''Shatter'' is a 1974 action film starring

Stuart Whitman Stuart Maxwell Whitman (February 1, 1928 – March 16, 2020) was an American actor, known for his lengthy career in film and television. Whitman was born in San Francisco and raised in New York until the age of 12, when his family relocated to ...

, Lung Ti,

Lily Li Lily Li () (born 14 June 1950) is a Hong Kong film and television actress. She is best known for her films ''The Wandering Swordsman'', '' Executioners from Shaolin'', ''One Foot Crane'' and ''The Young Master'', and television series ''The Br ...

, Anton Diffring and

Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition ...

. It was the second and final

international co-production A co-production is a joint venture between two or more different production companies for the purpose of film production, television production, video game development, and so on. In the case of an international co-production, production companie ...

between

Hammer Film Productions Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve class ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Shaw Brothers Studio Shaw Brothers (HK) Ltd. () was the largest film production company in Hong Kong, and operated from 1925 to 2011. In 1925, three Shaw brothers— Runje, Runme, and Runde—founded Tianyi Film Company (also called "Unique") in Shangh ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. The film was shot entirely on location in

Plot outline

Shatter (Stuart Whitman) is a

hitman Contract killing is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or persons. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may ...

contracted to kill a

dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in tim ...

in a certain African country. He completes his assignment and returns to Hong Kong to collect his fee, only to learn that he himself is the next target of the assassination because he was intended to be used as a scapegoat by his

client Client(s) or The Client may refer to: * Client (business) * Client (computing), hardware or software that accesses a remote service on another computer * Customer or client, a recipient of goods or services in return for monetary or other valuabl ...

for a larger

political agenda In politics, a political agenda is a list of subjects or problems (issues) to which government officials as well as individuals outside the government are paying serious attention to at any given time. The political agenda is most often shaped ...

. Being pursued by various government agencies and

gangster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

s, Shatter seeks help from a

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

martial artist Tai Pah (Lung Ti) and promises to share half of his fee in exchange for Tai Pah's protection and assistance in recovering his fee.

Cast

- Shatter *

- Rattwood * Anton Diffring - Hans Leber * Lung Ti - Tai Pah *

- Mai-Mee *

Yemi Ajibade Yemi Ajibade (28 July 1929''Africa Who's Who'', London: Africa Journal Ltd, for Africa Books, 1981, p. 82. – 24 January 2013), usually credited as Yemi Goodman Ajibade or Ade-Yemi Ajibade, was a Nigerian playwright, actor and director who, a ...

- Ansabi M'Goya / Dabula M'Goya

Production

In May 1972,

Michael Carreras Michael Henry Carreras (21 December 1927 – 19 April 1994) was a British film producer and director. He was known for his association with Hammer Films, being the son of founder James Carreras, and taking an executive role in the compan ...

returned to London from the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

with a co-production deal that was made with the Canadian producer George Brown. Don Houghton provided Brown with a script for an action film originally titled ''Shoot''. The film was originally set to start filming in Canada in August 1972 but was halted when Brown went bankrupt, leading to the project being shelved. Houghton's father-in-law had connections with

Run Run Shaw Sir Run Run Shaw (19 November 1907 – 7 January 2014), also known as Shao Yifu and Siu Yat-fu, was a Hong Kong entertainment mogul and philanthropist. He was one of the most influential figures in the Asian entertainment industry. He founde ...

, who ran Shaw Brothers studios. The original meetings between Carreras were set up for the production of the film '' The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires'', which also led to the production of Houghton's unused script for ''Shoot'' which was developed into ''Shatter''. ''Shatter'' was filmed from December 17, 1973 through January 15, 1974 on location in Hong Kong, including

Kai Tak Airport Kai Tak Airport was the international airport of Hong Kong from 1925 until 1998. Officially known as Hong Kong International Airport from 1954 to 6 July 1998, it is often referred to as Hong Kong International Airport, Kai Tak, or simply Ka ...

Monte Hellman Monte Hellman (; born Monte Jay Himmelbaum; July 12, 1929 – April 20, 2021) was an American film director, producer, writer, and editor. Hellman began his career as an editor's apprentice at ABC TV, and made his directorial debut with the ho ...

was signed on to direct but was fired during production less than two weeks into shooting, leaving Carreras to finish the film himself. Carreras complained "In my opinion, the action scenes lack excitement, the dialogue scenes are dull and Hong Kong looks like a slum. I just don't know how to salvage it." Among the cast was

, it would be his last feature film for Hammer. Cushing's scenes were filmed in four days . A new score was added when the original Shaw Brothers score horrified music director Philip Martell who thought it "absolutely appalling".

Release

''Shatter'' was not released initially in the United Kingdom. ''Shatter'' was released in the United States as ''Call Him Mr. Shatter'' by

Avco Embassy Pictures Embassy Pictures Corporation (also and later known as Avco Embassy Pictures as well as Embassy Films Associates) was an American independent film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution studio responsible for such fil ...

in March 1975. ''Shatter'' remained unreleased in the United Kingdom. until being distributed by EMI in September 1977. Plans to turn ''Shatter'' into a television series starring Stuart Whitman were shelved.p.148 Miller, David & Carlson, Veronica ''The Complete Peter Cushing'' Reynolds & Hearn, 01/02/2005 It was released on VHS in the United States with the alternative title ''They Call Me Mr. Shatter''.

Reception

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' gave the film a negative review, finding the film "dull and sloppy, though there are a few scenes of entertaining hokum" noting Ti Lung's martial arts sequences being "choreographed with unusual skill, but that kind of stuff is getting stale by now" Carreras later spoke about the film stating it was "unfortunately, a bad picture, no question about it. We ran into all sorts of problems, and like all pictures that are bad, I think it was badly conceived from the start. One did all sorts of things to try and save it, but it didn't work." However, as is the case with many otherwise 'bad' films, interest can be found in the 'on location' footage, here of early Seventies Hong Kong.

References

Sources

* *

External links

* {{Michael Carreras 1975 films British action films Hong Kong action films English-language Hong Kong films Shaw Brothers Studio films Hammer Film Productions films Films directed by Michael Carreras Films about contract killing 1974 martial arts films 1974 films Embassy Pictures films 1970s English-language films 1970s British films 1970s Hong Kong films