Hit Man (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) (1972)

BREATHLESS PACE “Hit Man,”’ a Penelope Production for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, is a fast-paced story that zipped around Los Angeles during filming at almost the same breathless pace it takes on the motion picture screen. Both producer Gene Corman and director-writer George Armitage are film believers in utilizing actual sets rather than studio sound stages. The result was that ‘‘Hit Man’”’ was filmed on 37 different locations, and not one foot inside a studio. “Hit Man,’”’ starring Bernie Casey, follows the hard-hitting exploits of a powerful underworld figure seeking to avenge the death of his brother. Pamela Grier, Lisa Moore and Bhetty Waldron costar. Casey, incidentally, was a former professional football star with the Los Angeles Rams. Miss Grier, brown-eyed, pretty and very un-footballish in appearance, is nonetheless a cousin of another former Los Angeles Ram, the all-time great Roosevelt (Rosey) Grier. One filming site utilized by Corman and Armitage is the controversial Watts Towers in southeast Los Angeles. Built board by board by one man, Simon Rodio, over a 30-year span, the towers have been under debate for years as to whether they represent art or a junk-pile. Public sentiment has rallied to the cause of Rodio, however, contending that any man who devoted much of a lifetime to creating something he considered art has, in fact, created a work of art. Another location was a 57-room mansion in the West Los Angeles area built in 1903 by a wealthy dairy products tycoon. A 28-room English Tudor house in the Los Feliz area which once served as the Russian Embassy also became a “‘Hit Man”’ set. When Corman and Armitage needed a mortuary, they filmed inside one. Quietly, of course. Other less intriguing locations include the Long Beach Athletic Club, Los Angeles International Airport and a remote section known as “‘Africa, U.S.A.,’’ once the filming site for the MGM-TV series ‘‘Daktari.”’ Producer Corman, both on his own and in association with his brother, Roger, helped shape the growing trend for the production and marketing of reasonably budgeted films with broad audience appeal. These include pioneer work in popularizing films about teen-agers, gangsters of the 1930’s or horror subjects. ACTING.. TOP OF HER LIST While lying in a hospital bed after undergoing major surgery, Lisa Moore, with her life’s breath hanging by a thread, made a decision which turned her future completely around. “1! told myself that if | was blessed with another chance at life, | would do all the things | wanted to do, that | had only thought of doing before. Acting was at the top of my list,’’ said Lisa Moore, who is now co-starred in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “‘Hit Man.” “Hit Man,’’ starring Bernie Casey, is a fast-moving action drama produced by Gene Corman. George Armitage, making his motion picture directorial debut, also wrote the screenplay. Shot on locations in and around Los Angeles, the film also co-stars Pamela Grier and Bhetty Waldron. Lisa plays the role of Laural, the proprietor of an off-beat motel, whose lustful attraction for the well-built stranger, Tyrone Tackett, played by Bernie Casey, moves her life into uncertain violence. Lisa, whose father was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian, was born in Miami, Florida. After graduating from high school, she enrolled in Xavier University in New Orleans, where she majored in Education and Languages. After three years at Xavier, she convinced her mother that she wanted to study drama, and subsequently transferred to Goodman Theatre of Arts in Chicago, where she received her formal dramatic training. Following the completion of her training, she moved to New York, where she studied dancing at Carnegie International School of Dance with Frank Wagner, and voice with Phil Moore. She later married Moore. However, the marriage resulted in career conflicts and her work consisted mostly of modeling until an offer came for her to make her motion picture debut in ‘‘For Love of Ivy” starring Sidney Poitier. She followed that with guest starring roles on CBS television’s “The Guiding Light.’’ With her marriage becoming more and more uncertain because of her dream of an acting career, she was suddenly struck by a near-fatal illness. Following her recovery, Lisa ended her 414 year marriage to Phil Moore and moved to Los Angeles following the divorce. Well known to television audiences as the dancing girl from Rowan & Martin’s ‘‘Laugh-In,’’ her feature film credits include “The Fuzz,’’ starring Dick Van Dyke, ‘‘Dream of Kings’”’ starring Anthony Quinn, and the more recently released ‘‘Black Gun’”’ starring Jim Brown. warlords in MGM’s ‘‘Hit Man.” PAM GRIER stars as Gozelda, a sensuous young beauty, in her quest for fame and fortune would even sell her soul to the devil, in MGM’s “Hit Man.” MAT NO. 1F BERNIE CASEY stars as Tyrone Tackett, a super-slick street hustler, turned cold-blooded killer, in a personal vendetta against syndicate MAT NO. 2A LISA MOORE co-stars as Laural, proprietor of an off-beat motel, whose lustful attraction for Tyrone Tackett (BERNIE CASEY), propels her life into a world of uncertain violence in MGM’s “Hit Man.” MAT NO. 1G el