Thrown for a Loss

About the only reason to see Kenner is to watch Jim Brown. The rest of the film is so awful that it makes an average TV series look like Citizen Kane. Brown, who has taken more punishment from his movie roles than he ever did on the gridiron, continues to give promise of becoming a commanding screen personality. All he seems to need is practice, and that is just about all that Kenner gives him.

Brown appears--reluctantly, it often seems--as an American sailor in Bombay trying to track down the man who murdered his shipmate by cutting him into "Christmas ribbons." When the bad guy's "holy assassins" rough Kenner up and leave him for dead, he is helped out by a quaint little street urchin (Ricky Cordell) and his humanistic Mom (Madlyn Rhue). After a couple of weeks of tender care from Junior and loving from Mom, Kenner is ready to resume his mission. All that talk around the house about karma and reincarnation, however, has cramped his vindictive style. From bar to bordello, Kenner's search for the villains is stymied by long second thoughts on such weighty matters as bloody retribution, fatherhood and even marriage.

Called upon to deliver lines like "Saji says you play a mean sitar," Brown is frequently thrown for a loss by the script and the lazy incompetence of the direction. He nevertheless emerges with comparatively few scars and no crippling injuries. Still, patience is far rarer in audiences than in performers. Kenner is the third Brown film released so far this year (others: Riot, 100 Rifles), and viewers by this time may have grown justifiably weary of watching him in histrionic training.

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