Silk (1986)

Cec Verrell is the star of SILK and one of the few Roger Corman heroines to keep her top on (but how about that rockin' poster?). Corman was the executive producer of this cheapo action meller filmed by director Cirio H. Santiago, who made a lot of them. Laughably, the film is set in Hawaii, but aside from a handful of second unit shots, including Verrell strolling across the lawn of the Iolani Palace (better known to classic television fans as Five-O headquarters), Santiago shot SILK in the Philippines, fooling nobody.

The phony location shooting is hardly the worst part of SILK, which is a typically Santiagoan jam of poor sound, amateur-hour acting, and simple plotting with a healthy dose of sex and violence. Verrell is, of course, Silk, the sobriquet of Jenny Sleighton, the sexiest and baddest-ass cop on Oahu. Somehow she finds the time between blowing up cars and making out with fellow fuzz Bill McLaughlin (NAKED VENGEANCE) to delve into stabby rednecks with huge knives and the smuggling of gangsters into Hawaii from Asia.

That’s a lot of balls for screenwriter Frederick Bailey (FAST GUN) to toss at Santiago, who predictably fumbles them, resulting in a story that doesn’t seem to make sense. An unusual “characters created by” credit for one Claudine St. James accompanies Bailey’s and Santiago’s screenplay credit, though there seems to be no earlier Silk film or novel. Perhaps St. James wrote an unpublished book or unproduced screenplay that Corman optioned for a few shekels.

Verrell is beautiful, of course, but also believable as a tough cop with her hard look and slicked-back short hair. She looks and moves like an athlete, and does a few of her own stunts. Nothing really dangerous, but enough to establish herself as the character (more than can be said for Monique Gabrielle in the sequel, who couldn’t be less believable). Her acting is wooden as hell, but also arguably less important than her looks and athleticism in a Filipino action movie for Concorde Pictures.

Plenty of Santiago’s repertory company make it into the film, including Vic Diaz (FIRECRACKER), Henry Strzalkowski (FUTURE HUNTERS), Joseph Zucchero (ANGELFIST), and production designer Joe Mari Avellana (WHEELS OF FIRE), who plays Silk’s Japanese (!) colleague. It’s 1986, so Silk has her own theme song, belted out by an E.G. Daily soundalike. As mentioned above, Santiago made a 1989 sequel, predictably titled SILK 2, with Verrell replaced by Gabrielle (DEATHSTALKER II), who was more open-minded about doing nude scenes.