This sword-filled thriller centers on the title location--an inn where the down and dirty meet to plot nefarious doings. Award winning actor Ku Feng stars as the "Whip Devil," while the luminous and lethal Shih Szu plays "The Lady Hermit" who has a surprise in store for all the double-crossing masters of mayhem.
17 Jun The Black Tavern (1972)
Zombies
This is I think my first Shaw Brothers film. I think the formula is simple stories, easy stereotypes, and lots of (for then) clever fighting.
The scene here is a remote inn, which we see in four setups. There’s a really fake looking model for long shots, an area outside the door for only two camera locations showing coming and going, an inner courtyard, and the two-story great room of the tavern.
The story is simply that a senior government official is supposed to show up with a chest of treasure, and we go through many gangs who basically fight each other to be the ones to steal it. There’s a good guy who pretends to be a bad guy after pretending to be a good guy, a central bad guy with a whip, and a parade of gangs.
The original tavern proprietors butcher their guests to make sausages, but that’s only a very incidental detail, as these guys are quickly dispatched.
There’s a little talk, but that is all about the fights. What’s clear is that the performers include some accomplished acrobats. I cannot say how accurate are the martial arts — I suspect it is all made up.
The annoying bit is how the camera is managed. I expect in its day, the handheld was an innovation that compared to other films of the era gave energy. But today, the camerawork is comic, alternating between a few wide shot camera locations in the building and courtyard, and a few closer in positions where the fighters are magically where we can see them.
Nobody’s motives are more complex than theft and death.
What I found fascinating was the five ghosts, a gang that is one that is eliminated early on. Their disguise has a simple guy leading four zombies — a trope from other films — hopping in formation and parked outside with heads against the wall. The zombies are faking of course.
Think how sweet this concept is. A disguise from another Hong Kong Genre.
A second interesting thing: early on, we discover that the baddie bad guy who pretended to be the rich lord has a trunk that instead of riches contains poisoned bomb balls.
Shortly after we are shown these several hundred, they are stolen by someone. And then, except for one silly ineffective instance, we never see them again. What this tells me is that they made this up as they went and decided that they had enough back and forth with swords, staffs and whips to not have to use the bomb effects.
Posted in 2025
Ted’s Evaluation — 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
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