Common Law Wife

Depraved sleaze? Most definitely. Awful film? I disagree. While Common Law Wife certainly is no great nor good film, I thought much of it was better than one could or should expect. The story is about a rich oilman Uncle Shug who has been shacked up with a woman he picked up five years ago and has become bored with. Now, he wants to bring his stripper niece Baby Doll back home for...I'd like to say comfort but old Uncle Shug has different ideas. Well, Baby Doll returns, making men drool at her while Linda, Shug's old woman, discovers that in her state she is legally "wed" to Shug by common law. She won't leave and baby Doll wants her uncle's fortune at any price. The film has a seedy quality about it which cannot be denied: none of the characters are nice or even relatively decent - except by the film's end you might make a case for the common law wife, sex, deceit, and greed lurks from ever angle, and the end exudes a very naturalistic attitude to life and society. The director(s) do shoot many of the scenes well, exemplifying tension and moral baseness throughout. The actors are decent as each gives at least a mediocre performance. There is no real nudity in the film, though Lacey Kelly as Baby Doll is a sight for the sorest of eyes. A real life stripper, Kelly is like a ripe apple just dying to be picked from a tree. She gets picked a few times in this film. The budget is obviously threadbare, but directors Eric Sayers and old reliable Z film giant Larry Buchanan make the most out of what is at hand. I thought the film's ending, while pretty predictable, was done with some style. Cheers!

Originally shot as Swamp Rose a few years earlier, then chopped up and added to new film shot by a different director and even featuring 2 different actresses playing one character - somehow strange forces intervened and created this booze-soaked trashfest of enjoyability. Baby Doll is coming to town to stay with and "take care of" her Uncle Shug, but unfortunately he's having a problem getting rid of his common-law wife who refuses to leave (played by the ever overacting, always entertaining cult star Annabelle Weenick). Baby Doll is played by 2 different actresses, but I didn't notice until after I read it - and is a beautiful atrocious monster who you just can't take your eyes off of. Trashy fun with a great ending.

Common-law Wife is a sleazy exploitation drive-in movie that is so awful it's good. The story is about a cheap dancer named Jonelle--nicknamed Baby Doll--who returns to her small southern home town to shack up with her aging, wealthy Uncle Shug, who has just kicked out his longtime live-in girlfriend Linda. Unfortunately for Baby Doll, Linda claims she is Uncle Shug's "common-law wife," and she refuses to leave. While Uncle Shug tries to straighten things out at the mansion, Baby Doll has sexual encounters with her brother-in-law Sheriff Jody, and with a swamp-livin', moonshine-makin' bruiser named Bull. The ending is unexpected and memorable. Great fun!

In her film debut in the title role, veteran exploitation queen Annabelle Weenick (under her original alias of Anne MacAdams) really brings the opening and closing scenes of this misanthropic trash shot in Forney in Texas to life; and it lags badly during the interminable middle section when she's offscreen.

That the script is by a woman may account for why the scenes between the female characters are far more entertaining than those with the men - with the notable exception of those between Linda and her rancid old sugar daddy Shugfoot Rainey. Did the sheriff's wife pleading with her sister Jonelle not to steal her husband inspire Dolly Parton?

The uncredited jazz score - presumably library music - gives kick to the proceedings.

Annabelle Weenick has been shacked up with rich, creepy George Edgley for five years now. He's grown tired of her and tells her to get out so niece Lacey Kelly can take care of him. She consults a lawyer, buys a wedding band, and tells him that under the laws of the state, they're actually married, and she's going nowhere. Meanwhile, Miss Kelly shows up, crawls into uncle lap, and goes to stay with her sister until matters settle. Deciding that it would be best if Edgley died, she sleeps with her brother-in-law, the town's sheriff, and when he turns down her idea, she sleeps with moonshiner Bert Masters.

Much is implied, but little is shown save good-looking women in their foundation garments. Apparently Larry Buchanan shot some footage, had to abandon the project, and then Eric Sayers shot some more.

While there is little doubt in my mind that a collaboration of sleaze could be very interesting, these two auteurs are not John Waters and David Lynch. They're a couple of players on the edge between smoking-room pornography and exploitation films, working with performers who look good but can't do much. Edgley is a creepy, mean old man, I'll give you that, and the camerawork is good if inconsistent, but I'm sure William Wyler wasn't sitting up late worrying about this competition.