| Poor Pretty Eddie | |
|---|---|
Original film poster |
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| Directed by | Richard Robinson |
| Studio | Artaxerxes Productions, Michael Thevis Enterprises |
| Release date(s) | 1975 |
| Running time | 86 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Poor Pretty Eddie is a 1975 American film starring Leslie Uggams, Shelly Winters and Michael Christian. Made on a relatively small budget, it is known for having an atypical narrative and direction style, which combines horror, exploitation and surreal drama. It has subsequently become popular in cult and B movie circles.[1]
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Liz Wetherly is a popular black singer in need of a break from her hectic schedule. When her car breaks down, she ends up stuck in a remote southern town that‘s been left for dead “ever since they put in the interstate.”[2]
She is forced to spend the night at “Bertha’s Oasis”, a rundown lodge that serves as the bizarre fiefdom of an overweight ex-burlesque star who lords over her much younger boyfriend, Eddie, and a cast of equally-strange townsfolk. Eddie fancies himself a singer on par with Elvis, and expects Wetherly to make him famous. But things turn ugly for Wetherly, who endures rape and abuse at the hands of her captors, before culminating in her bloody revenge on the “rednecks” that terrorized her.
Any prior experience the film-makers brought to Poor Pretty Eddie was limited mostly to work on adult films. According to the DVD’s extensive liner notes, they secured backing from Michael Thevis, a notorious Atlanta-based businessman commonly known as “The King of Pornography”[3] whose other interests included a chain of sex shops, a record company, and the manufacture of peep-show booths.[4] The film's director, Richard Robinson, knew Thevis from distributing his previous, more adult-oriented productions, and this marked a collective effort by all concerned to “go legit.”[4] Thevis was later jailed on an assortment of charges and, following a prison escape in 1978, was placed on the FBI’s most-wanted list.[5]
The movie's script, loosely based on the Jean Genet play The Balcony, was the work of consummate television writer B.W.Sandefur, who also wrote for such shows as Barnaby Jones, Little House on The Prairie and Charlie’s Angels).[6]
The film was shot on location in and around Athens, Georgia in 1973. The film’s biggest star, Shelley Winters, was flown in on a private plane that nearly crashed upon landing.[4]
Upon its release in 1975, reviews were not kind. One Georgia-based film writer concluded: “Upon leaving the theater, I quite honestly felt nauseous.”[3]
Over the course of its 10-year run at drive-ins and so-called grindhouse theaters, the film was distributed under several different titles and existed in at least two different versions. Alternate titles included: Black Vengeance, The Girl in The Web, The Victim, Redneck County, Redneck County Rape, and in a re-edited (“softer”) version called Heartbreak Motel. The latter version added scenes previously left on the editing room floor while removing a fair amount of violence, and also featured a different ending.[4]