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!

There's histrionics galore in this stark, trashy melodrama that should do the trick for hicksploitation aficionados. Annabelle Weenick stars as Linda, the live-in girlfriend for miserly old coot Shugfoot Rainey (George Edgley), who's made his fortune in oil. Shug is about to kick the over the hill Linda to the curb in favor of his own niece Baby Doll (Lacey Kelly), a stripper from New Orleans. Linda isn't about to go quietly - Hell, she isn't about to go at all, once she learns that according to Texas law, she is Shugs' common law wife. But the nasty, conniving, trampy Baby Doll is equally determined to lay claim to Shugs' money.

"Common Law Wife" was begun as a color feature by Texas based schlock purveyor Larry Buchanan (of "Mars Needs Women" fame) in 1960, under the title "Swamp Rose". Eventually, it got recut, and supplemented by new footage shot by director Eric Sayers, with the final film completely shown in black & white. It's basically fun, but the unaware should know that for a movie running just over 76 minutes, it IS padded to a degree. (Lots of cutaways to ducks in this thing!) It also isn't quite as interesting when it starts exclusively focusing on Baby Doll, and the way that she plays up to a moonshiner named Bull, while also making time with Jody the Sheriff. (And he's already married.) Still, Kelly, a stripper in real life as well, is compulsively watchable, especially when she does a steamy dance routine.

This may be a somewhat rough slog for some viewers, seeing that the principal trio of characters are not exactly nice people, but this will only add to the experience for others. The performances suit the material, with Weenick - to eventually gain her greatest fame in S.F. Brownriggs' "Don't Look in the Basement" - making the most of her starring film debut.

Worth a look for those that dig regional exploitation features from decades past.

Seven out of 10.

Another in the so-bad-it's-good barrel, Lacey Kelly is the K-Mart Anita Ekberg in this fun, totally trashy backwater potboiler. It has all the pedigree of the best (if there is such a thing) Russ Meyer productions, which were being churned out around the same time. Great bad acting, with editing to match, sexy jazz score, and gowns by Orry-Kelly (just kidding).

When old Uncle Shug tires of his live-in girl (Annabelle Weenick), he plans to replace her with his gold-digging stripper niece, Baby Doll (Kelly), but she aint abut to go without a fight. While Shug is trying to work out the details, Baby Doll has lots of time to sample the local male cuisine, and she's got quite an appetite. What could possibly go wrong? Make some popcorn and find out!

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!

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.