THE OUTSIDE MAN 1972

    After the massive success of William Friedkin's THE FRENCH CONNECTION in 1971, there was a flood of urban police action/dramas that began popping up on movie screens and along with the release of DIRTY HARRY in that same year, it also ramped up with the output from Europe in particular Italy with the more revenge-oriented action poliziotteschi films.

   Combing neo-noir with more cool/efficient French crime films, THE OUTSIDE MAN was a French/Italian co-production filmed in Los Angeles and was directed by Jacques Deray who specialized in crime thrillers throughout the '60s and into the '90s. Many of his films starred the great Alain Delon and his work is strongly reminiscent of Jean Pierre Melville's crime films of the '50s and '60s, although sadly much of Deray's work remains unknown in America.
   Opening with a helicopter shot of a smoggy downtown Los Angeles and the famous cloverleaf freeway interchange while composer Michael Legrand's funky title song plays over the opening credits (which sounds like we're heading into blaxploitation territory) we're introduced to Lucien Bellon (Jean-Louis Trintignant THE GREAT SILENCE) as he arrives from Paris at LAX. Checking into his hotel he receives a briefcase from the desk clerk left by his "secretary" and going up to his room calmly removes a gun and a large amount of cash from the briefcase.

   Renting an automobile and in a nice touch consulting a map (which foretells his future predicament) he drives to a mansion in Beverly Hills. Cool and emotionless he gains entrance to the house and kills Victor Kovacs (Ted de Corsia familiar from countless classic film-noirs) and while leaving he's seen by Victor's wife Jackie (Angie Dickinson BIG BAD MAMA) and his son Alex (Umberto Orsini GOODBYE EMMANUELLE). It's also quickly revealed that the relationship between Jackie and Carl goes a bit deeper than the usual stepson/stepmother and they later give a false description of the killer to the police with the detective played by Felice Orlandi from BULLITT.
   Arriving back at his hotel Bellon finds his passport, luggage, and money gone effectively stranding him in an unknown city with no support and as he soon discovers, another hitman (Roy Scheider THE SEVEN UPS) is stalking him presumably hired by Jackie and Alex. Escaping to a supermarket parking lot, he kidnaps a mother (Georgia Engel THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW) and her son (Jackie Earle Haley THE DAY OF THE LOCUST). Hiding out in their apartment he gets in touch with the boss back home is put in contact with Nancy (Ann Margaret C.C. AND COMPANY), a waitress in a topless bar who helps him.
   With Nancy's assistance, Bellon gets a new passport while continually avoiding the attempts on his life by Scheider (who's referred to as Lenny or "the guy from Detroit") all the while navigating through an alien city. Scheider's hitman has no problem finding Bellon as he pops up everywhere but then is totally inept at the actual killing as the pair randomly spray bullets throughout the city. At one point Bellon hooks up with a motorcycle gang in the parking lot of the old Tower Records on Sunset and they escort him downtown while at another point he picks up a hippie Jesus-freak who is shot in the head accidentally by the ever-persistent but inept Lenny. The film climaxes with a bizarre sequence at Victor Kovac's funeral with all the characters from the film gather together for a massive shootout with Victor's body embalmed and sitting upright in a chair with a cigar raised silently watching the action.

   One of the more fascinating things to watch for me in films is the way European directors look at America and their take on the landscape and architecture. Here instead of focusing on the tourist L.A., Deray instead shows us the more seedy and genetic aspects of the city including a shoot-out at the decrepit Venice Amusement Pier followed by a chase through over that cites canals. Except for the gangster's Beverly Hills mansion, the movie spends almost the entire running time in hourly-rate motels, diners, topless bars, and rundown apartments and whenever the characters are outside they're lost in endless acres of concrete and highways. Thom Anderson is his excellent documentary L.A. PLAYS ITSELF calls THE OUTSIDE MAN "the most precise portrait of the city there is"
    Deray also shows technology as sometimes intrusive and sometimes quirky as TV's drone away in the background in almost every interior scene, as at one point Bellon listlessly watches STAR TREK. At a bus station, he watches the news concerning himself and the killing on a small coin-operated TV and uses a coin-operated electric razor in the restroom there (which would seem like a hygienic nightmare). The film is reminiscent somewhat of John Boorman's excellent L.A. based neo-noir POINT BLANK with its detached protagonist wandering through a cold mechanized world.

    Jean-Louis Trintignant is magnificent as he coolly and methodically goes upon his assignment during the first part of the picture and then all the while keeping his quiet demeanor as things begin to fall apart during the course of the plot. There's a nice little touch when the only time we see him smile is in a strip of photos he takes in a do-it-yourself photo booth for his passport pictures.
   The entire cast is excellent (this probably Ann Margaret's best role) and Scheider with about five lines of dialogue seems to be having a great time with his role. Coming off the previous year's THE FRENCH CONNECTION he gets the central image in the promotional artwork. French actor Michel Constantin who was a regular in the French crime films of the period shows up as Bellon's boss who arrives to lend a hand and American character actors Ben Piazza and Sidney Chute appear along with John Hillerman as an officious sales clerk in a department store.
  The film was cut to receive a PG rating originally losing some nudity (with some surprising full-frontal stuff) in the topless bar scenes. THE OUTSIDE MAN is available on DVD from MGM through their on-demand service in the full uncut R version, but this really deserves a nice Blu-ray release. Kino has some Jacques Deray scheduled for release later this year as part of their Studio Canal deal, including the excellent THE OUTSIDER with Jean-Paul Belmondo.

  

     

Happy Birthday Angie Dickinson !! BIG BAD MAMA 1974

A Machine Gun Totin' Angie Blasts Her Way Through Depression 

Era Texas In This Roger Corman Exploitation Drive-In Classic !

"Hot Lead - Hot Cars - Hot Damn !"

"Men, Money and Moonshine : When It Comes To Vice Mama Know Best !" 

     Throughout his career Roger Corman always showed a certain affinity for the gangster film genre as perhaps like the biker films he also worked on the notion of rebels living outside the law appealed to his streak of independence as a filmmaker. Starting out in 1958 with MACHINE GUN KELLY (starring a young Charles "pre- Bronson" Buchinsky) & the fictional I, MOBSTER and later through his first New World film BLOODY MAMA from 1970 which chronicled the story via the drive-in of Ma Barker's gang of drug addled & psychotic offspring with Shelly Winters in the title role (with Robert DeNiro & Don Stroud among her sons). Down the road and his deal with Fox there was THE ST. VALENTINES DAY MASSACRE and Ben Gazzara as a scenery chewing Al Capone in CAPONE. 

     In 1974 Angie Dickinson was a forty something year old actress who seemed to be most famous for being the on again off again wife of singer Burt Bacharach. During her film career in the 60's and early 70's she seemed to have a unique affinity for attaching herself to projects that while maybe not box office gold at the time of release have gone on to be cult classics such as John Borman's psychedelic neo-noir POINT BLANK and Roger Vadim's PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW (which was the subject of last years Angie birthday post) along with ones that are looked upon with a new appreciation (Howard Hawk's RIO BRAVO) or now considered "hip" (OCEANS 11) and some that are even waiting to be discovered such as 1972's THE OUTSIDE MAN.

     However 1974 was an auspicious year for Angie, as a couple of serendipitous events occurred for her career-wise. She appeared in an episode of the anthology TV show POLICE STORY entitled The Gamble and was approached by Roger Corman to star in a low budget depression era gangster movie. The Gamble was picked up for a regular series as POLICE WOMAN and Angie went on to star in BIG BAD MAMA for New World Pictures. Corman cannily held up the release for his movie, tying it into POLICE WOMAN's premiere on Sept. 13 as BIG BAD MAMA opened in theatres across the country within a week of the shows first episode (Roger even premiered it in Angie's home state of North Dakota).
    The instant success of POLICE WOMAN along with Angie's publicity fueled BIG BAD MAMA nude scenes (pictures of which that seemed to show up in every men's magazine published at the time) meant that Roger had a box office bonanza on his hands as BIG BAD MAMA went on to make roughly $5,00,000 in ticket sales and played for years on the drive-in circuit. It later (probably a bit too later) spawned a sequel with Angie in the form of 1987's BIG BAD MAMA II (which isn't nearly as bad as some folks say) and there was even talk of a third entry in the early 90's which never materialized.

     Directed by Steve Carver (THE ARENA) and written by William Norton (WHITE LIGHTNING) & Frances Doel (DEATHSPORT) BIG BAD MAMA sticks to the usual New World game plan of blood or boobs every 15 minutes or so and in its 84 minutes barely stops to catch its breath. Along with Corman's biker films it plays up a bit of the "anti-establishment" plot that also channels a bit of Arthur Penn's BONNIE AND CLYDE from 1967.
    Filmed in various spots around Southern California (filling in for "West Texas" during the plot's first half before moving to a more convenient So Cal setting for the second half), it was shot in a breakneck 20 days for a budget of approx. $400,000. Under that tight shooting schedule Carver obliviously had to set up shots quickly, but there's only the occasional stray contemporary streetlight in the background to betray the film's time frame - although I'm not sure Angie's brightly colored bell bottom slacks were a fashion item in the 1930's.
    Wilma McClatchie (Angie) is a widow eking out an existence in 1930's Depression era Texas with her two daughters Billy Jean (Susan Stennett THE CANDY SNATCHERS and the OZZIE'S GIRLS TV show) and Polly (Robbie Lee SWITCHBLADE SISTERS). After breaking up the impending marriage of the younger & more innocent doll carrying Polly, Wilma hooks up bootlegger "Uncle Barney" played by Noble Washington (FIGHTING MAD). Alternately pawing at both Wilma and her daughters ol' Barney is soon killed by a couple of G-Men led by "that guy" Dick Miller. Wilma unsuccessfully tries to carry on in the bootleg business and while later coming up short as waitress she catches her daughters in the midst of an impromptu striptease performance for a bunch of drunken lodge members whereupon she decides to turn to a life of crime.

      Kick starting their life outside the law by attempting pass a bogus check at a bank Wilma and her daughters are interrupted by bank robber Fred Diller (Tom Skerritt ALIEN). Joining together the group begins robbing banks with Wilma and Fred eventually sharing a bed while Billy Jean and Polly look on eagerly from the background. Eventually the quartet hooks with shifty con man William J. Baxter (a post STAR TREK William Shatner - with one of the strangest fading in and out Southern accents ever heard) with Baxter & Wilma eventually doing some nude frolicking together that drives Fred into the bed(s) of Billy Jean & Polly (sometimes both at the same time !).
     Looking to make one big score they kidnap heiress Joan Kingston (Joan Prather THE DEVILS RAIN) which unfortunately leads to their downfall as the growing animosity between the males (who's getting Angie tonight !?!) along with other sundry sexual tensions and a whiny backstabbing Capt. Kirk all lead to the climatic and bloody shoot-out with Dick Miller's G Men and a whole lot of squibs.
    Although filled out with several bloody shootings BIG BAD MAMA is far more lighter viewing experience then the more sleazy and nihilistic BLOODY MAMA as Angie's crime spree has a bit of humor attached to it while not totally shying away from the blood & violence. It's interesting to compare the fictional Wilma to Winter's portrayal of Ma Barker as their both strong willed woman looking out for their children and desperately trying to keep the family unit intact (although in BLOODY MAMA Ma Barker might be too close to her sons). Skerritt's character is only male in the film that shows much of a backbone or isn't there strictly for comic relief as the other men-folk are shown as weak willed and/or stupid slobs who are no more then a nuisance to Wilma's plans.
     She does let men into her world but its never in doubt who is in charge. Probably because of Frances Doel input to the script the film has a strong feminist slant that fits in with Angie's strong performance as a driven woman in a man's world.

    Along with Angie the entire female cast sheds their clothes at one point or another (including a totally gratuitous scene by Sally Kirkland playing a surprised hooker) and as Susan Stennett was just coming off the family friendly TV show OZZIE'S GIRLS her romping about in the all together with Tom Skerritt must have caused a bit of a stir. If there's a fault in the film, its that it attempts to introduce too many characters into the proceedings with the result being some underdeveloped plot points. Although its understandable that Wilma would allow Fred into the fold for his bank robbing expertise, we never really figure out what the heck Shatner is dong there and why Wilma would allow him into the gang (and it would have been nice to get some more Dick Miller). Plus being this close to his STAR TREK tenure Shatner seems to have just stepped out of that episode where the Enterprise ends up on that planet that's based upon gangland Chicago.
    Angie is simply terrific in this as she jumps into her part with total gusto and to her credit has never tried to shy away from her participation or disown the film. On the Shout Factory DVD she shares a light hearted & informative commentary with Corman, relating many amusing stories such as that although she was fine with the crew being around for her nude scenes Shatner insisted on a closed set. She also points out the exact frame that was reprinted in countless men's magazines and has many complimentary things to say about the production and practically the entire cast and crew.

All the above screen caps are from the Shout Factory DVD