cult film freak: CONNIE STEVENS & WILLIAM SMITH CONNECTING FOR 'SCORCHY'

Connie Stevens in SCORCHY Year: 1976 Rating: ****

The cult exploitation SCORCHY is actually a b-movie revamp of THE FRENCH CONNECTION about undercover cops hiding in plain sight while both outwardly and secretly trailing a rich, handsome, sophisticated gangster planning a massive heroin deal from overseas, backed by a deadly henchman...

The latter played by ever-menacing William Smith, part of a central chase scene against our female Gene Hackman in Connie Stevens, initially watching from a taxi as he escapes by tram-car above until he nabs a dirt-bike, providing Connie's SCORCHY a reason to steal a dune buggy with keys conveniently inside... and what a chase it is, going from city streets to upper and lower construction site outskirts... even more entertaining than its Oscar-winning muse...

Connie Stevens in SCORCHY

And what makes Connie stand out from other badass 1970's hero-chicks is she's an unapologetic slut... and for a cute blonde from the previous, less sleazy decade she's a bit awkward acting-wise but looks the part just fine... having (or having had) affairs with not only a young Greg Evigan but the same suave criminal she's shadowing — under the guise of working as his plane-flying smuggler, and...

Well it gets somewhat confusing, and scenes with Stevens and expository crime boss Cesare Danova become repetitive —one conversation ends leading to another the following day...

William Smith in SCORCHY

But it's William Smith as the killer, who not only steals the show but provides enough tension and suspense to what's an otherwise breezy exploitation since he really means business, and, from BLACK SAMPSON before to RICH MAN, POOR MAN after, he's always completely focused being viciously uncompromising...

On a technical side, the only negative to a positively wonderful Shout Factory Blu Ray is the god-awful MIAMI VICE style synthesizer soundtrack, added during the 1980's video-boom and still intrusively anachronistic for 1976 — imagine Gene Hackman waving to Fernando "Frog One" Rey to a Devo track, and there you have it... in spades.