Der Menschenfänger (1978) Online

(There are Spoilers) Earl Owensby is Seabo the mysterious half-breed, his father is a White European and mother a Native American, tracker and bounty hunter who has a talent of appearing and disappearing just at the right time when you, or his enemies, would least expect it in this rural 1957 saga of crime and revenge in the wilds and mountains of North Carolina.

Asked by his friend Sheriff Deese to track down and capture two escaped convicts, who murdered a jail guard, Seabo get's the jump on them when he catches one, Wilks, with his pants down trying to rape a young girl who's family, that he and is partner Hatcher, is holding hostage. In a wild exchange of fire Seabo guns down Wilks who attacked him with a pitchfork but Hatcher who was about to give himself up is shot from behind by the young girls father.

Not wanting the old man to be arrested and put behind bars Seabo takes responsibility by saying nothing about the incident where Hatcher was shot in the back and killed by him that soon lands Seabo in the Buckstone County Jail for unjustifiable homicide.

Warden Coley,who's a bit crazed and unstable, has had it in for Seabo for years since his son in the USMC was killed in action in Korea, together with his entire Marine company, in a North Korean ambush.

As we saw earlier Seabo wasn't much of a talker or complainer so we had to wait almost until the end of the movie to find out the truth, from Sheriff Deese, about what happened to Coley Jr and his men that turned out to be the exact opposite of what old man Coley said about him. Seabo who scouted out the valley on the border of North & South Korea, the dangerous 38th parallel, where Coley's company was about to enter and told Coley Jr that it's a perfect trap set for them by the North Korean Commies. The macho,and not too bright, Coley Jr wanting to be a hero sent his men into it where they were slaughtered by communist small-arms and artillery fire.

Using every method to intimated Seabo to make a run for it, in order to have him shot by the prison guards, Seabo takes all the abuse that Warden Coley and his thug-like prison guards can throw at him even to the point of being thrown into the dungeon and tortured by prison guard Jimbo for days at a time. Even his fellow prisoners are incited to attack Seabo who takes them on five or six at a time and is saved from being brutally beaten or even killed by fellow prisoner Zack, a big 6 foot 5 inch 250 pound gentle giant, who comes to his aid. Zack for his part is then thrown in the dungeon and, with his hands tied up,savagely beaten by Jimbo the most brutal and sadistic of warden Coley's prison guards. This cowardly bully thinks it's very macho to beat helpless and defenseless men who can't defend themselves. Later in the movie Seabo would put an end to Jimbo's fantasy and show him what it means to be a "Real Man". Seabo pays Jimbo back for what he did to himself and Zack when he wipes the floor with him this time, unlike when he had his hands tied like Zack, with both his hands free and ready for action.

Seabo getting a reprieve from the governor in order to track down six escaped criminals who murdered a cop, as well as an 80 year-old bank teller. Traking Zack along to help Seabo find and capture the escapees ending up killing one of them who tried to ambush him. The former bounty hunter, and now killer for hire, Reb Stock who was involved in the prison break-out.

Bringing the remaining escaped prisoners back to Buckstone County Jail Seabo is a bit weary of Warden Coley, who hates him with a white-hot and almost maniacal passion, being in charge there. His suspicions prove to be right when Coley hires a number of out of state, probably Mafia connected, hit-men to gun him down as soon as he and the escaped convicts enter the prison grounds.

The prison court-yard is turned into a free-fire shooting gallery as all the prisoners end up dead. Warden Coley gleefully running out of his office, where he was safely hiding throughout the entire massacre, finds to his shock and surprise that Seabo, the man that he wanted more then anyone else to be dead, wasn't among them!

Not all that bad B-movie with Earl Owensby as cool as cucumber as the hard as granite indestructible bounty hunter and outcast from society Seabo. A self-styled loner Seabo's actions, which were a lot, in the movie spoke far louder that his words, which were very few.

I first saw this movie on Showtime when Showtime was in it's infancy, fighting desperately with HBO for first place, because it was just the two of them.

Back then the movie was called "Buckstone County Prison", which is also on the cover of the VHS I found on an obscure video .com site. I enjoyed this movie a lot. It has blackmail! It has racial tensions! It has false imprisonment and revenge! It has villains and heroes! It has boom mikes in the shots, prop accidents and flubbed lines! What more could anyone ask?! When I need a good laugh, I just pop in this video and enjoy. Best line of the movie "Ha Ha Seabo! That knife don't work too good at this range!" "Yeah, but I ain't agonna STAY at this range!"

This one had me looking through my thesaurus to find new words for bad. None were descriptive enough.

I caught "Seabo" a while back on one of my old satellite movie stations. You can tell it was a low-budget deal - it had Earl Owensby in it.

Don "Red" Barry and David Allen Coe were in it, too, though. They must have owed somebody. A lot.

The main things I remember in this movie (besides the plot which I'd rather forget) is Owensby talking through his teeth a lot, making some guy swallow all his bullets, later on spending time in a backwoods house of ill repute (innocently, of course), and Barry calling out "Seabo," and shooting at everybody and everything in sight near the end.

I think Coe sings a ballad about Seabo at the end, too. But, thank God, I don't remember all of it. All I do remember is it went on and on and on and on....

Well, gotta give them credit: if nothing else, "Seabo" can give fledgling film makers hope: if this can be made, there's hope for their crummy little projects, too.

Watch "Seabo"! Take heart!

Half a star. I wonder if Coe has his "Seabo" song on CD?

Very hard to find southern prison movie. Very violent and racist. Great soundtrack by David Allen Coe, who also co stars. Earl Owensby's greatest piece of work to date. Some stunning ladies too!!! The black guy who plays Zack deserves an award.

Contrary to common belief, some of Earl Owensby's pictures were released outside the Deep South. I actually enjoyed this on a double-bill with HOMETOWN USA when it hit the Hudson Valley drive-ins in 1979. In fact, I went back and saw it several times.

I saw it again recently--a good trick in itself, considering how rare the movie is--and now I wonder what I saw in it Back Then. Guess a 22-year-old gorehound will watch anything...

I distinctly remember that Owensby as the title character was lame, and that Don Red Barry was a great if apoplectic villain. I remember some striking North Carolina scenery, some good gore and shotgun killings and a massacre at the end.

Somehow, I forgot that the hero was a doofus and that most of the acting was horrible. Aside from Barry, Ed Parker as a sadistic chief guard is arguably the best actor here. David Allan Coe cackles his way through his part like a hyperactive hyena. I understand he did time in real life--for lousy ham acting and bad singing, by any chance? I also forgot the technical gaffes already mentioned by another writer. Worst of all I forgot the deadly 117 minute running time--way too long for a drive-in prison picture. The plot is standard--one of those hero-is-framed, suffers-in-prison, gets-out numbers which could have been covered in 90 minutes at the outside. In fact, while I'm usually against hacking films, I'd be curious to see if the 86-minute German release print is any better.

One thing keeps this bloated overlong flick from being the HEAVEN'S GATE of prison pictures--in between stretches of tedium, parts of it are PRETTY DARN FUNNY!!! One character goes to a brothel to HAVE BREAKFAST! I know the company there was more polite than the rude rubes at the local eatery but all I could say was Yeah, RIGHT!!! Another impossible situation: watch one geek swallow six bullets without choking. Watch other actors try not to choke on the insanely stupid dialog. Then there some lines that were stupid and funny on purpose--"The warden wants his car to shine like an old whore's nose!" being a prime example. And the finale is a real hoot, involving a gaggle of hit-men whose wardrobe looks like it came from a Goodwill box, or maybe a hobo jungle.

If this bad review has actually made you curious, I can tell you that a copy may surface on eBay if you troll for it long enough. Don't say I didn't warn you!