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:
Carrie put both Sissy Spacek and John Travolta into the universe of movies, no doubt about it.
Based on the first novel published by one of my many writing masters, Mr. Stephen King and directed by Bryan de Palma this movie couldn't go wrong in 1976, and still it can't go wrong in 2011.
Before we jump into the movie storyline and review, let's remember this film is "based" on the book, some of the argument lines are not on the film as well as some of the character original names, which were changed by God knows why reasons.
Carrie starts off at a gym locker room, where we find out how much the other kids hate Carrie visually stating the high amounts of bullying students must have gone through back in the day, and that's why Carrie's story remains so fresh until today, due to the unfortunate shocking reality leaded by thousands of stories of suicide & murder of students around the globe, students which didn't have Carrie's supernatural abilities. Soon after the opening credits we find out that Carrie has some powers. Like in other Stephen King book-movies, the supernatural aspect is only minor compared to the rest of the story, but it comes into play at the end. Carrie's mom (Piper Laurie) is an over-protective religious zealot who makes The Royal Tenenbaums seem normal. So Carrie tries to cope with her horrible life, but it's getting tougher and tougher.
Another movie poster.
Carrie's soon to be only concerned friend.
Sissy Spaceck's beauty is almost divine like.
Billy Nolan the bad guy.
Chris Hargenson. A real bitch.
Spacek is exceptional as Carrie, and I now know why she was nominated for Best Actress. Her emotions are real, not some fake tear drops that make us think she's sad. Either she has great motivation, or she's one of the best actresses of the century (or both!). Laurie was equally good as her mother who locks Carrie up in a closet everytime she thinks that Carrie has sinned. This movie wouldn't be half of what it was if the acting wasn't so great. When Carrie was sad, you were sad. When the other kids ridiculed her, you felt like you wanted to kill the kids. When she smiled, you smiled. Emotions that raw couldn't come from just any movie.
If you know me, I'm a stickler for character developement. Carrie didn't take much time, but from the opening scene you knew about Carrie and her weakness. So are the secondary characters; they're nicely developed even if their role isn't that major. Travolta had a miniscule role, but he was fine in it; it led to Grease and Saturday Night Fever.
Catholic punishment was a thing in the film.
William Katt failed to be Luke Skywalker but he made it to Carrie.
Piper Laurie as the religiously insane mother.
The prom scene has got to be one of the most memorable scenes from a horror movie. That red tint is awesome; it's like a premonition. In fact, the movie is full of premonition: the red tint, the freaky looking voodoo doll, "They're all going to laugh at you." I'm assuming that director Brian De Palma meant to put that in, so it just isn't about some supernatural powers, it's also about foreshadowing. Also, I dig that camera movement during the dancing.
Sissy Spacek in the prom with the Greatest American Hero, yikes!
Die as a Christian!
Blood on thy hands.
Deadly blue eyes.
Crucifixion time!
Swine Blood bucket bath.
The blood and gore wasn't held back, but they just put in what was necessary. De Palma obviously used some horror tricks from Hitchcock's masterpiece Psycho, mainly the music cue whenever Carrie is using her telepathy. Also, her school, Bates High, is another Psycho reference.
Exploitation was still a thing to consider in the 70's.
The exploitation opening titles.
Opening titles, nude school girls exploitation.
Carrie was also very creepy. It wasn't a thrill-a-minute, but at the ending, that was Scary with a capital S. The last ten or twenty minutes were scare-inducing for sure. That last jump scene in the dream...wow! It's still jumping at me. If there was one complaint I had to do about the movie, it's that it took too much time to get to main scene and the prom went on a little too long, but other than that it's a first class horrror/thriller that any horror buff needs to see.
This movie is definitely a classic meant for every movie freak out there, and even for us Stephen King's reader the movie is quite a deal. Add to that a wonderful soundtrack composed in its entirety by Pino Donnagio plus a couple of sung tracks by the wonderful voice of Katie Irving and you got one of the greatest horror films ever made, although it's a big budget movie it feels as it was an exploitation with the elements that made a movie a cult movie, you know some nudity, blood, action, good lines and a 70's style music score.
I happen to own the DVD released by MGM some years ago and both image and sound are pristine, besides it features interviews with the cast and a booklet describing the film production.
Definitely a must have for any Stephen King fan, or for any 70's horror movies fan and exploitation lovers.
Here's the movie trailer:
Stephen king, the man himself talking about his first book, the break through, Carrie!
