Raw Nerve

Raw nerve is an awesome gritty crime drama with a big name cast starting with Glenn ford(Gilda,blackboard jungle)Traci lords(not of this earth,Rosanne)Jan Micheal Vincent(air wolf,damnation ally)sandahl Bergman(all that jazz)Randall Tex Cobb(raising Arizona)and Ted prior. women are being murdered,all were wearing red high heels before they were killed,a tough detective(Vincent)and his gruff boss(ford)are on the case.while a race car driver played by Ted prior deals with his younger sister,played by sexy Traci lords.there's plot twists and red herrings,its a great b-movie and for the most part Glenn fords last film appearance.i recommend it to anyone who likes action crime melodramas.8 out of 10.

RAW NERVE is an extremely cheap little B-movie combination of slasher movie and cop thriller, made in Alabama by the prolific David Prior, who churned out dozens of by-rote action flicks during his career. This one's notable for its cast and its bizarro storyline, which has an ordinary guy experiencing visions of a serial killer going about his work. The main guy (Prior's brother, I think) is hopeless, but the supporting cast includes Traci Lords as his little sister, Randall Tex Cobb as his uncle, Jan-Michael Vincent as the cop, Sandahl Bergman as a nosy reporter and Glenn Ford (!) in his final role as police chief. With all that talent, it's hard not to get some amusement from this one...

I'd read somewhere that David Prior was a bad director, but I find he falls somewhere in the middle. His films are made well enough, star people you've heard of, but it's the stories themselves that make you do a double take and think 'that doesn't make much sense'.

This one stars Glenndon Fordham, Sandy Bermanster, Traci Lordy Lordy, Micheal Vincent Van, and Tex 'Randall' Cobb. Them are all folks caught up when a crazy killer type person starts going around shooting women in the face with a shotgun. Don't expect gore here though, because there's none. No boobs either.

Ted Prior is Jimmy, a stock car driver who starts getting visions of the killings. His sister is Traci Lords, whom he's overly protective of (no wonder!). When Jimmy starts seeing the visions and goes to the police, they don't believe etc etc.

As this is a David A Prior film, there ain't much action but there are plenty of twists, so I never found myself bored throughout. Loads of interpersonal drama threaten to sink the film, but Prior knows when to speed things up a bit. Not too bad.

I only watched this because Glen Ford plays the sheriff character. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the simple yet stylish cinematography and flow of the story. There is a slight comic book element but somehow it doesn't follow the usual US made formulas. That's a good thing.

Time isn't wasted on building up complex characters except the necessary background of the suspects. The script is simple, the action is believable and the story is interesting.

On the negative side I didn't have any nail biting experiences or thrills. The outcome was predictable quite early on, so no surprises there.

Although given first billing for his box office name Glenn Ford is a strictly a supporting character in Raw Nerve. He plays a police captain and superior officer to Jan-Michael Vincent who is part of a triangle involving himself, former wife Sandahl Bergman who is an investigative reporter and stock car driver Ted Prior. And Prior is a chief suspect in a string of brutal murders of some pretty young women.

In Peter Ford's recent biography of his father he says that Raw Nerve was his father's final big screen appearance. All I can say is after seeing Raw Nerve it's a good thing for posterity that Glenn Ford did the made for television film Final Verdict after this one got inflicted on the public on the big screen. And what really surprised me is that Peter Ford did not mention Final Verdict at all in his book. That was a work his father could have been proud of.

Prior who is on the surface sunny and affable and a good guardian for sister Traci Lords down deep has a whole lot of issues, really big issues. He also gets visions of the various murders and they seem to point to his mechanic Tex Cobb.

Raw Nerve is trashy and exploitive and certainly not a film I'd like to be remembered for.