’70s Action Exploitation Film Turns Ex-Cop Into Easy Target, Stream Without Netflix

The Glove has a very simple premise, but its pacing is second to none. We’re introduced to a divorced ex-cop-turned-bounty hunter named Sam Kellog (John Saxon), who struggles to make ends meet because of the feast-or-famine nature of his work. He’s at risk of losing visitation rights with his daughter due to his inability to make good on his alimony and support payments because his bail-bondsman boss, Bill Schwartz (Keenan Wynn), more often than not gives him the short end of the stick.

Sam doesn’t have a whole lot going for him, but he’s actually quite good at his job and knows how to take a beating during heated exchanges with the criminals he’s trying to apprehend.

When Sam is offered an off-the-books job with a $20,000 payday, he jumps at the opportunity, not knowing what he’s getting into. The suspect in question, an ex-convict named Victor Hale (Rosey Grier), is built like a linebacker and armed with what’s known as a riot glove.

Before the events that take place in The Glove, Victor was beaten mercilessly with the steel-plated leather riot glove while imprisoned, resulting in him making his own glove that bears its resemblance, hunting down his former oppressors, and beating the life out of them while dressed in full riot gear.

With his mounting financial issues at the front of his mind, Sam embarks on an epic game of cat-and-mouse, trying to stay one step ahead of Victor, who is primed for revenge before leaving town forever. When Victor isn’t committing acts of brutality in The Glove, he’s living an otherwise unassuming life working as a musician and keeping up appearances in the local jazz scene.

Knowing that he doesn’t have much time left to track down and apprehend Victor (and cash in on the bounty), Sam desperately pursues Victor even though he’ll most certainly end up taking a beating in the process.

One thing that I think works really well with The Glove is John Saxon’s narrations as Sam throughout the film. As Sam recounts the events seen in the film, he comes off as a hard-boiled private eye who’s one whiskey on the rocks away from finding his smoking gun and having a breakthrough with his case. My initial reaction was that this is an absolute cheese-ball way to move the story forward, but as The Glove progressed into its second and third acts, I grew to enjoy this narrative method more than I’d care to admit.

The juxtaposition between what Sam’s saying to his cohorts and what he’s actually thinking adds depth and tension to the story that otherwise leaves a lot to be desired. I’m normally used to this narrative style in the context of parody (Phil Hartman’s Saturday Night Live audition tapes, for example), but it works well for The Glove, which plays it straight.

GFR SCORE

The Glove doesn’t anything new or exciting to the genre, but it’s a solid action thriller that knows its place. There’s no big reveal in this movie, and its buildup leads to what I would consider to be an expected conclusion. But for the casual viewer, this is a solid popcorn flick to burn through while you’re working on a project around the house, or if you simply want to see what odd rarities from a bygone era Tubi is currently offering.