A sleepy coastal town getting ready for the summer tourist season. A series of water related fatalities. A local official who's determined to keep things quiet. A grizzled sea captain and stalwart common-man who must combat a bloodthirsty beast from the deep blue sea.

No, it's not Jaws (1975) but Great White (1981, aka The Last Shark) the Italian production that so blatantly copies the popular shark franchise that it was marketed as Jaws 3 in Spain.

The wacky shenanigans of this Jaws rip-off begin right away with the first of the movie's exploding victims. Yes, you read correctly. Exploding victims. A carefree windsurfer is practicing his moves on the crystal waters of South Bay when something (three guesses what) takes a bite out of his board. Suddenly, an explosion throws him into the water and our panicked surfer is dragged beneath the waves. Apparently, the explosive predatory strength of the film's title character has turned our windsurfer into shark food.

James Franciscus plays shark expert and author Peter Benton, a combination of the Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss characters from the original film. Benton (most likely named after Jaws author Peter Benchley) is busy at his typewriter when his daughter Jenny (Micky Pignatelli) asks to borrow the family boat. She wants to go search for her friend who went missing that morning. While out on the bay, Jenny falls overboard. For a few tense moments, the obligatory underwater P.O.V. shot swims closer and closer to her dangling feet, but she makes it back to the boat without incident.

Vic Morrow (in a hilarious take on the Robert Shaw character) plays salty sea dog Ron Hamer. Capt. Hammer finds what's left of the chewed-up surfboard. "One things for sure," Morrow says in his sporadic Irish baroque, "It wasn't a floating chainsaw."

As a search is being organized to find the boy, the Coast Guard tows in a damaged boat, the apparent victim of an off-camera shark attack. Things aren't looking good for the town's centennial celebration. "No shark is gonna screw up a whole year's work and planning," headstrong Mayor Wells (Joshua Sinclair) vows, "We're going ahead with the regatta." After using underwater "shark-proof" netting to enclose the bay, Wells assures everyone that the regatta will be, "one hundred percent safe."

Franciscus gives an informative slide show about the Great White, but Morrow, in a mannered performance that would put William Shatner to shame, takes over with a spirited discourse on the nature of the beast.

The night before the big regatta, the local teens throw a beach bash and weenie roast. Predictably, teenage skinny-dipping ensues. This sequence is shot day-for-night and is so dark that it's almost impossible to tell what's going on. The shark is so drawn to the riotous smorgasbord that he breaks through the netting, but misses out on the midnight snack. A buoy that held the barricade in place somehow gets wrapped around the shark. This floating marker reveals the shark's whereabouts just like in Jaws.

The next day, Mayor Wells glad-hands the public as windsurfers crowd into the water for the big regatta race. As the first leg of the race is completed, the buoy pops up and begins to plow through the thick gaggle of surfers. The panic really starts when the telltale shark fin appears. Morrow helps pull the scrambling windsurfers out of the water.

The mayor's assistant, whose only contribution to the situation is to yell through a bullhorn, is the next exploding victim. His boat is thrown high into the air as the shark rises to the surface. At first glance, the shark seems impressive. It certainly looks more realistic than Bruce the Shark ever did. But it quickly becomes clear that Bruce's Italian cousin is a one trick pony. It can break the surface and open it's mouth, but that's about it. At least Bruce could move around a bit.

As the writer and the sea captain are suiting up for a shark hunt, Hamer straps on a belt filled with plastic explosives to be used "as a back-up". While exploring the deep blue sea, they are stalked by shark stock footage. After they enter an underwater cave, the shark uses its head…literally. It repeatedly rams the rocky entrance and seals them inside. Those explosives end up being useful after all and they blast their way out.

After returning to port, they learn that the mayor's son Billy Bob, Benton's daughter Jenny, and some of their friends have taken a boat out on the bay to do a little shark hunting of their own. With only a shotgun and their own impetuousness, they go up against the shark. Jenny ends up the loser.

While Benton waits in the hospital for news on his daughter's condition, the mayor tries to slap some sense into his blank-faced son. It doesn't work. Proof that the film was partly filmed in Georgia, a local actor tells Benton in a monotone southern drawl that his daughter, "will feel her missing leg for months, perhaps for a year."

At his daughter's bedside, Franciscus gives a giggle inducing performance during a heartfelt monologue about how he taught Jenny to ride a bike. She was so determined despite skinning her knee. Now (sniffle) she doesn't have a knee.

Feeling responsible for the carnage, the mayor goes on his own shark hunt. When he spots the man-eater from his helicopter, he lowers some bait into the water. How he plans to catch the shark is never fully explained, is he going to hook it like a trout? When the shark takes the bait, the wench (surprise) malfunctions. Wells falls out of the helicopter and, while hanging onto the struts, becomes the shark's next meal. The great white leaps out of the water like a Sea World dolphin, bites the mayor in half, and then eats the helicopter!

Benton and Hamer head back out in the boat. After they argue about who gets to play the hero, Hamer goes into the water. He has an encounter with the shark, but the scene is so poorly shot, that it's impossible to tell exactly what happens. At any rate, he doesn't make it back to the surface.

A news crew that's been following the recent attacks ties some spare ribs to the end of the dock in hopes of getting some good shark footage from the safety of the marina. The shark takes the bait…and most of the dock too. A group of people, Benton's wife included, are trapped on what's left of the pier and dragged out to sea where the mechanical shark terrorizes them with it's turtle-like speed and dexterity. Kablam! Exploding victim syndrome strikes the news cameraman and sends him into the water to become shark chow. Benton's wife has an entertaining freak out when they only retrieve his top half.

The great white very slowly tips the dock over, sending everyone splashing into the sea. Benton, who's returning to the harbor, spots them and is able to get everyone safely onboard. But Benton himself becomes trapped on the floating wreckage and is dragged away. With only a two by four as a weapon, there doesn't seem to be much hope left, until Hamer's dead body floats by. Benton retrieves his friend's lifeless body only to have it snatched away by the hungry shark. Luckily, Benton was able to gab a hold of the detonating device (remember the belt o' dynamite?)

As the shark swallows the sea captain whole, Benton curses the ravenous beast, "Damn you!" and, for no discernable reason, dramatically leaps into the water as he presses the detonator switch. In an utterly botched and anti-climatic moment, the shark explodes underwater…at least we assume so. The underwater photography is (once again) so dark that it's impossible to see.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The makers of Great White took this to heart and made use of every genre cliché that the Jaws films helped popularize. Universal studios certainly weren't flattered. Though there were many films that tried to mimic the successful Jaws formula, it was obvious that Great White lifted scenes from both Jaws and Jaws 2 (1978) and the studio sued. Great White was quickly pulled from U.S. release.

As a result of the legal action, Great White has never had an official video release in the States (and most likely never will). However, it is available on video and DVD in other countries. Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, a simple online search (or a quick browse on eBay) will usually result in several listings for different bootleg versions.

Unlike the other Jaws imitators (Grizzly from 1976, Tentacles and Orca both 1977) Great White has a certain audacity in the way it doesn't bother to pretend to be anything other than what it is, a rip-off that so closely resembles it's original that it could qualify as a remake. It's bluntly honest. And that's all that any true fan of bad cinema can ask for, the truth…and maybe a couple of bloody shark attacks thrown in for good measure.

CCT also recommends:

Jaws 3

Jaws: The Revenge

Orca

If renting movies is for you, try Netflix. They stock most of the movies CCT recommends.