Mystery Science Theater 3000 experiment #619: Red Zone Cuba.
Originally aired December 17, 1994.
Available at Amazon.
"I'm Cherokee Jack!"
This is the last directorial project for Coleman Francis (who also wrote and starred as Griffin), and it manages to be more confusing and poorly edited than his other two films. You have to love the public domain and highly inappropriate background music selected for most of the scenes.
A young newspaper reporter asks an ancient train engineer (John Carradine in a cameo, and he probably did it for the money) about the three men who hopped his train years ago. Those three men are the escaped convict Griffin, who runs across two drifters named Cook (Harold Saunders) and Landis (Anthony Cardoza). They are recruited into a military training facility, where they'll be paid to take part in an invasion of Cuba, all after 30 minutes of intense training. The three idiots realize they've been lied to, and make a run for it, but they are recaptured and forced to participate in the invasion, which fails miserably.
Captured, Griffin, Cook and Landis plot their escape back to the United States, leaving behind their superior officer who is badly wounded. While begging to be included, the officer mentions his family's mine back at home. Once they escape via a stolen light aircraft, the trio commit a variety of crimes to get to the home of the wife of their officer, intending to help her mine those metals (Griffin insists they all go "legit", which lasts all of a few minutes). The movie ends with Cook and Landis surrendering to the police, and Griffin gets shot down while on the run, making it all the way to hell, "with a penny and a broken cigarette".
Highly recommended.
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