Who Killed Mary Whats'ername?

"Who Killed Mary Whats'ername?" is a movie starring Red Buttons as well as an unusual ensemble cast, including Sam Waterston, Conrad Bain, Sylvia Miles, David Doyle and Ron Carey.

When the story begins, an aging ex-boxer, Mickey (Buttons) moves in to a crummy skidrow apartment. He's learned that the woman who lived there before him was a prostitute who was murdered...and no one seems to have really cared...including the police. So, he decides to do some digging to see if he can figure out her sad fate. And, along the way, he finds a few folks who decide to help him in his quest.

This film looks as if it was filmed with a very limited budget. This is not a complaint and it worked pretty well considering the setting. As far as the story goes, it's so unusual that I'm giving it a 7. It is far from great but I appreciate the film taking some chances. Plus, I have to respect a few of these actors playing very icky characters!

While the tagline is hilarious—"Somebody just murdered your friendly neighborhood hooker"—the crime thriller Who Killed Mary Whats'ername? is far from funny. It's a whodunnit without police intervention, because, since the victim was a prostitute in skid row, no one really cares about finding the killer. Red Buttons, a retired boxer with nearly constant references to his diabetes, is determined to take matters into his own hands and find out what happened to Mary.

Along the way, he recruits his daughter, Alice Playton, another hooker who knew the deceased, Sylvia Miles, the landlord and pimp, Dick Williams, and a young filmographer who had filmed Mary before her death, Sam Waterston. Who's helping because they care, and who's really guilty? You'll have to watch this extremely dated 1970s flick to find out. The one drawback is the dated filming style. If you normally like movies where a rugged hero gets immersed in a seedy environment, you might be able to get through the slang, hair, fashions, stereotypes, and camera-work. If the dated-ness will bother you, try a more modern version. This type of premise has been made dozens of times through the years.

DLM warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie is not your friend. It's nearly exclusively filmed with a hand-held camera, and without warning the camera will zoom in and out. It will probably make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

A very small film which was born into instant obscurity, WHO KILLED MARY WHAT'S'ERNAME deserves to be exhumed from the graveyard of forgotten movies and given a second look. Red Buttons is surprisingly good in his out-of-character role as a decent Joe Anyman who's trying to unravel the mystery of a hooker recently murdered in a rundown part of the city...a case to which the authorities have been entirely unresponsive.

He comes to find that she was known to the many creatures of the street, but as little more than a nameless, faceless blur in the periphery of a sideways glance.

An unfortunate truth is brought to the fore, that a sizable swath of the population simply doesn't matter...not to each other, maybe not even to themselves. WHO KILLED MARY WHAT'S'ERNAME dares us to look at those we've tuned our backs on in a tactful, but honest portraiture of someone else's America.

5.5/10.

Viewed this one for the first time in the summer of 2015.

Discovering it on an ancient ' Prism ' video cassette.

A treat for more than one reason.

If you're of a certain age or just an enthusiast of old films and television, you're in for at least a half dozen surprises concerning the cast. Characters pop up on a regular basis from the 60's and 70's, who, you may not immediately connect the face with a name, but you know you know them.

You have Red Buttons unlike I've never seen him. Don't want to call him a ' tough guy ' but he doesn't take any bull and he knows how to use his fists. Yes, that Red Buttons. Amazingly, it's not at all awkward and he plays it very, very well.

If, like me, you miss his name in the opening credits, you will eventually realize who the amateur film maker was who recorded ' Mary ' in the last moments of her life.

Late 60's , early 70's bleakness, to be sure. Throw - a - way citizens and how large parts of New York, and most other large, American cities, were allowed to deteriorate to the point that they did.

Worth looking for.

The copy of this film that I own has terrible sound quality. I had to turn the volume up all the way and the fuzzy noise was still louder than the dialogue. Despite that, I braved this film from beginning to about three quarters of the way through when I simply couldn't stand the pain anymore. The opening scene of a struggle between a man and a woman (presumably. Most of it is a blur, like when your dad tries to figure out how to work the camcorder) flashes between the "struggle" and still shots of ceramic figurines. This is the director's attempt at using juxtaposition of opposites to induce a feeling of irony in the audience. It fails miserably and is laughable at best. The rest of the movie develops along a muddled plot line of cliche dialogue, ed wood-quality actors, and a delicious flavor of blaxploitation. It is a truly terrible film that is perfect for your next bad movie film festival. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and it is certainly much better than Cats. I urge everyone who likes bad movies to give this one a shot!