cult film freak: BURT REYNOLDS IN 'IMPASSE' WITH ANNE FRANCIS & MIKO MAYAMA

Burt Reynolds in IMPASSE Year: 1969 Rating: ****

In Burt Reynolds' first starring role, OPERATION CIA, he ran and leapt throughout Saigon, Vietnam and a few years later, in another low budget exploitation flick only in the Philippines, he does pretty much the same thing... at least the best parts providing tons of action including his own stunts...

That's after a rather clunky yet still somewhat intriguingly offbeat set-up of Burt gathering a band of renegade army veteran misfits of all races and ages: from old tough white guy Lyle Bettger to equally tough old Indian Rodolfo Acosta to Burt's former OPERATION co-star Vic Diaz... and of course a pretty ingenue's always needed...

Burt Reynolds in IMPASSE

So Anne Francis is introduced as the daughter of one of Burt's connections... she's a tennis pro with a bizarre groupie in hippie girl Joanne Hahn, and yet, during the third-act cavernous treasure heist, there aren't any dames at all...

Except for Burt's real life Asian girlfriend Miko Mayama, with a few quick scenes up front and at the end... and who's so rugged and pretty, Anne Francis wouldn't have been needed beyond name-recognition in a heist-import that works better in the planning stages...

Burt Reynolds in IMPASSE with Miko Mayama

Which includes running down local weasel Jeff Corey, whose henchman in stuntman Eddie Nicart gives Burt's scoundrel-scavenger more dire urgency than his eclectic ensemble, that never really connects as a whole...

And although sometimes too strange for an action flick and too violent for mainstream, IMPASSE provided Reynolds a more clearly defined pulpy adventure than Sam Fuller's SHARK since there's a genuine beginning, middle and end here as Burt, with his clean-shaven Brando-looks and plenty of gusto, needed more fun in the middle.