Beautiful Leslie Uggams stars as Liz Wetherly, a singer who is taking a couple of weeks off. She develops car trouble and is stranded in a bizarre southern backwash community.
Here she meets Eddie Collins (Michael Christian), a psychotic Elvis wannabe and the woman who keeps him happy, and vise-versa, Bertha (Shelley Winters). Eddie takes am immediate liking to Liz and Bertha tries to get her car fixed so she can leave town.
Things go from bad to worse as Eddie rapes Liz and beats her with a belt when she is "bad". She goes to the sheriff (Slim Pickins) to report the rape, but the sheriff and his inbred assistant are too interested in Liz and her "titties". I kid you not.
The subsequent trial held in a redneck bar where Liz has her blouse ripped off so everyone can see her "titties" is one of the final straws that pushes Liz into a sort of catatonic state. It's at this point that Eddie decides he wants to marry Liz an throw Bertha out, and this sets up the very disturbing climax.
This film is actually beyond a description, but it really must be seen to be believed. There are so many things in this movie to talk about such as when Eddie rapes Liz the scene is played out against a country music love song and footage of a character named Keno (Ted Cassidy) and some inbred rednecks watching dogs having sex!!
There is Slim Pickens as a "tomater" sucking Sheriff, Dub Taylor as a pool hall owner/Judge and their idea of justice is to rip a womans clothes off in court and then drool over her beautiful body!
Movies like this just cannot be easily talked about as they encompass so much, and this film really has something to offend everyone which makes it a masterpiece. It played in drive-in's for about 10 years under many different titles, and star Leslie Uggams says it keeps rising like a Phoenix, and she may be right.
Everyone in the cast plays their part with excellence, even the extras do a fantastic job in creating a southern redneck hell in which a young black woman in enslaved and driven to near madness. One of the most brilliant moments in the film comes early on when Bertha tells Liz that she wants to keep Eddie to herself. It's basically Shelley Winters being and talking about Shelly Winters. It really hits home. And who could forget the scene in which Eddie has Keno, Bertha and Liz over for breakfast he has cooked the night after the trial. That scene alone is a shocker.
The Blu-ray presentation is beautiful for a film like this and if you've seen "Deliverance" you need to see this film as it make the latter seem like a school outing. I do admit I love this film!! It takes a brilliant mind to conceive a film that is so startling on many levels.
I have always admitted surprise at seeing Leslie Uggams in this film, but she does a very good job even if her character is one dimensional. They could never find a sexy black actress to make a film like this today...oh hell who am I kidding....they couldn't make a film like this today anyway...we live in a way to liberal induced PC world.
SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!
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