Impulse (1974)

I'm an aficionado of bad movies, and a big William Shatner fan, so how was I unaware of this gem? It's magnificently horrible. Shatner plays a sleezy, polyester-clad, cigarillo-smoking gigolo who is also a murderer. It's the role he was born to play.He cranks cranks his Shatner-ness way up past 11, and his overacting is ridiculous even by his venerable standards. On the other hand, it appears that the makers tried to make him look good by surrounding him with actors even worse than he is - particularly the child actor.This is definitely a must for your Bad Movie Night library.

William Shatner may have perhaps gained his fame and popularity thanks to the "Star Trek" franchise and the approximately two trillion TV shows he appeared in, but seriously how many people know that this charismatic and widely respected actor starred in a handful of ultimately bizarre, cheesy and eccentric low-budget horror/cult movies?? Shatner appeared in the gritty hospital slasher "Visiting Hours", fought large uncanny spiders in "Kingdom of the Spiders", spoke the dead language of Esperanto in "Incubus" and got sucked into a Satan-worshiping clan in "The Devil's Rain". But the film that is arguably his most bonkers accomplishment is this over-the-top clichéd attempt at psycho thriller. The film itself is already quite ludicrous, what with its mundane plot and silly dialogs, but William Shatner single-handedly upgrades "Impulse" to the highest possible level of sheer bad-movie entertainment with his extreme overacting, flamboyant wardrobe and outrageous psychotic outbursts. Shatner depicts Matthew Stone, a clumsy swindler yet professional and natural born ladies' man who roams around Florida to pick up belly dancers, hotel receptionists and lonely widows with obnoxious pre-teenage kids. During the laughably melodramatic black-and- white prologue, we witness how the young Matthew Stone killed his mother's lover with a sword because he was acting violent. The event clearly had a gigantic mental impact on Matt, because now even as an adult he sucks on his pinkie and mumbles stuff about his mommy whenever he's stressed or becoming aggressive. The trauma nevertheless didn't prevent him from growing up as a fraud who lures poor women into handing over their savings for vague but so-called profitable investments. Troubles arise when the daughter of his new gullible victim, who already strongly opposes against the relationship, witnesses Matthew commit a murder. The grotesque highlights featuring in "Impulse" are almost too numerous to list: Shatner freaking out against a fat lady with balloons at a theme park, the extended murder sequence where Shatner fruitlessly tries to hang his former partner in crime (played by the legendary Bond villain Odd Job!) and subsequently chases him through a whole car wash or Shatner jumping around like a clown when threatening his next murder victim. The person responsible for choosing the protagonist's outfits (I sure hope it wasn't William Shatner's private wardrobe) should be sentenced to jail. The music is definitely exhilarating and the main love interest, Jennifer Bishop, is a stunningly gorgeous lady. I can't help enjoying all of William Grefe's film that I've seen so far… "Sting of Death", "Mako: Jaws of Death", "Stanley" and now "Impulse". They're bad, trashy and unbelievably cheap, but also fun from start to finish!

IMPULSE is the story about a psychotic sociopath that seduces women and then kills them for their money. The film begins with a flashback where you learn how this evil pattern was developed and the film ends with, thank goodness, his demise.William Grefe directed this terrible film. The fact that the film is bad isn't surprising considering that Grefe has directed such masterpieces as DEATH CURSE OF TARTU, STING OF DEATH and WILD REBELS. The trademark of Grefe's directing is cheap--cheap sets, cheap filming, cheap acting and cheap EVERYTHING!! While not as prolific as such terrible film directors as Hershell Gordon Lewis, Al Adamson, Ed Wood, Larry Buchanan and Ray Dennis Steckler, Grefe is their equal! Now this did not mean that IMPULSE had to be a truly horrible film. Grefe might have gotten lucky and produced a mediocre film had it not been for two "actors" that conspired to make this film truly dreadful as well as a script written by lemurs. The first bad actor is the obnoxious little actress that played the obnoxious little girl (Kim Nicholas). Her character is truly hateful and her acting, if you can call it that, is strictly wretched. A better director and writing might have been able to salvage this, but Grefe was not up to the task. While bad, her acting at least is understandable--after all, she was young and not a professional (in fact, Grefe rarely used professional actors due to costs). However, much more egregious is the job done by William Shatner--who manages to do an even worse job acting than the girl! You'd think having his many prior credits would have helped him to hone his craft, however, it was a serious liability having him in the film in any form--let alone in the lead! I assume the bulk of the problem was that Shatner was the professional and had more experience in the industry than all the others put together. Because of this, I am pretty sure Grefe was helpless in suggesting to Shatner how he should be acting--an important job for any director, but one that is impossible in this instance. Shatner just did what Shatner can do best if allowed--overact shamelessly.So how bad is Shatner? Jaw-droppingly bad--that's how!! During parts of the film, he's just fine. However, whenever he is supposed to show any emotion, he mugs so horribly and acts like he's being eaten by internal parasites--writhing and bugging his eyes like he's in severe pain!! The worst scenes are with Shatner and the girl as it almost looks like they are having a contest to see who can over-emote the worst! It was also pretty funny seeing Shatner sucking on his pinkie like Dr. Evil as well as wearing a very effeminate striped muscle shirt on one scene. It's all so bad that you can't help but laugh--especially because he is the great William Shatner! I would venture to say that this might just be the worst performance by an established actor that I have ever seen--and I have seen more films that probably 99% of the IMDb readers. It's even so bad that it manages to be worse that his overacting in the final episode of the original STAR TREK series, "Turnabout Intruder", where Shatner plays a woman with severe PMS! As for the rest of the cast, they did okay. Ruth Roman (a real honest to goodness professional) came off okay as a horny and nosy lady. Harold Sakata, oddly, appeared in the film--though he seemed really out of place. This actor was the same guy who played 'Odd Job' in GOLDFINGER and he was a strange choice to play Shatner's old cell mate from prison. It was also interesting that they seemed to imply that they were possibly lovers in prison and Sakata was the dominant "man" in this relationship. It's just too weird seeing this 300 pound Japanese-Hawaiian man as Shatner's bunk-mate! The only one who did a good job was Jennifer Bishop. Not only does she deserve kudos for her decent acting but also for managing to keep a straight face when Shatner and Nicholas were acting like idiots.Overall, it's a horrible film that bad film lovers like me will love. Show it to your friends and have a big laugh. Just don't show it to STAR TREK zombies who can't laugh at Shatner or admit that he's not the greatest actor to have ever graced the screen--they just won't get it.

If there can be such a thing as overhyping the badness (read unintentional hilarity) quotient of a film, then the reviews I've come across of this one on the Internet are guilty of doing just that; it's not that I didn't find William Shatner's inflating hairline, outrageous clothes sense and, especially, his uncontrolled facial expressions comical…but I wasn't exactly laughing out loud either – let alone rolling about on the floor stamping my fist in hysterics! I'm not saying I was really expecting that kind of a response but, at any rate, I was let down by the film even in this department so that little remains for me but to bemoan the loss of 90 minutes from my life and try to forget this viewing ever happened! Sure, Shatner is hardly the ne plus ultra in psychopathically menacing and irresistibly handsome characters: seeing him threaten an obese woman for no reason at a park (while dressed in an unflatteringly sleeveless shirt), break out in tears after committing his first murder (as an adult), decked out in a completely white get-up with an over-sized fedora hat to match, slip his little finger into his mouth every time he recalls his childhood trauma (shown in black-and-white during the prologue) and boyishly jump up and down (as if his bladder's about to burst) in anticipation of being shown the safe is, admittedly, a source of amusement…but that hardly excuses the dullness of the rest of the picture.The chase in a car wash between Shatner and ex-partner Harold "Oddjob" Sakata (here playing Karate Pete!) was a nice try but even that sequence is clumsily executed and needlessly protracted. The worst part of it is that the three female leads – Ruth Roman, Jennifer Bishop and Kim Nicholas – claim a good share of the film's running time when they are merely boring caricatures; unfortunately, the director even contrives to waste the opportunity of the only two promising female encounters Shatner has in the movie – the sultry belly-dancer at the start and the flirtatious hotel receptionist!