Prime Cut

"Together they're murder in Prime Cut"

Today's entry will take us back to the greatest decade of exploitation films: the sausy 70's and it will  be a crash of tough actors Gene Hackman & Lee Marvin. Featuring the acting debut of a young & pretty Sissy Spacek. Enter "Prime Cut" AKA "En Carne Viva". The movie starts as Chicago mob boss Jake (played by Eddie Egan) hires 'problem solver' Nick Devlin (played by action master Lee Marvin) for 50k to go to Kansas City & recover the half a million dollars that some cattle rancher by the female name of Mary Ann (Gene Hackman, the man himself) owes the mob, Nick accepts the job & Jake gives him three of his boy's to go with him. Once there Nick ask's Mary nicely to hand over the money, Mary isn't keen on the idea so Nick has to use more convincing methods to make Mary part with the cash which in turn makes Mary use more convincing methods to make Nick realise he isn't going to hand it over. Cue lots of shooting & violence...

Directed by Michael Ritchie this is a pretty entertaining action thriller from the early 70's ,1972 to be specific. The straight forward & somewhat predictable script by Robert Dillon moves along at a nice enough pace, it never bores or outstays it's welcome & it has a nice exploitative edge about it. From turning human beings into sausages at Mary Ann's slaughterhouse up to a prostitution racket operated by Mary Ann where he sells teenage girls off to the highest bidder in a sleazy little unexpected sub-plot.

I'll get you out of here!

The script doesn't seem to take itself too seriously either, from a shoe turning up on a sausage production line to a scene where a car is mashed up & spit out by a combine harvester! The character's are good although we never learn why Gene Hackman's character is called Mary & the dialogue is effective enough without resorting to constant obscenities. So what we have here is a nice sleazy little crime thriller with some decent action scenes, nudity & a sense of black humour along with Gene Hackman & Lee Marvin as heavies, what more do you want? Well, the action scenes are a bit short & as a whole while it's good the film is maybe a little forgettable, I enjoyed it for what it was but there are plenty of more entertaining films depicting the same storyline with more concrete action scenes.

In other countries the movie was known as "Die Professionals"

Be careful if you meet this man.

Two great actors face to face.

Director Ritchie does quite a fair job with this film & the opening sequence in the abattoir as we follow the making of sausage's is one of the coolest openings ever & sets the tone of the film up right away. The shoot-outs at the local fête & a sun flower field are both well staged if a little short & uneventful. I think Prime Cut could have used a really good car chase, there's a scene at the end with a large truck but it's not really a chase. The violence isn't excessive although there's some full frontal nudity if that's your thing.

Technically the film is very good with impressive widescreen cinematography that capture the Kansas City farmland very well, it's an unusual setting for this type of film & it's a neat location. The strong cast includes Lee Marvin & Gene Hackman who are both class in this & a first appearance by Sissy Spacek who gets naked several times  to comply with the exploitation 70's standards "wanna get famous? get naked as much as you can then"

Mary Ann's virgins farm.

Care for a teenage slut?

Sissy Spacek's teen bush.

Prime Cut is an enjoyable action thriller with two great leading men having fun with machine guns, I liked it but despite the nice location & cool opening sequence it's a bit forgettable & it could have been done with slightly stronger action scenes considering Lee Marvin was the leading role. Sissy Spacek does quite a good job and in a way she, herself represents the exploitation of her character beyond the big screen, because of the many nude scenes in which she's in.Also, we can find a brief but sexy intervention of  sexy Angel Tompkins as Clarabelle.

Titties.

Exploitation.

Amazing Angel Tompkins.

Overall an entertaining movie, that moves a bit too slow at times in terms of the action scenes you could expect but, the topics developed in the movie are quite interesting I might say. We have the gangster ass that's looking forward to keep on getting richer with his abattoir no matter the cost and if that wasn't enough this guy is a white slave trader!! a shocking topic that we seem to think it's gone by today's standards of justice but you never can tell pals.

Here's the full movie for your pleasure. Watch while is it available online for free:

 

The Teacher

Original movie poster.

Starting my drive-in cult classics review I'll begin with "The Teacher" the first movie from the set that caught my attention.

Plot Summary:

18-year-old Sean's first summer after completing high school is much spent with 28-year-old teacher Diane, who's husband is too often motorcycle-racing instead of with her. Wacko Ralph also has "the hots" for Diane; and it doesn't help that Sean was with Ralph's younger brother, Lou, when Lou died. Written by Kim Williams

Cast

Complete credited cast:

Angel Tompkins ... Diane Marshall

Jay North ... Sean Roberts

Anthony James ... Ralph Gordon

Marlene Schmidt ... Alice Roberts

Barry Atwater ... Sheriff Murphy

Med Flory ... Joe Roberts

Rudy Herrera Jr. ... Lou Gordon

Quinn O'Hara ... Margaret Parker

Sivi Aberg ... Bonnie Nelson

Richard Winterstein ... Russell Marshall (as Dick Winterstein)

Katherine Cassavetes ... Gossiping Lady 1 (as Katherine Cassavettes)

Lady Rowlands ... Gossiping Lady 2 (as Lady Rolands)

Cassandra Lucas ... Waitress

"After School her lessons began with sex...and ended with violence" I'm not really sure if this phrase comes from the original release or if it was written for the DVD version but anyways it's very catchy and it perfectly defines the movie's mood.

Here's your first lesson, learn it well.

Vintage movie poster.

Today's lesson.

This is my school outfit.

So here it goes. There's this hot looking teacher played by Angel Tompkins. This teacher is separated (not divorced) from her husband and develops a notorious interest for one of his former students, an 18 years old recently graduated lucky guy named Sean, who happens to be unbelievably frightened by the constant proposals made by her former teacher.

She seduces him all over the place, or at least tries to! The lovemaking is simulated very poorly but I guess for 1974 that was the way to go.

Meanwhile there is this voyeuristic lunatic, Anthony James, who follows her around and spies on her everytime she goes out on her boat to sunbathe topless (yeah, awesome boobs), he even dons his frogman suit and snorkels out just to play a little peeping tom through the porthole of her outstanding boat (god, I'm a teacher and i don't have her big swimming pool and outrageous Corvette)

Every time something interesting is about to happen involving the body of Angel Tompkins (yeah I mean sex), James shows up from his voyeur hideout to interrupt things. He does it so often that it is clear he has to die hahaha

What kind of salary does this teacher earn to own a yacht!

Today's lesson: the female body.

Homework.

after teaching, a good shower!

The music is very smooth,probably influenced by 70's funk, disco and pop ballads (weird cause they had Deep Purple, Led Zep, and a thousand more artists to choose from or at least to be inspired by) Doing some research I found out music was composed by Shorty Rogers, an iconic jazz trumpeter and arranger of the 50s and the main song "The Teacher" is a very catchy tune that fits Angel Tompknis persona all the way. A shame I found no mp3 on the internet as to add it here for your listening pleasure.

Overall the acting, directing and photography are not that bad, besides Angel Tompkins is the whole reason the movie was made, but still there's some plot going on and a grand finale.

This was the official trailer released for the movie:

To finish I'd say it is a shame Angel Tompkins didn't get to act in some more transcendental movies, I mean she did work on some more films, but her movies faded into obscurity being The Teacher and Prime Cut the only available films on DVD to date. She also had plenty of TV series roles as in Bonanza, Kojak and Knight Rider to name a few, but I'm sure her legacy will live on as long as she has fans left to post anything related to her talents.