Sixteen (1973)

Director:

Lawrence Dobkin

Writers:

Jim Lowe (story)
Curtis Brown Taylor (screenplay)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

She Learned Everything The Hard Way

Plot Keywords:

Parent Child Relationship | Georgia USA | Money | First Sexual Experience | Lost

Cast

Mercedes McCambridge	...	Ma Irtley
Ford Rainey	...	Pa Irtley
Maidie Norman	...	Aunt Ada
John Lozier	...	Bruvver Irtley
Simone Griffeth	...	Naomi Irtley
Buddy Foster	...	J.C. Irtley
Beverly Powers	...	Carmelita
Peter Greene	...	Jake
Parley Baer	...	The Reverend
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Corley
Mitchell Edmonds	...	County Road Representative
Raymond Edmonds
Jewell Futch	...	Used Car Salesman
Walter Kramer
Lyla Hay Owen
Sonny Shroyer
Boots Tudor

Also Known As:

Like a Crow on a June Bug
The Young Prey (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:R (Nova Scotia) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Valdosta, Georgia, USA

Company:

Futurama International

Generic early 70's weirdness

This was part of a strange cycle of early 70's movies focusing on rural Southern hillbillies--"hicks-ploitation" flicks you might call them. Some of the bigger-budgeted ones, like "Walking Tall", were serious and more or less realistic, while others, like some of the films of Roger Corman or Russ Meyers were more exploitative and melodramatic , while others still, like "Country Cuzzins" were flat-out Harry Novakesque softcore porn "comedies". It's hard to say where this oddity fits in. It has kind of a Southern Gothic feel to it like a William Faulkner or Flannery O'Connor morality tale about a family of poor hillbillies who come into money and are approached by every local con artist from used car salesmen to drunken preachers, but eventually end up at a fair (Vanity Fair, perhaps?) where they are preyed on by carnival folk in a long surreal, largely dialgue-free sequence that were so popular in the era (i.e. "Runaway, Runaway" or "The Pick-Up").

There are certainly some exploitative scenes. There's a really strange scene early on, for instance, where the older brother and sister run off hand-in-hand and go skinny-dipping in a particularly filthy-looking pond while hippy-dippy early seventies music plays. I think this is supposed to show the innocence of the characters. But while the actors are not voluptuous "Lil Abner"-esquire caricatures typically found in these kinds of movies, they don't really look "sixteen" either, let alone as young and impossibly naive as they act. It is mostly this pair that is preyed at the carnival--and mostly sexually of course--but (for better or worse) this movie really fails up to live up to its lurid alternate title "The Young Prey".

At times the movie seems to be trying to be a comedy such as when the mother tells a town magistrate that she named her oldest son J.C., not after Jesus Christ, but because there was a sale at J.C. Penney's the week he was born. The comedy falls flat though usually and the movie falls back on it's generic early 70's weirdness. (Of course, I LIKE early 70's weirdness, but others may prefer a movie with more broad comedy and hillbilly sex). The only recognizable star is Mercedes McCambridge, who appeared in several European Jess Franco films AND provided Linda Blair's demonic voice in "The Exorcist". The older daughter is played by a pretty enough actress (even if she won't make anyone forget about "Daisy Mae Clampet" or "Daisy Duke" ). The youngest son called "Brother" looks vaguely familiar and I think was an early 70's TV actor. But I've said enough. Check this out if it sounds interesting to you.