Good Guys Wear Black

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Good Guys Wear Black

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Ted Post
Produced by Allan F. Bodoh
Mitchell Cannold
Michael Leone
Screenplay by Bruce Cohn
Mark Medoff
Story by Joseph Fraley
Starring Chuck Norris
Anne Archer
Soon-Tek Oh
Dana Andrews
James Franciscus
Lloyd Haynes
Jim Backus
Music by Craig Safan
Cinematography Robert Steadman
Editing by Millie Moore
William Moore
Studio Action One Film Partners, LTD
Mar Vista Productions
Western Film Productions
Distributed by United States American Cinema Releasing
Canada Danton Films
Finland Kinosto
Release date(s) United StatesJune 21, 1978 (1978-06-21)
CaliforniaMarch 21, 1979 (1979-03-21)
DenmarkSeptember 19, 1980 (1980-09-19)
FinlandAugust 7, 1981 (1981-08-07)
Portugal September 24, 1981
Norway October 28, 1983
Turkey February 28, 1984
Running time 96 minutes approx.
Country  United States
Language English
Budget $1,000,000
Box office $18,300,000 (United States)[1]

Good Guys Wear Black is a 1978 action film starring Chuck Norris.[2] This was the third film to feature Norris as the star.[3]

Contents

[edit] Brief Plot

Chuck Norris plays John T. Booker, a former Vietnam Green Beret and a member of a group known as the Black Tigers. He is drawn into a web when members of the group start getting killed. Booker quits his school-teaching job, and then sets out to warn surviving members around the country. The killer turns out to be a former Black Tiger team member, Major Mhin Van Thieu (Soon-Tek Oh) who was silencing the surviving members of the group before their agent, a politician named Conrad Morgan (James Franciscus), gets appointed to office. Too late to save the last victim in Denver, Booker kills the assassin at the airport with a spectacular flying side kick through the windshield as the car bears down on him. He goes on to Washington, D.C., and tries to stop the politician by taking the place of his driver. Just as he finishes telling the politician, "It's not that you deserve to die, but you don't deserve to live," Booker is now struck in the head with a wine preserver from behind while driving. The limousine plunges into the Port of Baltimore now killing Morgan, but Booker emerges as the only survivor now swimming to shore.

[edit] Plot

Back in 1973, one United States Senator Conrad Morgan (James Franciscus), the chief delegate diplomat in negotiating the terms of the end of Vietnam war, made a deal in Paris, France with Kuong Yen, the North Vietnamese negotiator. The deal called for Yen to release certain key CIA POWs in exchange for Morgan setting-up a death-trap for an elite group of CIA assassins, known as the Black Tigers. The treaty signed, the Black Tigers were sent into the jungles of ‘Nam to their unknowing demise, under guise that they were on mission to liberate American POWs. However, the truly important thing to understand is that the negotiators failed to realize one thing: the commando’s team leader was one Major John T. Booker (Chuck Norris). So, needless to say and despite all odds, Booker survives. As do the four men wise enough to have remained in his general vicinity.

Five years after returning from Vietnam, Booker, now living in Los Angeles, California, donning a post-war moustache, and is now working as a political science professor at UCLA. Booker lectures to a bunch of kids on the failures of America’s part in the Vietnam war and jokes about singing patriotic songs the following week to atone. Booker is suddenly thrown back into his past when the election of Morgan to Secretary of State spurs Yen to blackmail his ex-negotiations buddy into making good on his un-finished deal: The extermination of the Black Tigers.

[edit] Cast

Actor Role
Chuck Norris Mjr. John T. Booker (The Black Tigers)
Anne Archer Margaret
James Franciscus Conrad Morgan
Lloyd Haynes Murray Saunders
Dana Andrews Edgar Harolds
Jim Backus Albert (The Apartment Doorman)
Lawrence P. Casey Mike Potter (The Black Tigers)
Anthony Mannino Gordie Jones (The Black Tigers)
Soon-Tek Oh Mjr. Mhin Van Thieu (The Black Tigers)
Joe Bennett Lou Goldberg (The Black Tigers)
Jerry Douglas Joe Walker (The Black Tigers)
Stack Pierce Holly Washington (The Black Tigers)
Michael Payne Mitch (The Black Tigers)
David Starwalt Steagle (The Black Tigers)
Aaron Norris Al (The Black Tigers)
Don Pike Hank (The Black Tigers)
Benjamin J. Perry Finney (The Black Tigers)
Kathy McCullen Kelly
Michael Stark Pitman
James Bacon Senator
Hatsuo Uda Shoeshine Man
Virginia Wing Mrs. Mhin Van Thieu
Viola Harris Airline Ticket Agent
Jacki Robins Fat Lady
Pat E. Johnson CIA Agent
Warren Smith James (Morgan's Chauffer)
Dick Shoemaker Newscaster

[edit] Reception

The movie grossed $18 million dollars at the box office.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Good Guys Wear Black - Box Office Data". The Numbers. http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1978/0GGWB.php. Retrieved 28 July 2011. 
  2. ^ Maslin, Janet (1984-12-02). "FILM VIEW; SHORT ON TALK, BIG AT THE BOX OFFICE". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/02/arts/film-view-short-on-talk-big-at-the-box-office.html. Retrieved 2011-01-02. 
  3. ^ "Good Guys Wear Black". DVD Talk. http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/3334/good-guys-wear-black/. Retrieved 2011-01-02. 

[edit] External links


Personal tools
Namespaces
Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages