L.A. Bounty is a 1989 American action thriller film directed by Worth Keeter, starring Sybil Danning, Wings Hauser, Henry Darrow, Lenore Kasdorf and Robert Hanley.
Danning plays a vigilante ex-cop on the trail of a mayoral candidate, who has been abducted by the same psychopathic mobster (Hauser) responsible for the killing of her former partner.
[2] Returning home late at night after a public function, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mike Rhodes and his wife, Kelly, are attacked by a group of thugs.
Upon learning that Kelly saw one of his men's face, Cavanaugh orders his en to return to her residence to kill here despite her being constantly accompanied by a police officer since the first attack.
Meanwhile, the incumbent mayor Burrows summons veteran police lieutenant Chandler and presses him to identify both the mysterious vigilante and the kidnappers, as he is facing suspicion of taking out his rival.
In the spring of 1984, the press relayed Danning and manager S.C. Dacy's intention to make a film featuring a heroine in the mold of Dirty Harry that would serve as a role model for young women.
[3] At the time, that vehicle was Nemesis: Goddess of Revenge, and was supposed to be produced by Danning's agent Kenneth B. Johnston, with photography starting in September 1984.
It was the Hollywood debut of Carolinas filmmaker Worth Keeter, who returned from Michael W. Leighton's recent shoot, Trapper County War.
"[27] David O'Callaghan of the South Wales Evening Post dismissed the film as "corny, predictable, blood-and-guts stuff with incessant gunfire that unfortunately fails to drown the despairing dialogue".
[28] Joe Kane of the New York Daily News judged that, while the film offers "the usual quota of loud shootouts, car chases and narrow escapes", "it is [Hauser's] extravagantly loony performance that prevents this otherwise totally routine time-killer from sinking into a sea of terminal ennui".
[29] Sister publications The Motion Picture Annual and TV Guide were most negative, writing that Danning "provides a stiff, unconvincing female alternative to Clint Eastwood" and that "[a]lthough it is nicely photographed, the story is so predictable, choppy, and badly directed that the film is never entertaining.
[9] Tim Fernandez of the U.K.'s Southport Visiter concurred, finding the film less limiting than "some of the trash she has appeared in (Chained Heat, Howling II)", and "perhaps her most complete to date".
[31] The Age of Melbourne was perhaps most favorable: dissenting with Variety and TV Guide, its critic Jim Murphy claimed that Clint Eastwood "would be proud" of the way Danning appropriated his persona, and Keeter emulated Sergio Leone's style during the movie lot shootout.
[13] However, James died an untimely death, which may have contributed to the sequel never coming to fruition, although Danning's poor management was cited as a likelier reason.
In 1994, the two-part miniseries was in the works at Alpha Productions under the title Concrete Storm, adapted by Ron Fortier and penciled by Paul Pelletier.
[13] As the film sequel fell into limbo, so did the comic book, although Danning sporadically mentioned talks to resurrect the project, including with Top Cow.