THE LEMON CHICKEN JONES

A year after has-been comic Nappy Kane settles down with his Hong Kong mail-order bride, Doll, and a few weeks after he puts all his property in her name, surprise! she's cleaned out his house and taken off, and he goes crying to actor/detective Saxon (Seeing the Elephant, 1992, etc.) to track her down. The trail leads Saxon and his adopted black son Marvel to that northern California seaside paradise, San Angelo, where Saxon gets loosened up by an amateurish rubdown at Far East Massage, then tensed up all over again when he's thrown down the stairs of the adjoining Rustin Imports, has to talk Marvel out of jail for loitering, and high-tails it out of town a day early—only to find in the middle of a grueling stretch of freeway that his fuel line's been cut. So it's back to San Angelo under slightly deeper cover (Saxon dies his hair orange) to rescue Doll from the clutches of the Asian slavers who've been running this scam on Nappy and who knows how many others. Saxon keeps talking about how the pieces are fitting together, as if they were ever apart. But he provides good-humored company and great food all the way from A to B.