Mr. No Legs – Film Review
When Andy’s (Ron Slinker) sister’s death is staged to look like an overdose, Andy and fellow policeman Chuck (Richard Jaeckel) investigate the situation and link it to a drug importing ring involving Florida drug kingpin D’Angelo (Lloyd Bochner) and his enforcer Mr. No Legs (Ted Vollrath), who uses a wheelchair and is armed with two shotguns built into his chair armrests.
Where does one even start when it comes to reviewing a film such as Mr. No Legs? This 1981 action flick is meant to be taken completely seriously, but it’s next to impossible not to laugh and shake your head at how unintentionally hilarious the whole thing is. The premise sounds like it could have been a genuinely fun and interesting idea, but instead, Mr. No Legs manages to make you laugh scene after scene, even if it wasn’t the intent of director Ricou Browning.
Right from the opening scene alone, Mr. No Legs comes across an extremely goofy over-the-top romp in all the best ways. Is this a good film? Far from it. But is it a mesmerizingly entertaining film to watch if you want a good laugh with a few of your friends? Absolutely.
© Cinema Artists Productions 1978
I’ll never forget the first time I was introduced to this movie. My mom and I watch YouTube videos together quite often. We like to see what’s going on with some of our favorite YouTube personalities such as Rhett and Link, Chris Stuckmann, etc. One day, we came across a video titled “Worst Movie Scenes of All-Time”. With a title like that, we just had to click and see how bad they truly were. We were treated (or cursed depending on how you look at it) with scenes from horrendously bad flicks such as Battlefield Earth, The Room, and Samurai Cop to name a few, but none stood out more to us than a scene from a movie called Mr. No Legs.
The scene in question had my mom and I practically on the ground laughing because our stomachs hurt so much. It was a fight scene in which a man and the titular Mr. No Legs were wrestling with one another which ultimately leads to Mr. No Legs throwing the man into the pool, him getting out, and the fight just continuing. It’s so difficult to describe in words how truly hilarious that moment was, and as soon as it saw that clip, I just knew that I had to seek out the full movie.
I could spend hours talking about how bad this film is with its absolutely terrible lighting, bad cinematography, even worse acting, its painfully fake fight scenes, its storyline that doesn’t go anywhere interesting, etc. It’s definitely not a good movie, but it is a movie that is chalked full of moments that are absolutely hysterical, even if they weren’t supposed to be. The pool scene is just scratching the surface of the endless amount of hilarious moments the brilliantly bad Mr. No Legs has to offer.
Mr. No Legs is an unintentionally hilarious disaster on all fronts. It’s chalked full of humorous fight scenes, painfully bad lighting, weak acting, and a storyline that ultimately leads nowhere.
Overall Grade: F
MPAA Rating: R
Cast: Richard Jaeckel, Ron Slinker, Lloyd Bochner, Ted Vollrath, Rance Howard, Luke Halpin, John Agar
Directed by: Ricou Browning
Distributed by: Cinema Artists Productions
Release Date: March 14, 1978
Running Time: 90 minutes