cult film freak: ROBERT BLAKE 'RIPPED-OFF' AS 'THE BOXER' IN 'COUNTER PUNCH'

Written by James M. Tate / 1/01/2020 / No comments / action , boxing , catherine spaak , crime , ernest borgnine , import , italian import , neo noir , robert blake , seventies , sport

ROBERT BLAKE 'RIPPED-OFF' AS 'THE BOXER' IN 'COUNTER PUNCH'

1/01/2020 | No comment

Robert Blake in Ripped-Off YEAR: 1972 Released: 1975

In RIPPED-OFF, originally titled THE BOXER and also going by COUNTER PUNCH, MURDER IN THE RING, CHAMP CHEROKEE and TOUGH GUY, Robert Blake is a drifting Vietnam Vet boxer named Cherokee...

After a come-back and then being set-up to lose an important match, is accused of slaying his manager and, in the usual Noir fashion, is desperate to find the real killer.

Most of the movie feels pasted together with dubbed dialogue and a myriad of awkward, often hilarious close-up/inserts, one in particular involving a brawling Blake blinded by a spiked rag: making his eyes blink like a frantic cartoon character. Also includes an evil hippie, a stone-faced love-interest Catherine Spaak, an overly obvious surprise villain, wah-wah peddle music (with sporadic symbols sounding like the bridge of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love) and Ernest Borgnine's sporadic "guest appearance" scenes as a growling cop out to nab our troubled bruiser... whose performance is more BARETTA than IN COLD BLOOD... makes this corny, campy, obscure import a thoroughly addictive guilty pleasure.

Robert Blake as Cherokee in the Italian Import by many names including RIPPED-OFF

Ernest Borgnine plays the law imported to Italy to lend merit to THE BOXER

Catherine Spaak in RIPPED-OFF aka THE BOXER

Robert Blake channeling Harpo Marx as he gets blinded for a fixed fight in RIPPED-OFF

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Tags : action , boxing , catherine spaak , crime , ernest borgnine , import , italian import , neo noir , robert blake , seventies , sport

James M. Tate

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