After their spectacular-looking limited edition pressing of EEGAH, it makes sense that The Film Detective would follow it up with a 1,500 copy limited edition Blu-ray of the worst Brucesploitation film FIST OF FEAR, TOUCH OF DEATH.

In the days leading up to a Madison Square Garden martial arts competition, promoter Aaron Banks (MEAN JOHNNY BARROWS) causes controversy by stating in an interview with Adolph Caesar that he believes Bruce Lee was murdered by a maneuver called the "Touch of Death" because he was revealing too much about the secrets of the martial arts, and that his successor in the competition may be similarly doomed. The claim is seen as a bad taste ploy to promote the event, but Caesar delves into Bruce Lee's early life in China (illustrated by lengthy redubbed, rescored clips from the monochrome 1957 film THUNDERSTORM in which Lee was the juvenile lead) in which he as the younger brother of the family is seen by his older brother, girlfriend, father, and mother as having no future in his desire to pursue the martial arts like his "samurai" grandfather – whose story is illustrated with color clips from the 1971 Taiwanese martial arts film FORCED TO FIGHT/INVINCIBLE SUPER CHAN – who was a great fighter but eventually succumbed mysteriously to the "Touch of Death". Caesar next interviews Fred Williamson (DEATH JOURNEY), who is serving as a judge at the competition, on whether there can indeed be a successor to Bruce Lee, and then Ron Van Clief (THE LAST DRAGON) on his training and Lee's influence before we meet the tournament's competitors Bill Louie (DEATH PROMISE) who dresses up as THE GREEN HORNET's Kato and saves a woman from a purse snatcher, "stone smasher" Richard Barathy (CAGED FURY), and middleweight champion Louis Neglia (A HARD WAY TO DIE) before a coda in which Caesar renders everything that came before redundant.

While the martial arts and film communities where frantically searching for and positioning various personalities (among them Jackie Chan) as a successor to Bruce Lee with several actor vehicle productions, there was also a substrain of the exploitation genre known as "Brucesploitaiton" focusing on conspiracies about how and why he died, and who was to replace him by discovering the truth; among them the Van Clief vehicle THE BLACK DRAGON'S REVENGE and FIST OF FEAR, TOUCH OF DEATH distributor Aquarius Releasing's previous GOODBYE BRUCE LEE: HIS LAST GAME OF DEATH, as well as a number of films that added Bruce Lee's name to the title or credits by inserting footage from one of his lesser seen films into new stories or otherwise unmarketable films like BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM THE GRAVE. Regarded as one of the worst of the genre, FIST OF FEAR, TOUCH OF DEATH must be seen to be believed. Although Banks was a prize-winning fighter, he has little charisma as a promoter, and the intercutting of redubbed footage from a TV interview with Lee into a mutual admiration society conversation between Banks and Lee seems as much in poor taste as the premise of the film. Even without knowing much of Lee's biography, the film-within-a-film-within-a-film is interesting for what we get to see of the early Lee film but obviously grossly inaccurate and as romanticized as Lee's mother claims he is doing with the story of his grandfather. The vignettes with the New York actors are interesting, with a running joke about Williamson being mistaken for Harry Belafonte, and getting a late wakeup call in his hotel that finds him in bed with a bimbo (Hollywood Browde), Caesar giving his all as spots commentator, and Van Clief demonstrating the trust of his students with a sword and a pair of carrots while Louie and his other competitors show that they have failed to realize it takes more than athletic ability to fill Lee's shoes.

Released theatrically by Terry Levene's Aquarius Releasing and on VHS by Wizard Video, the film found its way onto the bootleg market with several sell-through VHS copies in the eighties and nineties and then into the DVD market from the usual suspects. Mastered from a 4K restoration of the original 35mm camera negative, The Film Detective's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray (mislabeled a 1.66:1) is a fascinating composite of different celluloid textures including 35mm and 16mm production footage shot guerilla style in New York and using natural light in some of the interiors, stock footage of various degrees of graininess, and 35mm print and intermediate material for the "biographical" film within a film. The original footage looks best, with eighties colors popping against the overcast New York backdrops and nice detail in the close-ups of the principal performers thanks to the workmanlike photography (the film was the first DP credit for John Hazard who has since worked prolifically in PBS documentary and educational series, and his key grip here is Harris Savides who later shot David Fincher's THE GAME and Gus Van Sant's ELEPHANT). The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono audio track is a much more consistently excellent experience since much of it is post-dubbed and composed of library music including some swipes from Vasil Kojukaroff's score for THE DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT and some KPM tracks. Optional English SDH subtitles extend to the extras as well.