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HARDBOILED HEROES
Directed by Rock SavageHarry Gross - Rock Savage
Mod Mutilator - Himself
Rex Jones - Eric Koger
Commissioner Spillane - Conrad Brooks
All female roles - L.W. WoodsThe world of Rock Savage and the Savage Film Group is one straight from the pulp racks. Created from dime store novels, tough guys and dames spout 1960's slang while facing the everyday perils of groovy crime, drugs, monsters, and aliens. This is what you would get if Mickey Spillane gave birth to Robert Heinlein's love child. And in Rock's world of psychedelic noir, Spillane and Heinlein hooking up isn't that farfetched.
HARDBOILED HEROES is a showcase of shorts, each involving a character from Rock's tight-knit circle of filmmaking pals who have spent years honing their onscreen personas. The setting is Retro City, where you have to be hard talking ,hard drinking, and hard smoking to survive. The only people meaner than the baddies are the good guys.
The first story is a vehicle for Rock himself titled "My Gun is Groovy". Rock stars as hardass paranormal investigator Harry Gross, a character he's played in numerous films. One day, Harry wakes up to find himself lying next to a corpse with a bullet wound on his forehead. Through keen intellect and a little LSD (laced with Ginsing and Ginko Biloba to improve recall), Harry has to find the killer before he strikes again.
Next up is "The Invisible Empire", a short focusing on Harry's Partner, Rex Jones. Basically an action piece, Rex has to deal with ATF thugs hell-bent on killing the head of the NRA. Yep, not only are the Savage Film Group conspiracy theorists, they're card carrying Republicans. God bless the patriots!
My favorite of the series is "Beast of Retro City", staring the Mod Mutilator (a.k.a. Double M). Double M is some sort of Santo-Dusty Rhodes masked wrestling hybrid that has a problem with ninjas, werewolves, and pencil neck geeks. Of course the only way for a masked wrestler to deal with ninjas and werewolves is in the ring.
"Vengeance for a Dead Alien" finds Harry Gross hired by the brother-in-law of one of the Roswell aliens to track down a missing item taken by the government from the crash site. This segment is the longest and ultimately weakest of the shorts. It doesn't have the camp value found in the other shorts and drags a bit too long.
These short films are about as good as it gets with Rock Savage. A bit primitive in execution, all shorts are shot Super 8 with non-sync sound, a point Rock prides himself on. The stark black and white photography lends to the noir feel, but the style is 100% camp taking away from the grittiness. Sometimes Rock finds the perfect balance, "Beast of Retro City", and sometimes not, "Vengeance for a Dead Alien," but either way the man gives the audience a pretty groovy trip back to the dime store days.