Riding with Death (1976)
Agent Sam Casey is in a satellite explosion and the radiation turns him invisible. He gets a watch that keeps him visible, and he uses it to switch from visible to invisible. He is assigned to transport a chemical called Tripolydine, which is purported to be the most efficient fuel; when the cover is blown on that and he uncovers and stops the Tripolydine fraud, he must then stop a terrorist from blowing up race cars.
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Please, oh please, somebody help me...every time i watch this amazingly amusing and cheesy bit of dreck on MST3K, I can't help myself. I know I shouldn't bother, I know that the plot makes no sense and that everybody involved was probably on drugs...but every time i still find myself obsessing over that second half of the...err....movie! The first part is bad, granted; but at least the whole Triplodene(or however you spell that) does make a certain amount of sense. But when they string that second episode together with it, that part always leaves me scratching my head. WHY does the Baxter Electronics guy want to blow up his own race car? Does the oh-so-elusive Mr. Denby specialize in sabotage-for-hire? They never made that clear, or what Mr. Baxter was getting out of it. A big paycheck from foreign countries, perhaps, if he used the deuterium to sabotage our military craft? It makes me tremble when I think about how little that MST3K cut out - and that the ten minutes or so probably doesn't explain anything any better. Also, why would mechanics need to sneak the deuterium into the car in East Berlin when Mr. Baxter could have hired some unsavory mechanics to do it, since it was his car. Was this whole thing supposed to be a demonstration to representatives of foreign powers? Again, they never made that clear. That second part just gets me every time, because by golly no matter how many times i watch it I'm baffled. What is it all about?! And why must I obsess about it rather than just letting it go as two bad episodes of a terrible seventies t.v. series made into an awful film? I just don't get it!
Way back in the evil, post-hallucinogenic '70s, the TV execs were trying to figure out a way to make the kids tune in and turn on to NBC, and came up with the series "Gemini Man", a series about a secret agent who can turn invisible with the help of his special watch. The kids didn't find it groovy, man, so it went to Nowhere-Ville.What does that have to do with "Riding with Death"? Everything, man! As a gasp of air before going under, the producers decided to not only take a couple of the show episodes and sew them together to make a movie, but did so with different characters in main parts, a five year gap between plots and Jim Stafford. Remember Jim - "I Don't Like Spiders and Snakes"... or cheesy TV movies.And Ben Murphy... WHY stick with television after "Alias Smith and Jones"? Surely there are other movie projects to be made.... Wait, he starred in "Time Walker". Never mind, Ben.As far as the '70s go, not every movie of that decade ages well, and fewer TV shows do, either. Therefore, a TV show that they try to make episodes into a movie with is double trouble. So, instead of "Riding with Death", watch "Then Came Bronson" instead. Michael Parks - Ben Murphy, what's the difference, anyway?Two stars - in fond memory of the '70s, not of this flick.
Someone at Universal thought it would be a good idea to make a show about a guy who can turn himself invisible. But, they made him a government agent, and made him mellow. Dr. Heywood Floyd, transported from the year 2001, assigns the ever cool and mellow Sam Casey to transport Murray from the MTM Show, from point A to point B. Oh there's also something about an unstable liquid. Anyway, Captain Stubing intends to doublecross our mellow hero and take off with ten million dollars. Then there's some scenes with Jim Stafford singing and driving a truck, Sam turning invisible and then finally a truck blowing up. Then we go into the fast paced world of raceing! There's the elusive Robert Denby and why he's elusive, we never find out. Dr. Floyd is harassed by his dentist and a woman named Cupcake plots and schemes. Sam and Buffalo Bill, as Stafford is known in this mishmash, throw some punches, drive some cars and thwart the machinations of the ever elusvie Robert Denby. Oh, and Abby is quite a gal. She's such a gal that she can view things in her lab and project her thoughts over space and time. Based on a story by H.G. Wells, and I think he's suing.
Two episodes of atrocious 70s TV show stapled together to make a film. Secret agent has ability to become invisible due to exposure radiation or something. Has a "Southern" character only slightly less annoying than The Dukes of Hazzard. If you see a copy of it somewhere in a used bin, buy it then burn the video.