The Lady in Red (1979)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Lewis Teague

Writer:

John Sayles (writer)

Release Date:

July 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

She's made of bullets, sin & bathtub gin!

Plot:

1930's gangster era film about Dillinger and his last girl. Written by John Sayles. |

Plot Keywords:

1930s | Gangster | Female Nudity | Murder | On The Run

Cast

Pamela Sue Martin	...	Polly Franklin
Robert Conrad	...	John Dillinger
Louise Fletcher	...	Anna Sage
Robert Hogan	...	Jake Lingle
Laurie Heineman	...	Rose Shimkus
Glenn Withrow	...	Eddie
Rod Gist	...	Pinetop
Peter Hobbs	...	Pops Geissler
Christopher Lloyd	...	Frognose
Dick Miller	...	Patek
Nancy Parsons	...	Tiny Alice
Alan Vint	...	Melvin Purvis
Milt Kogan	...	Preacher
Chip Fields	...	Satin
Buck Young	...	Hennessey

Also Known As:

Guns, Sin and Bathtub Gin (USA) (reissue title)
Touch Me and Die (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:-12 | Norway:18 | USA:R

Trivia:

Cameo: [Robert Forster]

Quotes:

Satin (a prostitute): The day I can't handle the likes of him, I best get me a needle and thread and sew it shut.

A spirited and engaging crime saga.

Polly Franklin (Pamela Sue Martin), through fate and circumstance, leaves her humdrum life on the family farm in the depression-era Midwest, making her way to Chicago. Here, among other things, she gets sent to prison, is forced into prostitution, briefly becomes the love of notorious criminal John Dillinger (Robert Conrad), and ultimately tries to break into bank robbing herself.

Working from the second film script by the talented John Sayles (his first was "Piranha"), Lewis Teague makes his solo directing debut, having cut his teeth editing and directing second unit for various low-budget flicks. The familiar story is told in pure 1970's exploitation style (lots of nudity on display here, and the violence is quite potent), but it's handled with style, pizazz, and offers some really nice twists and developments.

There's no shortage of reprehensible folks here; the little pleasures often come from seeing them get their just desserts, from lowlife boss Patek (Dick Miller) to jail matron Tiny Alice (Nancy Parsons) to mob collector Frognose (Christopher Lloyd).

Martin has the right amount of appeal and spunk as the title character, ably supported by Conrad as a romanticized Dillinger, Louise Fletcher as kind-hearted madam Anna Sage, Peter Hobbs as the elderly Pops, Rod Gist as Pinetop, and Glenn Withrow as Eddie, with nice cameos by the likes of Mary Woronov and a solid Robert Forster in an uncredited special appearance.

Deftly edited (Teague was one of the three credited editors), with a nice score adapted by James Horner in one of his earliest gigs, and a respectable evocation of the time and place. "The Lady in Red" is an enjoyable 1970's version of a classic 1930's crime story.

8/10