Outrageous from beginning to end, POOR PRETTY EDDY is one of the most rewarding bits of cult Americana I've ever seen, and right up there with OPEN SEASON (1974), SUPERVAN (1978), and SAVAGE WEEKEND (1976) as examples of the best & worst of 1970's cinema wrapped up into 90 minute packages.
As others have noted, POOR PRETTY EDDY concerns a popular black vocalist played by 70's game show favorite Leslie Uggams -- shown singing the National Anthem at a baseball game in the All-American opening segment -- who's car breaks down in what looks to be Aintry, which as we remember was where the boys in DELIVERANCE were trying to canoe to. The late Shelley Winters plays an insane, alcoholic washed up actress & local celebrity who runs a bar/hotel on the outskirts of town, with behemoth Ted 'Lurch' Cassidy as the local handyman instructed to fix Ms. Uggams' car while Winters puts her up at her lodge for a night or two of home cooked dinners, clowning around with the local boys, and most importantly catching the eye of Winters' son Eddie (or Eddy, played by producer Michael Christian), a dangerously psychotic Elvis impersonator with zero talent, prospects, or charm.
Eddy decides he's never seen nothing finer than this sophisticated, black woman from the city, decides the two of them make the perfect couple, tells to the local populace that he is going to make Uggams his bride, and announces his intentions to the singer from her bed as she returns to her room after deciding to get the living hell out of there. He rapes her repeatedly, and before we know it, Uggams is at the sheriff's office filing criminal charges to Slim Pickens in what might be his best screen role since HAWMPS, or maybe DR. STRANGELOVE. Pickens of course knows that poor Eddy wants to marry the little Phillie & explains that sometimes soon-to-be newlyweds have these kinds of disagreements. He agrees to look into the matter but urges Uggams to give the boy a chance, and in the film's most surreal moment offers up a bowl of garden fresh vegetables & suggests "Why don't you suck on one of them there tomaters, they'll make you feel real fine again."
So here is backwoods Americana as surrealism over a decade before CRY BABY or TWIN PEAKS, which is about the only things one can really compare it to but even that misses the mark. Winters' bar/hotel is one of the most unreal movie sets ever constructed (or a brilliantly chosen pre-existing location), the surrounding woods & hills cloak the community in a seemingly impenetrable veil that hides the goings on from the rest of the world in addition to isolating Uggams to any chance of help from the outside. The countryside is littered with derelict cars, heaps of hillbilly trash, roads that lead right back to where they started and all sorts of friendly local types who know she & Eddy will make a fine family, even if she ain't exactly of the local color. It all climaxes in a terrifying town hall meeting & ice cream social night, with insane Dub Taylor presiding over the ceremonies and where Eddy is set to perform, dedicating the first set to his new bride to be.
It's here that the film sort of takes a misstep & becomes predictable. First time through, however, this movie is a complete enigma, unlike anything you've ever seen. We know going into it that Uggams will be sexually violated and seek revenge, but just how these events take place is still -- thirty-one years after the film was made -- fresh, original, provocative, disturbing, hilarious and even somewhat endearing. Watching Slim Pickens steal the show as he shovels down a home cooked sit-down dinner is a joy to behold, Ted Cassidy has fun with his role of a huge lummox who isn't quite as dim witted as he might seem, and Shelley Winters once again delivers a performance as the local matriarch that does not feel like acting, so much as a creation of an alternate persona. She was a brilliant actress who took on a number of risky, low budget projects like this and infused them with a sense of vitality that went beyond what would have normally been expected. Without her presence the film just wouldn't have been the same, and it's story really is about her private, twisted world more than anything else.
Hitchcock would have loved it. Here is one of those movies that is for people who think they may have seen it all. Folks may make reference to the film being a farce or camp masterpiece, but it's more an example of kitsch, celebrating it's poor taste like ANDY WARHOL'S FRANKENSTEIN or OPEN SEASON and being hilarious at the same time while it's creeping you out. The trick is that the films manage to keep a straight face while presenting you with situations & actions that are so absurd they become surreal: More real then reality. In that vein of thinking then POOR PRETTY EDDY is another one of those 1970's urban paranoia pictures about sophisticated city folk meeting their match out in the sticks in the form of a community of crackers who's warped sense of reality is totally at odds with the laws of physics. That such places & people might really exist is not outside the realm of possibility, and while the film does exploit low-income rural yokels as stereotypes any negative connotations are blown away by an unseen hero emerging from the pack after deciding he'd had enough of it.
9/10: I'd give it a perfect score but it does go on for about 10 minutes longer than it really should have, with an obligatory blood bath ending that a distributor probably insisted on. But up until then this is a crackerjack slice of Americana, and highly recommended for 4th of July viewing.
As others have noted, POOR PRETTY EDDY concerns a popular black vocalist played by 70's game show favorite Leslie Uggams -- shown singing the National Anthem at a baseball game in the All-American opening segment -- who's car breaks down in what looks to be Aintry, which as we remember was where the boys in DELIVERANCE were trying to canoe to. The late Shelley Winters plays an insane, alcoholic washed up actress & local celebrity who runs a bar/hotel on the outskirts of town, with behemoth Ted 'Lurch' Cassidy as the local handyman instructed to fix Ms. Uggams' car while Winters puts her up at her lodge for a night or two of home cooked dinners, clowning around with the local boys, and most importantly catching the eye of Winters' son Eddie (or Eddy, played by producer Michael Christian), a dangerously psychotic Elvis impersonator with zero talent, prospects, or charm.
Eddy decides he's never seen nothing finer than this sophisticated, black woman from the city, decides the two of them make the perfect couple, tells to the local populace that he is going to make Uggams his bride, and announces his intentions to the singer from her bed as she returns to her room after deciding to get the living hell out of there. He rapes her repeatedly, and before we know it, Uggams is at the sheriff's office filing criminal charges to Slim Pickens in what might be his best screen role since HAWMPS, or maybe DR. STRANGELOVE. Pickens of course knows that poor Eddy wants to marry the little Phillie & explains that sometimes soon-to-be newlyweds have these kinds of disagreements. He agrees to look into the matter but urges Uggams to give the boy a chance, and in the film's most surreal moment offers up a bowl of garden fresh vegetables & suggests "Why don't you suck on one of them there tomaters, they'll make you feel real fine again."
So here is backwoods Americana as surrealism over a decade before CRY BABY or TWIN PEAKS, which is about the only things one can really compare it to but even that misses the mark. Winters' bar/hotel is one of the most unreal movie sets ever constructed (or a brilliantly chosen pre-existing location), the surrounding woods & hills cloak the community in a seemingly impenetrable veil that hides the goings on from the rest of the world in addition to isolating Uggams to any chance of help from the outside. The countryside is littered with derelict cars, heaps of hillbilly trash, roads that lead right back to where they started and all sorts of friendly local types who know she & Eddy will make a fine family, even if she ain't exactly of the local color. It all climaxes in a terrifying town hall meeting & ice cream social night, with insane Dub Taylor presiding over the ceremonies and where Eddy is set to perform, dedicating the first set to his new bride to be.
It's here that the film sort of takes a misstep & becomes predictable. First time through, however, this movie is a complete enigma, unlike anything you've ever seen. We know going into it that Uggams will be sexually violated and seek revenge, but just how these events take place is still -- thirty-one years after the film was made -- fresh, original, provocative, disturbing, hilarious and even somewhat endearing. Watching Slim Pickens steal the show as he shovels down a home cooked sit-down dinner is a joy to behold, Ted Cassidy has fun with his role of a huge lummox who isn't quite as dim witted as he might seem, and Shelley Winters once again delivers a performance as the local matriarch that does not feel like acting, so much as a creation of an alternate persona. She was a brilliant actress who took on a number of risky, low budget projects like this and infused them with a sense of vitality that went beyond what would have normally been expected. Without her presence the film just wouldn't have been the same, and it's story really is about her private, twisted world more than anything else.
Hitchcock would have loved it. Here is one of those movies that is for people who think they may have seen it all. Folks may make reference to the film being a farce or camp masterpiece, but it's more an example of kitsch, celebrating it's poor taste like ANDY WARHOL'S FRANKENSTEIN or OPEN SEASON and being hilarious at the same time while it's creeping you out. The trick is that the films manage to keep a straight face while presenting you with situations & actions that are so absurd they become surreal: More real then reality. In that vein of thinking then POOR PRETTY EDDY is another one of those 1970's urban paranoia pictures about sophisticated city folk meeting their match out in the sticks in the form of a community of crackers who's warped sense of reality is totally at odds with the laws of physics. That such places & people might really exist is not outside the realm of possibility, and while the film does exploit low-income rural yokels as stereotypes any negative connotations are blown away by an unseen hero emerging from the pack after deciding he'd had enough of it.
9/10: I'd give it a perfect score but it does go on for about 10 minutes longer than it really should have, with an obligatory blood bath ending that a distributor probably insisted on. But up until then this is a crackerjack slice of Americana, and highly recommended for 4th of July viewing.