Howdy Pardners!
It’s time once again for an episode of The East Meets the West! In this episode, Patsy the Angry Nerd and I cover the Shaw Brothers film, The Kid with the Golden Arm (1979), and the Spaghetti Western flick, A Pistol for Ringo (1965)!
The Venom Mob are in top form here, once again directed by Chang Cheh, but it is sadly the last time all 5 Venoms would star in together – Sun Chien, Lo Meng, Kuo Chue (Phillip Kwok), Lu Feng and Wei Bai. This was due to the fact that Wei Bai had health issues. The plot revolves around a group of warriors who must protect some much needed gold that is headed to a famine-ridden area of ancient China, but they must face the dreaded Chi Sa gang and their leader Golden Arm who is nigh invulnerable!
In A Pistol for Ringo, the eponymous gunslinger must infiltrate a group of bad guys who have taken a family and their servants hostage, before they end up killing them all!
For those who are keeping track of the Shaw Brothers actors, we’ve listed the Venom Mob here and the characters they played in previous films:
Lu Feng – Silver Spear here (Pao Siao Tung/Bao Shanxiong in Invincible Shaolin, #1 Centipede in 5 Venoms and Dao Chang (School friend of Tu Tin-To) in Crippled Avengers)
Wei Pai – Swordsman Li Qing Ming here (Mai Feng in Invincible Shaolin, #2 Snake in 5 Venoms)
Sun Chien – Yang Hu Yun here (Hsu Fong/Xu Fang in Invincible Shaolin, #3 Scorpion in 5 Venoms and Ah-Kuei (LEGS) in Crippled Avengers)
Phillip Kwok (aka Kuo Chui) – Sheriff Hai To here (Ho Yen Wu/He Yingwu in Invincible Shaolin, #4 Lizard in 5 Venoms and Lin Wing, aka BLIND in Crippled Avengers)
Lo Meng – Golden Arm Kid here, (Ho Ming Pao/Zhangcheng in Invincible Shaolin, #5 Toad in 5 Venoms and Wei Jia-Jie (DEAF and DUMB) in Crippled Avengers)
Chiang Sheng – Short Axe Fang Shih here, (Chun Fei/Yang Zhongfei in Invincible Shaolin, The Student in 5 Venoms and Wang Yi (IDIOT) in Crippled Avengers)
Patsy the Angry Nerd and his podcasts can be found at throwdownthursdaypodcast.com.
As always, please leave us a great review at iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you download your podcasts, so others can find the show! Visit our website havenpodcasts.com for other fun stuff including our sister show, Then Is Now, in which we discuss all the cool stuff you may have missed out on, and pop culture stuff you SHOULD know!
If you would like to contact us directly about this show or any other, please email us at theeastmeetsthewest42@gmail.com.
Enjoy!
Re-Gor