#6: Open Season (1978)

After five increasingly successful Brand films, Connor Shaw – at the time in his mid-fifties – elected to retire from acting, making Open Season the first film where the alias of Jove Brand is transferred to a new agent.

The first film featuring Bryce Crisp as Brand, the tone of Open Season is more in line with the Shaw-era films. Over time, Crisp’s portrayal of Brand influenced the writing as Jove Brand is transformed from assassin to knight-errant.

Along with introducing a new Brand, Open Season features of the first appearance of re-occurring villain Huntington Smythe and Wolfshead, an evil organization bent on world domination.

In the first ever trial sequence, Connor Shaw’s Brand is killed while saving the life of squires Crisp (who is unnamed prior to taking on the alias of Brand) and Smythe. Crisp’s character refuses the mantle of Brand, and Smythe steps into the role. Soon after, Crisp discovers Smythe is a double-agent who engineered Shaw’s death, and tracks Smythe to Wolfshead's Den to extract retribution.

Also notable in installment are the special effects of Ray Ford. As a teenager, Ford had worked as an assistant in prior films (though some have made compelling cases Ford was solely responsible for the construction of both vehicles and gadgets). During the film’s climax, Brand does battle with animatronic animals on a game preserve that serves as Wolfshead’s secret base. To this day, the effects are convincing.