sol1218
**SPOILERS** Overlong and extremely violent vigilante movie that despite it's shoe-string budget holds your interests until it gets carried away with itself in trying to reform the major character in it Reverend James Lowery, played by Earl Owensby, from a Charles Bronson-like avenger to a Mahatma Gundhi-like pacifist at the cost of Reverend Lowery's life.Running, out of his church, a rehabilitation center for homeless and drug-addicted youths Reverend Lowery gets the local drug pushers mad at him by taking away their costumers. Lowery goes out on the mean streets and shows the drug addicts a way out of their addictions by turning to and believing in God and the good that's in themselves. Setting Lowery up for elimination the mob gets him and his wife and kids alone at a picnic by the river and blast them all away with only Lowery and his son Jody surviving. Recovering from four gun-shots with his voice gone, due to a bullet shattering his voice-box, Lowery is so despondent that he slips into a drunken stupor not even wanting to see his crippled son Jody at the hospital.Getting to know at the local watering hole that he spends, drinking away his troubles, almost all his free or non-sleeping time Lowery gets friendly with a hooker, with a heart of gold, who calls herself Julie. Lowery ends up staying at Julie's place for days on end without as much as even thinking of having sex with her even though Julie is very accommodating to him, she doesn't know that he was happily married with two children and a man of God to boot. For some strange reason Julie thinks that Lowey is either a cop or soldier who due to his gunshot wounds is unable to preform in bed.Lowery gets a new lease on life when he spots this local drug pusher the Candyman and follows him into the town bus terminal. Getting the Candyman alone in the mens room Lowery clobbers him with his cane and then stuffs his head, together with his drugs, down the toilet bowel drowning him. After dispatching the Candyman Lowery begins a one man war against the drug pushers who were responsible for the death of his wife and other son Eric, as well as destroying his life, until he just about cleaned up the entire city.With the new found friendship of the town religious blind man Lowery also found peace and quite at the blind mans place so that the hoods looking for him would find it twice as hard, with him spending half his time at Julie's pad, to locate and kill him. The movie "Dark Sunday" get a bit strange with Lowery who at first could barely walk, having four slugs in him, is later able to outrun the cops and hoods, who most of the cops in town are In the pay of, even when they were chasing him in cars! Lowery finally gets to the top man of local mobs drug operations Hurbert Dexter, who ordered the hit on him and his family, as he was planning to leave town. With his entire organization taken out by the crippled Lowery Dexter together with a suitcase full of dirty money is caught flat footed and by surprise by Lowery in his office. Lowery after debating with himself how to finish Dexter off, with a drug overdose of just a bullet to the head, empties out his gun out on the hoodlum; a gun looking more like a 155mm howitzer that would make even Dirty Harry envious.Instead of ending right there, with the blowing away of drug and mob kingpin Dexter,the movie goes on for some ten more minutes with Lowery having what seems to be a change of heart. Were forced to suffer through this ridicules transformation where Lowery not only turns himself in but serves himself up to be killed by crooked cop Let. Untz the only survivor of Dexters drug cartel. In front of his son Jody and Julie and the the towns police chief, one of the few cop not on the take, Lowery allows himself to be blown away by the corrupt Let. Untz as some kind of penance on Lowery's part.Trying to figure out the ending it then dawned on me that Lowery actually had nothing on Untz even though he had dozens of chances to kill him, like he did a score of other hoodlums, throughout the movie. Lowery used Untz's bottomless and utter stupidity by getting the jerk to shoot and kills him in front of more then a dozen witnesses including fellow cops! in order to get enough evidence on Untz to put him away for life.
Sorsimus
Delightfully gritty revenge- drama from director/editor Jimmy Huston and star/ producer Earl Owensby.Owensby plays a skid row reverend who helps young junkies to a better life. This is not to the liking of the local drug dealer (who looks like Buffalo Bill in old photos)who sends his goons after the good minister.What's good in this one is the general atmosphere, which is close to the European (Italian) crime films of the mid seventies; everyone's corrupt or at least corruptible, the police probably more than anyone else. Nice street scenes, decent acting and lots of bloody shootings earn this one a recommendation.In addition, the scene in which the mute Owensby meets with the blind preacher must be a tribute to the scene in James Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein where the monster meets the blind hermit.Released on video in Finland in the early eighties.
