Rivals (1972) review

RIVALS 1972

Scott Jacoby (Jaime), Joan Hackett (Christine), Robert Klein (Peter), James Karen (Psychiatrist)

Directed by Krishna Shah

"Since Douglas's death, Jaime's changed. Sometime's I think it....it's almost as if he's trying to take his father's place."

The Short Version: Confoundingly bizarre and totally unclassifiable movie about a disturbed ten year old boy with an Oedipus complex. Shah's movie can't make up its mind what the hell it wants to be. There's several daringly intriguing ideas presented here and some shock moments, but it's not enough. There's also a wacky performance from Robert Klein and a good turn by Scott Jacoby as the mentally unhealthy boy as well as some great and surreal shots of New York city life circa 1972 that looks all the world like it was shot "live--as it happens". This is a freakish curio for cinematic danger seekers, while most others will likely be bored and tune out by the thirty minute mark.


Jaime is an unusually intelligent ten year old boy who has a special, if unhealthy relationship with his mother, Christine. When Jaime's mother meets Peter, a quirky tour bus driver and a younger man, this drives a wedge between mother and son. The animosity Jaime feels towards Peter escalates when he and his mother plan to get married. Devising a murderous plan to get rid of Peter, young Jaime has no intention of allowing another man to come between him and his momma.


Utterly bizarre movie from the director of HARD ROCK ZOMBIES (1985) that alternates between pseudo hack work and transgressive surrealism. Portions of the movie are well shot with some good performances and others look to be the work of a slop artist bearing amateur levels of acting delivery. To describe this movie would be an act in futility. It's as if director Shah was trying for an occasional avant garde atmosphere, although some of these moments look like they were designed and shot by a middle school student--and in a way, they were! Speaking of middle school, Jaime plays a filmmaker in training along with a bunch of his other pre-pubescent buddies. The film is peppered with these weird musical interludes that look like they'd make a better fit in an episode of THE BANANA SPLITS or SESAME STREET. Other times the film resembles a romantic comedy between self reliant art gallery owner Hackett and the free spirited ardor of Klein.


Shah's movie trudges dangerously close to onscreen pedophilia at times and if it weren't for a handful of worthwhile moments, this uneven mishmash would be ripe for 'The Dis List'. Shah wrote the script and he seems a better writer than a director as his written word explores some fascinating, if controversial terrain. In fact, he packs way too much subtext here without ever giving any one thing an opportunity to bloom. If that weren't bad enough, there's a grand potential here for exploitation greatness, but Shah squanders it on so many themes and issues that it all ends up being perfunctory at best. Such as when Jaime is bullied by a gang of older kids. Does he ever plot revenge on them? No! Instead, he attempts to have sex with the bully boy's girlfriend. The music is also terrible across the board. It sounds like stock cues from a classroom filmstrip and that's likely what it is.


Funnily enough, the opening title reads "Krishna Shah's RIVALS". This being his first feature and it being as frequently ridiculous as it is, his name above the films title is hilariously pretentious. Another interesting tidbit more curious than anything in the movie is the story credit for Stanford Sherman who wrote such movies as ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN (1980), KRULL (1983) and ICE PIRATES (1984). Also, one of horror's favorite character actors, James Karen (FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD) has a supporting role here as a child psychiatrist. Regarding the movie itself, the only major point of interest is Jacoby's character of the troubled Jaime. He's really quite good and if the film had stayed its course instead of alternating between a romantic comedy-drama and some experimental children's show by way of a twisted pathological semi-exploitation picture, we would have had an engrossing psychological example of the 'evil child' sub genre.


We learn Jaime is a genius with a higher than normal IQ (142 at six years old!). We know he had an indelible devotion to his father--this hammered home in several surreal flashback--dream sequences (Why do we need to see shots of him potty training shittin' in a toilet?). We also learn (in the first ten minutes) that Jaime has an unusual curiosity and learned capacity for the sexual act. At one point, Jaime dreams of some sort of satanic orgy where a group of onlookers watch Hackett and Klein have sex in the floor while Jaime masturbates behind a tree and keeps getting interrupted by his babysitter!


In one of the more exploitable sub plots, Jaime becomes infatuated with his babysitter who is awestruck by his statements of sexual enlightenment. Eventually she desires his little ten year old body while her of age boyfriend becomes understandably incensed. If it weren't for this borderline sexual deviancy and calculatingly sinister behavior on the part of Jaime, this movie would have nothing to offer. The films plot wants to be of the 'killer kid' sub genre, but can't make up its mind when so many other peculiar plot strands are thrown at the screen all of which ultimately render the films title a misnomer for much of the running time. Essentially both Jacoby's and Klein's characters are "Rivals" for Hackett's affection, but like the half dozen extra sub plots, the film is like a storm at sea cerebrally rising to the occasion before sinking back down into hackneyed waters.


Horror fans will recognize Scott Jacoby from the popular 'TV Movie Terror' of BAD RONALD (1974) and the taut thriller THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE (1976), a film that treads some lines of decency regarding young people with what looks like an underage, and in one scene, a very naked Jodie Foster. Jacoby is consistently good in RIVALS if nothing else really is. The ending delivers a cruel twist of fate and if the rest of the movie had a lot more punch, than RIVALS would likely have been something well worth revisiting as opposed to a bewildering oddity that never left the playground.

This review is representative of the Code Red DVD

Poor Pretty Eddie (1975) review

POOR PRETTY EDDIE 1975 aka HEARTBREAK MOTEL aka BLACK VENGEANCE aka REDNECK COUNTY

Leslie Uggams (Liz Wetherly), Shelley Winters (Bertha), Michael Christian (Eddie Collins), Ted Cassidy (Keno), Slim Pickens (Sheriff Orville), Dub Taylor (Floyd)

Directed by Richard Robinson

The Short Version: Rarely seen Hixploitation hidden gem is one of the sleaziest of its kind that's almost bereft of gore, but goes the extra mile with its deplorable characters, incredibly uncouth dialog and racial connotations. What really makes this Southern Fried obscurity rise above the muck are its performances, brilliant cinematography and ingenious avant garde approach that adds an air of respectability to its array of perversity.

***WARNING! This review contains language of a sensitive nature***

"You and me, we're tied together now. Once we man and wife, you gon' be decent again. You'll feel a whole lot betta' 'bout thangs...even me! You gon' do what I say...you unda'stand? What's yours is gon' be mine and what's mine is gon' be yours. That's the only way you gon' leave here...unda'stand that?"

Liz Wetherly, a famous singer, takes to the road on vacation till her car breaks down in an isolated, rural Georgia location. Looking for help, Liz ends up at Bertha's Oasis, an out of the way motel populated by several bizarre characters including the owner, Bertha and her country crooning, Elvis impersonating lover, Eddie Collins. Desiring only to fix her car and continue with her vacation, Liz is not allowed to leave and suffers rape and humiliation not only at the hands of the depraved Eddie, but also the equally deranged townsfolk.


The 1970s was populated by hundreds of exploitation movies many garnering notoriety because of their violent subject matter and even more obscurities that were as good, or better than some of those that became staples of the decade. POOR PRETTY EDDIE is an Hixploitation conundrum among the plethora of backwoods sleaze epics. It's spotty release history (shot in 1973 and released in 1975), innate quirkiness, unusually artistic flourishes and a collection of kooky characters make it a shining example of 70s scummy cinema.

"Bertha, I don't want no goddamn vulgar talkin' in here."

Aside from some massive blood squibs, there's very little gore, but where this film excels is in its local flavor and locales that expertly capture the seedy boondocks setting. Rarely had a Southern Fried sleaze flick embraced such a seethingly believable aura of frightening isolation and entrapment as is seen here. While they were both filming in 1973, the insanity of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974) is clearly in evidence only where that film had three crazy brothers, the whole damn town in POOR PRETTY EDDIE (1975) are demented, employing the most disturbing form of 'Southern Hospitality'.


The drive in style of Southern Gothic hadn't been cemented yet by the runaway success of MACON COUNTY LINE (1974). Despite garnering a release two years after its completion, POOR PRETTY EDDIE pioneered the 'Danger In Dixie' aesthetic as well as expounding on the crumbling family unit personified in Hooper's TCM, which could also be traced back as early as Jack Hill's SPIDER BABY (1964). While both SPIDER BABY and Hooper's film featured a small family unit that stayed and slayed together, POOR PRETTY EDDIE features an entire hamlet that is seemingly unhinged living on the fringes of civilization. Virtually no one behaves in a normal fashion. The closest to normalcy is Bertha and the towering Keno. Everyone else entertains the "finer side" of sociopathy. The character of Liz, while not the most friendliest "stranger in a strange land", attempts to keep the inmates running "the asylum" from breaking her. She's largely successful till the end. The scripting conceit of an outsider lost, or trapped in an unknown and or desolate setting is a prolific and powerfully primal concept that has come back in vogue in a big way and not only in American cinema, but many foreign pictures as well.

"That little ol' high yeller, she could hardly take her eyes off a' you! It sure would be a shame to let that little thang go to bed all by herself..."

Robinson's film is thoroughly unsettling and overly gratuitous even though there's no major gore sequences nor any nudity outside of several cut out photos of busty centerfold models. The characters, the situations and the dialog immerse the viewer into the backwoods hellhole Liz inadvertently finds herself in. It achieves a similar atmosphere that makes TEXAS CHAINSAW so memorable and this extends to both the cinematography and the editing, the latter of which is guilty of creating some of the more queasily offensive moments in the picture. One such scene is the rape scene. Alternating between normal speed and slow motion, the rape is intercut with an incredibly bizarro scene of two dogs mating surrounded by a number of creepy rednecks looking on as a country tune 'You Won't Have To Say You Love Me In the Mornin' plays on the soundtrack. It's one of the most gasp worthy moments in this movie.

"I aint got nothin' against niggers, it's them goddamn Yankees they just like hemorrhoids! If they come down and go back that's alright. But if they come down and stay down they a pain in the ass!"

It's difficult to watch a movie like this and not encounter racism in its most primitive form. The 'N' word is uttered twice here and Liz is referred to as "High Yeller" on a few occasions. The aura of racism may be ambiguous at times, but it permeates the picture relentlessly. One of the most dangerously racist moments occurs towards the end when Liz is in "court" after accusing the lunatic Eddie of raping her twice. The "hearing" takes place in what looks like a Bingo Hall surrounded by chicken pickin' banjo players and horny onlookers including both the sheriff and the warped Justice of the Peace. Liz is forced to strip so the "jury" can see the "suck marks on her titties". Liz is conveniently placed in the middle of the frame while both an American flag and a Confederate flag are positioned behind her one on each side. The seemingly neverending enmity between the North and South also rears its ugly head here. It's one of the most uncomfortable moments in the entire movie almost assuming the guise of an Antebellum Era slave auction with Liz as the "meat" on sale and a roomful of slobbering, soulless lunatics giddily awaiting to feel up the "prize".

"Well come on, now, that's rabbit stew! I mean I caught a cotton tail last night just runnin' along in the woods and then WAM! Fresh bunny...just for you!"

To call POOR PRETTY EDDIE perverse is an apt description for the overall tone of this production. As the film goes deeper and deeper into its disturbing little world, the extreme nature of the script becomes more omnipresent. Among some of the other depraved delights include Liz being forced to give oral sex to a traveling salesman who promises to help her escape only to have Eddie hiding in the backseat culminating in him beating her with a belt for attempting to get away; a TEXAS CHAINSAW worthy shock moment when the cast discovers what's really for breakfast, and a bloody downer ending wherein Liz is being forced to marry Eddie in what ends up being some kind of homage to Peckinpah.

"Does it make you feel hot to sit where her ass has been, huh?"

This unique film, like so many less than tasteful 70s drive-in fare, contains a surprising stock of well known faces and accomplished performers. Lead actress, Leslie Uggams was a Tony Award winning singer who also dabbled in acting. She's quite good here as the somewhat cold, not altogether friendly Liz Wetherly. She's a strong character and considering the time the film was made, is far more realistic than the more familiar, larger than life Pam Grier type tough girl persona that was popular at the time. Ted Cassidy, Lurch from THE ADDAMS FAMILY essays a similar role here as Keno, the caretaker of a deranged "family" not all that dissimilar from the Addams household.

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?! 'I don't need a drink, lady'."

Multi award winning actress Shelley Winters was just coming off of an Oscar nomination for her role in THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972). Around this time, it wasn't unusual to see this big Hollywood star appearing in low budget drive in movies. Winters is, like everyone else in the cast, memorable as Bertha and is the least loony of the rest of the cast. Bertha is an aging starlet who finds solace in both a bottle and Eddie's arms. With her much younger lover having lustful eyes for Liz, this pushes big Bertha further into alcoholism and leads to some shining moments for Winters to flex her range.

"Would ya' like to suck on a tomato?"

Slim Pickens is hilarious as the slimy sheriff Orville. His dialog, along with that of jovial character actor Dub Taylor entail some of the more memorable moments throughout this muddy, porcine populated production. Pickens is a major highlight during the scene wherein Liz is taken down to the police station to report her being raped twice at the hands of Eddie. Orville's line of questioning is offensive and the entire time he's asking, instead of writing down Liz's responses, he's drawing crude pictures of various sexual positions!


POOR PRETTY EDDIE finally making its way to legit DVD in a restored version, but as good as this restoration is, there's a few spots where damage has resulted in some missing frames including the films title! The 'in POOR PRETTY EDDIE' moniker appears right after Slim Pickens credit, but on the new DVD, it skips immediately to the screenplay credit. Speaking of the opening credits, a particular atmosphere is captured as we see the passing of the early morning hours. David Worth's photography oozes Gothic resembling something Hammer might have shot had they ever filmed in deepest, darkest Alabama.


The editing by Frank Mazzola is also infectious and incredibly experimental for a film of this nature. A multitude of dissolves, slow motion and bizarre inter-cutting techniques combine with Worth's worthwhile cinematography to fashion a surreal experience for such a sleazy endeavor. The unsettling sound design is also commendable affording an additional layer of unease. The music from Grant Boatwright is also key to the creaky, eerie aura that looms heavily over 'Bertha's Oasis' and the surrounding locales. Twangy Country and chicken pickin' tunes imbue an even deeper local flavor. All these elements add so much realism, you'd swear the likes of Winters, Cassidy, Pickins and Taylor really lived in this far flung forest encroached land that time forgot.


Unjustly neglected since its original theatrical release (and numerous re-releases), this curious oddity has survived on the bootleg market amidst a circle of loyal fans for years. The film was recently saved from the bowels of obscurity and restored even managing a showing on Turner Classic Movies as part of their Turner Underground late night series. The DVD/Blu Ray combo release from earlier in the year is cause for celebration for hardcore fans of 70s exploitation cinema and those seeking something well off the beaten path. Among the extras is an insightful, completely thorough 21 page essay from Chris Poggiali from the essential blog, The Temple of Schlock that covers the entire production from gestation to release. Arguably the most surreal exponent of the Hixploitation sub genre, POOR PRETTY EDDIE deserves rediscovery and holds its own alongside other more well known Southern Gothic's and Deep South hixploitation pictures. If you enjoyed vacationing at MACON COUNTY LINE (1974), then staying at 'Bertha's Oasis' yields a similar experience.

This review is representative of the CULTRA/HD Cinema Classics DVD/Blu Ray combo