The Lady in Red

Polly Franklin (Pamela Sue Martin) is an innocent farm girl obsessed with 42nd Street. She gets caught up with the Dillinger gang's bank robbery. She gets a red dress from a reporter and loses her virginity to him. Her father beats her and she runs away. She is befriended by Rose at a sweatshop but her life descends into prison and forced into prostitution by the ruthless warden.

It's produced by the Roger Corman family. It's a bit rambling. Pamela Sue Martin used to be a star in the 70s and 80s. I missed most of that since I didn't watch Dynasty. I don't really see the range although she has some charisma. The biggest issue is that this story is simply a series of incidents. Some parts are less compelling than others. This could have been an interesting prison movie but that part is pretty quick. The sweatshop confused me a bit. This needs some better directing.

"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.

Lewis Teague gave us this crime drama from the seventies, and I can still think of BLOODY MAMA or BIG BAD MAMMA, also produced during the same decade. I guess Lewis Teague had some link in common with Corman's "family", so was under influence of the master. This movie is not genuinely a gangster film in the first part, but mostly a drama, only the second part, at long last, will satisfy the gangster element buffs. There is also a bit of women's prison scheme in the first part; again a Corman's production influence. A curiosity but not a masterpiece, not a must see. Good little film to discover if you are curious enough. Note that Robert Conrad played in YOUNG DILLINGER, back in 1965, where he was Pretty Boyd Floyd. And I also like the supporting characters, who arrive late in the story, whom we can feel attached to, and who suddenly die. I love this. And this film with a strong, but also believable, female lead could easily be remade now, in 2024, the modern fashion. This is for me my favourite from director Lewis Teague, with also CUJO. One last thing, Louise Fletcher plays here, but no in the cruel matron prison warden.... As she did in ONE FLEW OVER A CUCUU NEST.

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.

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.