Damnation Alley – 1977
You have seen great adventures. You are about to live one

Director
Jack Smight

Writers
Lukas Heller
Alan Sharp
Roger Zelazny novel

Producers
Maury M. Cohen associate producer (as Maury Cohen)
Hal Landers executive producer
Paul Maslansky producer
Bobby Roberts executive producer
Jerome M. Zeitman producer

Cast
Jan-Michael Vincent – Tanner
George Peppard – Maj. Eugene Denton
Dominique Sanda – Janice
Paul Winfield – Keegan
Jackie Earle Haley – Billy
Kip Niven – Airman Tom Perry
Robert Donner – Man/Guard
Seamon Glass – Mountain Man #2
Trent Dolan – Technician
Mark L. Taylor – Haskins
Bob Hackman – Colonel
Terence Locke – Air Policeman
Marcia Holley – Gloria
Erik Cord – Burning Man
Roger Creed – Mountain Man (uncredited)
Murray Hamilton – General Landers (uncredited)
James R. Parkes – Mountain Man (uncredited)

Review by Theo Robertson

Damnation Alley (1977)
I Guess The Premise Was Good,

Without doubt the best scene in DAMNATION ALLEY is the one set in the control room as the air force men stand in stunned silence as the major cities of the USA are nuked. I don’t think as some critics have said that this scene is bland, it’s because the people in the control room are shocked that world war 3 has broken out and realise that civilisation has ended, it’s a very understated and haunting scene. Alas however as soon as the exposition subtitles come up (And very purple prose they are too. They match the colour of the sky) the film quickly falls apart. Two of the characters have now left the air force, which doesn’t strike me as being logical. After a major event, and they don’t come much more major than global thermonuclear conflict I’d have thought, wouldn’t martial law be introduced? If so would servicemen be allowed to leave the forces when they felt like it? And aren’t any men on the base related to anyone? This really stuck in my mind that no one ever mentions loved ones who must have been wiped out during the war. Maybe they were married to the guests on THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW? If so I guess nuclear holocaust does have its plus points.

The film then turns into an epic quest adventure but if you’re expecting LORD OF THE RINGS don’t hold your breathe because it all becomes both silly and boring B movie stuff with the only point of interest being the line about killer cockroaches which made me laugh out loud. And I felt cheated by the upbeat happy ending. Strangely enough if you look up the resumes of the two screenwriters you’ll find they have a very good track record of writing intelligent involving scripts so what went wrong here?
One last point. Watch the scene where Jan Michael Vincent is riding about the desert evading the crap super-imposed mutant scorpions. He’s supposedly driving around with a mannequin on the back of his motorbike but if you look closely just before he throws it off you can quite clearly see it’s an actress/ stuntwomen of latino/native American ethnicity