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Ruby
Blood Ruby
USA 1977
produced by George Edwards, Steve Krantz (executive)
directed by Curtis Harrington, Stephanie Rothman (uncredited)
starring Piper Laurie, Stuart Whitman, Roger Davis, Janit Baldwin, Sal Vecchio, Paul Kent, Len Lesser, Crystin Sinclaire, Jack Perkins, Eddy Donno, Fred Kohler jr, Rory Stevens, Raymond Kark, Jan Burrell, Kip Gillespie, Tamar Cooper, Patricia Allison, Stu Olson, Mary Margaret Robinson, Michael Alldredge
screenplay by George Edwards, Barry Schneider, based on a story by Steve Krantz, music by Don Ellis
review by Dale Pierce
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A silly vehicle put out to capitalize on Piper Laurie's comeback after her
triumphant screen return as the role of the psychotic mother in Carrie.
This go around she is a former gun moll, now operating a drive--in theatre and
employing her former gang members in this business, helping them all go
legitimate. One runs a projector, another takes tickets and so on. Now just
why selfrespecting gangsters would stoop to a position like this and suddenly
get a burning desire to become honest cotizens is in itelsf too far fetched to
buy into, but that is what the screenplay would have us believe.
If this isn't silly enough, the ghost of a murdered mobster, whom Ruby had
helped send to the other world, shows up, takes control of Ruby's
daughter and starts to wreck mob-style revenge upon his former cohorts in
crime.
Remember the line from the famous film, The Godfather, about "Luca Brazzi
sleeps with the fishes?" Well, this guy does not sleep for long with them
and in the end, pulls Ruby down into a watery grave where his body was dumped
long before. The scene of her struggling with the skeletal remains of her old
lover could not have looked more unimpressive had it been done by Ed Wood Jr.
The killings aside from this, however, are interesting enough with one man
killed in the projection booth, another pinned to the big screen and still another unlucky stiff thrown into a vending machine, where blood rather than
pop comes out and the customer tasting it gives a disgruintled yick.
Not enough to save the flick and have it listed as a cult
classic, mind you, but enough to make it watchable for at least one sitting.
As an actress, Laurie gives the campiest performance this side of Bradford
Dillman or the late Tod Slaughter, yet even she cannot pull things from the
fire. She enjoys the role of a villainess as much as she did in Carrie, though
unlike this role for which she has become best known, Ruby
did nothing for her career. I seem to recall newspaper critics and horror fanzine writers at the
time feeling the same way, by applauding her role, yet panning the movie.
With the remake craze going on any more, the only thing I really dread is
someone going out and reshooting the movie, with the cast of The Sopranos in
it, this time.
The film is obviously not to be confused with Ruby, which was out a few years
later, but centers on the life (with much "creative writing" within
the script) of Jack Ruby, the man who shot Lee Harvey Oswald, presumed killer
of President Kennedy.
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review © by Dale Pierce
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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