Director Fred Olin Ray started out with a winner which moved along momentously for the first half of the film with Sid Haig (Iggy), underling to William Smith (Morgan Denny), being his creepy scene stealing self. Smith's early scenes were terrific as the evil turncoat Denny but he bogged down noticeably in the second half of the Film when I guess he realized it wasn't going well. Ross Hagen (Cowboy) another of Denny's thugs was a pain in the back constantly yelling let's go and come on come on to the rest of Denny's soldiers. Finally, Brian Thompson (L.A. Det. Clint Jensen) who was captured by Iggy while trying to break up a drug ring in Mexico spend most of the movie being tortured or escaping and being recaptured while his performance was OK at best. Playboy Bunny Kathy Shower (L.A. Detective Cat Withers) who was dispatched to Mexico by the great Robert Quarry ( Head L.A. Det. Milo) to rescue Jensen is under the circumstances quite good. Now the unfortunate circumstances, for reasons only Director Ray would know, have Shower beautiful blond hair covered with a black wig that looked like a reject from a Joan Jett video. To add injury to insult she might as well have worn a lab jacket through the whole picture as Ray didn't apparently see the need to accentuate her lovely Playboy Bunny body, or show it unclothed for that matter, come on Fred. The other terrible decision by Ray was to cast his then wife Dawn Wildsmith as hot tempered bar maid (Consuela). Dawn, to say the least never underacts a scene, is however a couple of shades lighter then Elke Sommer which just didn't work as Consuela. A big shout out to Mel Welles for a excellent performance as the bumbling just want to get the heck out of here (Quintano).
There are two versions of the film out there one is over 1hr 40min with the BETTER one checking in at 1hr 29 min. With all that said the film is definitely worth a watch with a fine first half and the last 15 minutes of bang bang and explosions.
Review of Commando Squad
