The Lady in Red

Great watch Small shots and the unknown subtley with the signature style from the 70's is completely gone in movies today. Someone's gotta start makin' retro throwback modern 70's movies...with all the cgi crap we have now just imagine how priceless they could make em now!

If they had called it "The life of a Gun Moll", nobody probably would have gone to see it. So they went with the Dillinger angle, but forget it this is Pamela Sue's film.

If you ever wondered how "good little" girls end up being window dressing for some of the most notorious gangsters that ever lived, this film gives a good look at her rebellion against her strict religious up bringing and her descent into crime and prostitution.

Pamela Sue is so cute, you have a hard time believing she is a hardened criminal, but she just about pulls it off.

I first saw this film on TV and with the commercial breaks, it suffered. However, I later saw it without the commercials and it's so much better. It's the story of Gangster John Dillenger and his last girlfriend. Pamela Sue Martin as the moll and Robert Conrad as Dillenger both deliver great performances. I don't know much about John Dillenger, but I wonder if he was as "gentlemanly" as Conrads' portrayal was. Just a thought! However, it is a strong story, with enough violence to be realistic (those were violent times). There's also the romantic element that gives a softness to Dillenger. As I said, I wonder if he was a romantic at all. Anyway, a decent enough flick and well-acted.

Clearly a product of the Corman School, Sayles's first major screenplay shows that he already knew how to tell a great story from an interesting angle, something he has never forgotten how to do.

Director Teague keeps the pace rattling along, and hammers the message home fast (he was an occasional assistant to Sam Fuller, of course).

The plot's quite straightforward, and all the better so - this packs something of the punch of the 30's classic gangster films, but with distinctly 70's sensibilities to violence.

Where the film becomes more interesting than your average low-budget 'gangster-exploiter', however, is in the telling of the story through her eyes, rather than his (a distinctly 70's approach). Yet it's wonderfully ambiguous, on reflection, as to whether the film champions her willingness to break away and start acting for herself (she's a great strong character), or whether she just goes from one woman in peril situation to the other (which is the plot, basically).

I've probably over-analyzed it already, but if you've got a spare hour and a half on your hands, give it a chance. A classic of its kind.

"The Lady in Red" is the kind of movie that those of us fans of cult cinema and b-movies live for. It's an unheralded classic, and a movie that totally rises above its inauspicious "grindhouse" or exploitation roots.

I believe the movie's success may have been undercut by advertising that suggests it is about Dillinger. It isn't. It's the story of Dillinger's alleged girlfriend, the one who supposedly betrayed him to the feds. The story is, if anything, more interesting than Dillinger's, and packs a feminist punch. It shows a path to crime more heartbreaking than any famous bankrobber's.

The protagonist is thrown out of home and ends up in jail. There's a whole genre of women in prison movies, and they almost all feature a sadistic lesbian guard. Yet, none of them are this good, and none of the guards are as horribly believable as the one in this movie.

The movie only spends about half an hour there, and is yet more believable and impactful than all the women in prison movies combined. The only way out for the protagonist is prostitution, which is where she comes into contact with crime figures she is destined to join.

Dillinger is, in fact, just another guy she meets, and that's a massive strength. To her, he was no hero. He was just another man, a potential user, thief, murderer, whatever.

This is the world through the eyes of a down-on-her-luck woman who had little choice but to turn to crime.

How fitting that it would be so roundly ignored, even after all these years.