Who knew that someone's hanging mashed-up ear could be so hypnotic. After "WALKING TALL", director (Phil Karlson),writer (Mort Brisken) and star actor would reunite again two years later for another beat 'em up, payback crime thriller "FRAMED". Stalwart star Joe Don Baker eases into the role before going on his dogged and calculative rampage. A Tennessee gambler who just happened to score big, later that night unwittingly kills a sheriff under unusual circumstances. His money disappears, it looks like the girlfriend stops caring and he has no choice but to take the plea deal. He spends four years in jail, before getting out on parole thanks to connections inside and returns to wreak havoc on those who framed him. The hard-nosed plot plays out in the same vein as "The Count of Monte Cristo" with pulp noir touches. The mystery of who's behind the corruption is no surprise for the viewer and it's never meant to be, but it's all about trying to unlock the truth of why the set-up. While it's not as action-packed, you do grit your teeth when it does come to blows by feeling the pain and enduring the sweat of some of these nasty encounters and ear splitting yelling. There are two memorable exchanges though that aren't violent, but it's the ballsy banter between Baker and H.B Haggerty that highly amuses. Then there's that train sequence.... wow! A great supporting ensemble cast and location shooting also add immensely to the hardy entertainment.

A rather nasty, low-budget revenge thriller starring Joe Don Baker as a high-rolling professional card-player who encounters a deputy sheriff after escaping an earlier shoot-out set-up. When he kills the cop in clear self-defence, he's quickly railroaded by the so-called justice system, which includes his own solicitor and it seems the rest of the police department, is coerced into taking the rap for the "crime" and so goes to prison. The baddies even send a couple of heavies round to Baker's nightclub-singer girlfriend to stop her background efforts to help him and in fact take this to extremes by raping her under threat of a gun.

Rather like the internee in Stevie Wonder's great contemporary song, "Living For The City", Joe Don unsurprisingly leaves prison embittered and hardened, determined to exact revenge on those who put him inside and abused his girl. While in prison, he's made a couple of useful buddies, one a crime boss with connections and the other a paid hitman, who both come in very handy later on in the proceedings.

From there, you can pretty much get out your abacus to tally up the acts of violence and body count both of which steadily accumulate. You know how these things regularly turn out and this last-man-standing scenario isn't about to offer up any surprises in that respect.

With plenty of brutal scenes of violence depicted, including an unnecessarily cruel slaying of a guard dog, I suppose we must be grateful for the small mercies of the director not going all "Straw Dogs" in the treatment of the sexual attack on the singer, but nonetheless the acting is mixed in quality, although Baker certainly projects his tough-hombre persona even, it seems, while wearing crimplene slacks and a safari jacket.

Listen, I never watched any of the "Death Wish" movies which probably inspired this and I note as a sidebar that this type of feature has sort of come back into vogue, with Liam Neeson's "Taken" movies, not to mention Denzel Washington's "Equaliser" films, but this effort is a rather cheap and nasty affair, being a lot less well acted and directed, making me wish I'd done what Baker failed to do and that is, turn the other cheek when it came up on the screen.

The talents behind the highly successful "Walking Tall" - actor Joe Don Baker, screenwriter Mort Briskin, and director Phil Karlson - reunite for another reasonably compelling combination of action and melodrama, filmed on location in Tennessee.

Baker is likable as gambler Ron Lewis, who's thrown in prison for killing a deputy sheriff (Roy Jenson) in self defense. Watched over in prison by benevolent kingpin Sal Viccarrone (John Marley),Ron does his time and of course is stubbornly determined to find out who did him wrong, in this adaptation of a novel by Art Powers and Mike Misenheimer.

It's to Karlsons' credit that this is as entertaining as it is: it's briskly paced and directed, with a fairly twist-laden story that's not hard to follow. The supporting cast is full of familiar faces who give strong performances. Lovely Conny Van Dyke plays the leading lady, and she does a fine job while also getting the chance to sing a few tunes. Standing out are the rock solid Brock Peters as a brave deputy and former Dead End Kid Gabriel Dell as Rons' fellow jailbird Vince Greeson. Also appearing are John Larch as the sheriff and Warren J. Kemmerling as the mayor, as well as Paul Mantee, Walter Brooke, Joshua Bryant, Hunter von Leer, Les Lannom, Hoke Howell, and Red West; wrestler H.B. Haggerty is particularly fun as a thuggish cop who wants to get back at Ron seeing that the cop Ron killed was his cousin.

"Framed" gets fairly grim, with a pair of creeps dispatched to violate Van Dykes' character, and has some brief bursts of gory violence, especially in one memorable torture sequence. There's also a fantastic train-car collision as a major highlight. Patrick Williams' music score is another asset. The villains are just as corrupt and heinous as we could hope for in a film of this kind, and we're left in little doubt that Ron will see things through to the bitter end.

While this isn't anything truly special when all is said and done, it's still pretty entertaining while it lasts.

Seven out of 10.