Supercock (1975)

No, you haven’t accidentally wandered into the porn section—Supercock is an action/comedy about cockfighting, hence the film’s video-release title, Fowl Play. Shot in the Philippines with American actor Ross Hagen in the leading role, Supercock aspires to be a feel-good saga about a scrappy athlete who proves his mettle. As for the plot, it’s simple: Down-on-his-luck cowboy Seth Calhoun (Hagen) takes his favorite rooster, “Friendly,” to the Philippines for the first International Cockfighting Competition. Little problem. Actually a few of them. First, Seth is merely the trainer of the athlete in question, so the whole underdog angle is a cheat. Second, it’s not as if a chicken cares about winning prize money. Third, cockfighting is a death sport, so not only must “Friendly” kill his competitors, but he’s in mortal danger every time he fights. Kinda difficult to root for Seth if he regularly imperils his pet. Some movies seal their fates at the conceptual stage, and Supercock is one of them. Whereas the offbeat Monte Hellman drama Cockfighter (1974) accentuated the horrific aspects of this particular sport, Supercock plays the pointless murder of animals for laughs. Similarly, the movie’s idea of a joke—as in, the one idea that gets recycled ad nauseam—involves jamming the word “cock” into dialogue. “He has the biggest cock I’ve ever seen!” “My dear Mr. Calhoun, I must take a look at your cock.” Despite its crudeness and stupidity, Supercock isn’t badly made, at least in terms of technical execution. Moreover, the action bits, which range from chases and fist fights to various cockfighting scenes, are passable. Nonetheless, Supercock is a superdud as a comedy, and it’s so fundamentally wrongheaded as to be distasteful.

Supercock: LAME