Stars:
Tom Berenger,
Billy Dee Williams,
Melanie Griffith,
Rossano Brazzi,
Jack Scalia,
Rae Dawn Chong,
Joe Santos
Director:
Abel Ferrara
Summary: An ex-boxer and a detective team up to prevent a psychopathic killer from butchering all the strippers in Manhattan.
This seedy saga of pre-Disney Times Square stars Tom Berenger as Matt Rossi, an ex-boxer and stripper talent agent who finds his life closing in around him when a psychopathic martial artist starts stabbing and slashing his girls on their way home from nightclubs. His former girlfriend and star dancer, Loretta (Melanie Griffith), goes back on heroin after her girlfriend Leila (Rae Dawn Chong) is slashed up in a brutal subway attack. As fear grips the city, Rossi begins a one-man vendetta to catch the maniac, contending with a possible mob war, an Italian-hating black cop (Billy Dee Williams), and his remorse over killing an opponent in the ring some years before. Director Abel Ferrara packs this neon-drenched morality tale with lots of nudity and some pretty nasty violence. Viewers in the mood for a melange of karate fights, boxing, stripping, mobsters, and drugs will want to run and grab this sturdy little sleaze classic. Michael V. Gazzo (Frankie Pentangeli from THE GODFATHER II) appears as a strip club owner, and David Johansen of the New York Dolls sings the theme song.