Although inferior to When Taekwondo Strikes (now also available on Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment), this movie does benefit from the inclusion of Chuck Norris in the cast as a sleazy villain in a silly hat who exists merely to get his buttocks whupped in fine fashion by the star – actor Wong Tao – in the punchy finale. The original title of the film in Hong Kong was Yellow-Faced Tiger and it was directed by Lo Wei, director of the Bruce Lee classics The Big Boss and Fist of Fury. Rumours persist to this day that Lee would have starred in the movie after the completion of Game of Death, the film he was working on at the time of his death in June 1973.

Slaughter in San Francisco is nothing to write home about, so save your ink (other writing fluids are available) and just settle down and watch a crime and revenge flick typical of the era in which it was made. It does at least have colourful locations in San Francisco and its environs and is competently made with some lively if not iconic, martial arts bouts

The movie was not released in the US or Europe at the time it was made and was not released internationally until the early 1980s, by which time Chuck Norris had become a well-known and popular star, and he was not happy when Slaughter in San Francisco appeared in cinemas as ostensibly a new Norris movie in which his voice was dubbed by a less than gifted voice-over artist who sounded nothing like him. Accompanying the film on its first Blu-ray release is an amusing feature giving an overview of Norris’s career, a commentary and trailers. Worthwhile for Norris completists.

SLAUGHTER IN SAN FRANCISCO is released on Blu-ray by Eureka Entertainment on February 19th.