my MA in Communication. As we agreed it deserved it's "R" rating, most thought it was pure exploitation while I would refer to an actual murder/rape I covered while a reporter in Birmingham, Alabama.
(While my editor "spiked" my story for "the violence," and acknowledging FIRECRACKER was fiction, after my research on that rape/murder case, I felt gratified to see an instance where a woman in a similar situation could turn the tables on her attackers.)
Summer rolled around and everybody forgot FIRECRACKER to follow their own pursuits. Then, as I was scanning a magazine rack in a drug store for a magazine that might accept some of my freelance work, I found a publication I had never seen before.
Martial Arts Movies!
Seeing that title brought my discussions about FIRECRACKER back to mind so I wrote the editor, asking if she would be interested in an article on that film. She replied sayiing she couldn't justify coverage of one film but asked "is there enough use of martial arts in Corman's films" to justify such a piece?
I had learned that New World Studios had imported a Chinese and Japanese film each in that genre (SEVEN BLOWS OF THE DRAGON, 1972, and SHOGUN ASSASSIN, 1980, respectively) when the publisher of Martial Arts Movies decided to change the title and format to Action Films Magazine.
Fortunately, in my research on Roger Corman, I had learned that, aside from his reknowned adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe, among other achievements throoughout his career, he had produced and directed an ongoing number of films with female protagonists who totally control, or only temporarily relinquish control of, events to their male counterparts.
My article "Roger Corman's Tough Women Films" appeared in the premiere issue of Action Films Magazine, November, 1982.
As I republish this work through Kindle, I would like to make three corrections: a) in my memory of FIRECRACKER, my relating of a seduction involving Suzanne and the man she eventually learns is her sister's killer did not quite follow the sequence I drew, b) in their death match, Suzanne gives a better showing than I describe, but he still has the upper hand for most of their fight, c) aside from THE OKLAHOMA WOMAN, Corman had a female protagonist in another Western in the same year, 1956, called GUNSLINGER.
In the early 1970's an actress named Cheri Caffaro starred in a series of films featuring Ginger, a "female James Bond" whose R-rated exploits, while more extreme than those of the British Secret Agent, show a woman in control of her enviornment.
In 1977, New World distributed her film TOO HOT TO HANDLE, in which she portrays Samantha Fox, a female assassin who stalks a Manila syndicate.
(Ms. Caffaro graciously consented to a background interview for my article. I believe mine is one of the few magazine pieces to incorporate an interview with her)
After the publication of my article, I learned that FIRECRACKER was a remake of a Corman "Blaxploitation" effort from 1974 titled TNT JACKSON (starring Playboy Playmate Jeanne Bell).
Today, the home video company Shout! Factory has released FIRECRACKER, TNT JACKSON and TOO HOT TOO HANDLE in a DVD package (along with other Corman works).
