a Couple of very different movies

Bonnie & Clyde wannabe poster.

Cast pic.

Two decent actors wasted on a film.

Little Laura & Big John

The Florida Everglades in the 1920's. Starred  by John Ashley and his sweet, flighty steady gal pal Laura (a charming performance by the ever-radiant Karen Black) are the leaders of an outlaw gang. The wild'n'rowdy bunch achieve considerable notoriety by robbing banks, running booze, breaking out of jail, and eluding the cops while embarking on a jolly crime spree in the southeast. Directed with a reasonable amount of flair and style by Luke Moberly and Bob Woodburn, this picture sizes up an an immensely enjoyable little "Bonnie and Clyde" cash-in copy. Fabian and Black make for a rather unlikely, but genuinely appealing and attractive criminal couple. Nice supporting contributions by Ken Miller as lecherous gang member Hanford, Paul Gleason as a hard-nosed sheriff, and Ivy Thayer as Laura's forlorn, regretful mother. Cliff Frates and Evie Karafotias are extremely cute and endearing as John and Laura as little kids in touching flashback sequences. Edmund Gibson's pretty, picturesque cinematography, Bill Walker's jaunty swing band score, the flavorsome period atmosphere, and several rousing shoot-outs all likewise hit the spot. My sole criticism: the frequent groovy modern rock songs and music are painfully inappropriate and anachronistic. That minor quibble aside, this film overall rates as a tremendously fun and spirited romp.

Original movie poster.

Opening titles.

Burnout

Formula story about a man who wants to make it on his own without his dad's help. Productions values are one step above home movie. Considering it's a movie about drag racing, there is very little racing in the movie, although there is a never ending string of blue grass music to keep you from falling asleep. The promo posters made for this film were obviously a la exploitation style because the three babes we see show up very few times during the movie. Anyways the film itself is of course meant for those who have a thing for cars, specially for drag racing 70's nostalgia. The transfer to DVD is near to pristine quality the audio mix is also quite good and the film can be found in the 12 Savage Movie Pack, released by Millcreek Entertainment, experts on re-releasing  vintage stuff, in fact they have released this year Girls, Guns & G-Strings, a 12 movie pack collection of films made by Andy Sidaris, a guy known for his late 80's & early 90's action packed flicks with dozens of playmate centerfolds paying homage to the exploitation genre ASAP I'll make myself with a copy of it, and of course reviews will land right here as usual.

Sadly, there were no trailers nor movie excerpts for both Big John & Little Laura and Burnout movies , I even had difficulties finding screen caps.

Original movie poster!

Linda Vaughn Spokes model for the former Gratiot Auto Supply chain.

Linda Vaugh once again.

Another movie poster.