The Stepmother

A hot-headed architect thinks his wife is cheating on him, which leads him to murder. Another, even worse guy gets the blame but the police still have suspicions. Meanwhile, the stress of all this palaver drives his wife to seduce his son.

This drive-in flick was made by exploitation specialists Crown International in the period when they were producing their most consistently interesting work. While this isn't amongst their best as such, it's still effective enough and gets by quite a bit off the back of its early 70's charms. It has to be said that it indeed does take a long while before the title of the movie attains any relevance whatsoever but that's just one of the factors that gives this one its goofy appeal I reckon. So long as you don't go into this one with unrealistic expectations, then I think a pretty good time can be had. Its simple-minded melodrama kept me entertained in any case. On a final note, and what has to be the one thing that will always make this one at least a footnote in cinema history is the quite unbelievable fact that the crooning song with Latin beat that plays over the credits entitled 'Strange Are the Ways of Love' was actually nominated for an Academy Award! There is no way on Earth I ever expected anything from Crown International got anywhere near Oscar territory. The early 70's truly were strange days indeed

In the 70's, you would see a lot of skin in drama and thrillers. Then there's the sex factor that goes along with it. In "The Stepmother", there is plenty of that. Alejandro Rey("The Flying Nun") plays Frank, a successful building contractor who catches his client with his wife while he was on a business trip. He kills him, then buries his body at a beach. Unbeknownst to him, there's a fighting couple that comes up later. After getting rid of the evidence, the police comes up and tells that there are two bodies at the beach. Frank knows that he killed his client, but the other body is female. That makes him more uneasy. If that is bad, it gets worse when he accidentally kills his partner in the business. That makes him more unstable. For this one, business and pleasure, don't mix. It has a great cast. But the ending was a letdown. It's worth the watch in certain ways. Only on a certain occasion. 2 out of 5 stars

Architect Frank Delgado returns to his home in Mexico. His wealthy client Alan Richmond forces himself on his wife Margo. Frank runs into Alan on his driveway. Suspecting them having an affair, Frank kills Alan and buries his body. He escapes without being seen by a fighting couple. The police investigates Alan's strangulation death but also the young Mexican woman. Dick Hill arrives with company to talk his business partner Frank into going to a beach house which belongs to Alan.

This movie starts off well with a murder. However the tension that is build up by the opening is lost as the movie struggles through a slow boring slough. This is possibly the worst looking movie I've ever seen that is nominated for an Oscar. Alejandro Rey is a pretty awful actor. The movie has a few good actors and Larry Linville could have been an interesting lead. The staging is very static and the bad direction drains away all of the tension.

I like weird 70's movies a lot, but this is weird even by weird 70's standards. It takes about half the movie, for instance, to even figure out why it's CALLED "The Stepmother"--it, at first, seems to be a movie about a jealous middle-aged, Mexican-American architect who murders a business associate after he finds him in bed with his younger gringa wife (and unbeknownst to the wife). By a weird coincidence another more lower-class Mexican also murders his wife in the same area and is framed for both murders. But the cops begins to suspect the architect, and his continuing jealously causes him to accidentally kill his partner and best friend (played by "MASH's" Larry Linville). He then has to fend off the amorous advances of the friend's widow before the cops grow even more suspicious. Got all that so far?

So why is it called "The Stepmother"? Well, about halfway through the man's son shows up from Mexico City, and he also starts messing around with the young wife (his stepmother)and the off-kilter plot REALLY goes into over-drive.

There are a few reasons to see this. First, if you're a weird 70's film completist. This film is kind similar to early 70's bizarro flick "Swinger's Massacre", which was equally ridiculous but had a less random plot. Second, if you're a fan of Larry Linville, he's actually pretty good here and acts circles around the rest of the unknown cast. The best reason perhaps though is this was the first appearance of cult drive-in queen Claudia Jennings. Jennings has a cameo role as a stoned-out hippie chick who has one hilarious line where she tell the cops she was "way too ripped" to remember what happened the night of the murder. (And if that isn't worth the price of admission, she also has her typically gratuitous full-frontal nude scene). Weird, weird movie, but if any of this sounds interesting to you, check it out.

Upon returning home from a business trip "Frank Delgado" (Alejandro Rey) finds another car in his driveway and happens to see his wife, "Margo Delgado" (Catherine Justice) in their bedroom with another man. As the man comes out into the front yard Frank kills him in a fit of rage. Immediately afterward he comes to his senses and decides to quickly bury him in a field on the outskirts of town. Unfortunately, as luck would have it the body is soon discovered anyway and Frank is considered as a possible suspect. In the meantime though, Frank cannot manage to forgive his wife because of her supposed infidelity and so refrains from making love to her from then on. What he doesn't know is that the man he killed had forced himself on her and since Margo is unaware that Frank knows anything about this incident it has left her feeling confused and sexually frustrated. Now, rather than reveal any more of the film I will just say that this was an adequate movie for the most part. The acting was okay but the story seemed to lag here and there. Likewise, I also thought the ending was a bit too abrupt. All things considered then, I rate the movie as slightly below average.