MICHAEL GREENE TAKES TWO TOP BILLINGS IN 'THE CLONES'

Year of THE CLONES is 1973

Who knew there was a genre called "Psychedelic Action"... Well there isn't, technically, but this 1973 super low-budget science-fiction film... not even big enough for a decent cult following... can't really be described any other way. The camera angles and music alone give it that tag; and you won't be bored since there's plenty of action...

The entire picture is one long multi-chase involving a scientist who's been cloned... or is he a clone who thinks he's the scientist? Visually you can figure it out so prick your ears since the sound quality is god-awful. Making otherwise talented actors tone down their skills to drive a story with expressions which are mostly worried, agitated, determined...

CloneScore: ***

Enter Michael Greene playing dual-roles. He's one of those actors you've seen a million times: tall, storky: a unique character actor... This is his only starring vehicle... and if not, it's one of the very, very few... while other familiar faces Gregory Sierra and Otis Young play F.B.I. agents on his scurried tail. 

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THE CLONES makes surprisingly apt use of a sparse story-line with an energetic pulse, effectively cutting back and forth to the hunted and the hunters — from sneaking along rooftops, traipsing through rocky terrain, stalked on rural highways, in the desert, swamps, then busting into fist fights and, of course, car chases — as if there was actually a budget in this Wrong-Man thriller including an idyllically romantic sailboat scene, thus providing stolen shots of both land and sea...

Meanwhile, the actors seem like they're merely collecting paychecks, sleepwalking through the roles while that same year, serving in heaven as opposed to this scant reign in hell, Sierra would be the hunted in PAPILLON; Otis Young would take THE LAST DETAIL with a never-better Jack Nicholson; and a year earlier, Greene bullied Woody Allen in PLAY IT AGAIN SAM. So they do have merit... The irony is, their CLONES paycheck was probably hardly worth slumming down to.  

Trippy Imagry from THE CLONES during a meditation sequence... ugh, stoopid hippies...

Gregory Sierri and Otis Young in THE CLONES

Michael Greene in THE CLONES

Michael Greene in THE CLONES

Michael Greene in THE CLONES