Gather ‘round, youngsters, and I’ll tell you the story of Dangerous Men, a revenge thriller that took 26 years to make and about 26 minutes to disappear off the face of the earth. Reportedly shot, on and off, for several years beginning in 1979, it got a very brief and comically low-grossing theatrical run in 2005, and would’ve likely lingered in the memories of only the few lucky souls who caught in then—were it not for the fine folks over at Drafthouse Films, who saw in it the same magic as notorious releases like Miami Connection, Roar, and The Visitor, and are thus giving it the full DF re-release treatment this month. And they’ve blessed us with an exclusive clip.
On the face of it, there’s not much going on here—merely the chief of police getting a warning call about one of his men going off the grid. But it’s not just the boilerplate dialogue (“Who can blame him? He’s a cop”) or the lack of directorial oversight (the voice on the other end of the line stumbles over his lines, no need to fix that!) that makes this clip so endearingly incompetent; it’s the fact that the chief’s script is clearly sitting right in front of him, through the entire scene. No need to pull that outta the shot, eh?
Dangerous Men is out November 13 in limited release.