Sins of Rachel

"Sins of Rachel" is a sordid, exploitation-murder mystery written by starring actress Ann Noble. She plays Rachel Waring, a corpulent, over-the-hill entertainer who is currently writing a potentially explosive tell-all book. At the beginning of the movie, she is brutally murdered by an unseen assailant, and the balance of the movie involves flashbacks and an investigation by a detective (Brett Mariott). Among the possible suspects is Rachels' sexually confused son Jimmy (Bruce Campbell - no, not THAT Bruce Campbell), who is drunkenly groped by his mother (!) one night, upon which he runs away and seeks refuge with a sensitive, biker friend played by Chase Cordell (of "Track of the Moon Beast" infamy).

Some of the acting is a bit better than one might expect, but, as the viewer can expect, the filmmaking is pretty crude. (This was filmed in some obscure process called "Texturetone" - what that involves, I don't know.) Still, the story is entertaining in its own very cruddy way, and is actually not hard to follow. Nobles' tone changes regularly, between taking a dim view of the characters and being more sympathetic towards them. There is nudity, but it's courtesy of male co-star Jerome Scott, who plays an up-and-coming entertainer who Rachel takes under her wing. Produced and directed by Dick Fontaine, who also plays a psychologist, "Sins of Rachel" is overall not the kind of obscurity that merits actively seeking out. But it's not the total waste of time that some reviewers might say it is. At the very least, it's cheesy enough, melodramatic enough, and sleazy enough to keep it somewhat watchable.

Six out of 10.

The Sins of Rachel is a murder mystery, The story revolves around who killed Rachel, a former nightclub performer (played by Ann Noble). She is murdered at the beginning of the film and remainder is told through the police investigation and flashbacks. The prime suspect is her son Jimmy (played by Bruce Campbell). Their is also am investigator who was going to be writing her memoirs who is looking into who killed her. During the investigation themes of incest and homosexuality come into play. This is not as bad as some of the other reviews have indicated but that does not make this a recommend film to see. It is a low budget film with so so to pretty bad acting and direction. This movie is a typical low budget "grinder" from the early 70's.

...But not THE Bruce Campbell. Bizarre, salacious story about a former fat singer getting herself killed by a host of possible candidates. It seems that Rachel - played by Ann Noble who also wrote this dreck - has a thing for younger men including her own son. A terrible actor poses as a policeman and we hear various characters go through their whereabouts at the time of Rachel's demise as well going into detail about their relationships with her with him brooding over what they say. It seems that a fairly plump, older woman in her late 40's or early 50's with little money can have the pick of all the young studs in town. The film is cheap, the story flimsy - particularly if you are buying the above pretext which was way too hard a sell for me. The acting is overall bad but I have seen much worse. Most of these actors have maybe only one other screen credit. so we are talking about negligible talent at best. Yes, the film introduces Bruce Campbell - but this is a Bruce Campbell that didn't go on to bigger and brighter things in the movie business.

"The Sins of Rachel" is a sleazy vintage grindhouse movie which starts with a murder (of Rachel herself) and the rest of the movie consists of flashbacks which detail the various shady businesses that the title character was mixed up in, as police interview the people who knew her. There isn't much to get excited about. Rachel is presented as a middle-aged, dissolute sex-pot who sexually abuses her son, who in turn, fails to maintain a relationship with his girlfriend and instead strikes up a fledgling romance with another man. The camera dwells on the men undressing more than the women, which gives the impression this was aimed at the gay market, but the events are pretty mild, so the titillation factor is very low. It's mostly just a lurid soap opera. The acting is not as bad as it could have been, in fact the actress playing Rachel is almost good - something like a low-rent Bette Davis crossed with Patsy Rowlands! The film also boasts a cool theme song and showcases a killer vintage motorbike, but the ending is pretty flat.

Well, this isn't quite the bottom of the barrel, but it's pretty close. Leading lady Ann Noble wrote this herself. It's a twisted tale about a portly has-been cabaret singer who is mercifully murdered. The only reason you might care to find out who did it is to thank them. She's a shrew who makes a pass at her gay son - but don't be fooled - that makes the movie sound more interesting than it is. The entire cast seems to have graduated from the Ed Wood school of acting. Any pleasure derived from watching this film is purely unintentional on the part of those involved. And... the credits say that it's filmed in "Texturetone", which apparently means that the print is really scratchy and the lighting doesn't match from one shot to the next