POOR PRETTY EDDIE

I came across another forgotten "gem" this weekend.

Released on DVD by a no-name distribtor with no end credits 1975's POOR PRETTY EDDIE {aka POOR PRETTY EDDY aka HEARTBREAK MOTEL aka BLACK VENGEANCE(!) aka REDNECK COUNTY RAPE (!!!)} is what you would call a total mindfuck.

Imagine Tony-award winning singer Leslie Uggams, the great Oscar-winning Shelley Winters, TV"s ghoulish Ted Cassidy (THE ADDAMS FAMILY'S Lurch) and countrified oddity Slim Pickens - plus unknown Michael Christian as a demented Elvis wanabee named Eddie in a fucked-up story of rape, rivalry and revenge - all set in a backwards Bizarro Earth version of Harper Valley.

The film opens with "jazz singer" Liz Wetherly (Uggams) belting the Star-Spangled Banner at a sporting-event (I guess the producers didn't have to pay royalties on it. She also sings that old chestnut "Happy Birthday" later in the film) - before she sets out on a fateful car trip that leads her to an encounter with "Poor Pretty Eddie" when her car breaks down.

Shelley's character Bertha is an older, overweight, drunken showbiz hasbeen who is Eddie's current lover, but Eddie wants Liz. (Despite the fact that she just wants her car fixed immediately AND is super rude to everyone she encounters). Well, things go from bad to worse for poor Liz as Eddie forces himself on her repeatedly - and things go from worse to even worser for us the viewers as the initial rape scene is edited together with footage of two dogs fucking while a crappy country music tune plays over the soundtrack. Yikes!

Racist comments fly from the mouths of various characters as Liz is forced to take the stand in a mock trial where she refuses to show the "jury" bitemarks on her "titties". It's blaxploitation, sexploitation, hicksploitation, dogsploitation and pretty much any other "ploitation" you can think of. But it's still very watchable, if only to see how low some Hollywood celebrities will go for some camera time and a paycheck. At least we hope they got paid!!! Suffice to say everything winds up at a "shotgun wedding"...and very few people survive. Directed by Chris Robinson (he played Jason Frame on ANOTHER WORLD) and David Worth. Perfect score: 10 outta 10 "huhs".