Sede de Crime

Luke Askew shoots his ex-wife, Las Vegas pony Kay Peters, and takes a shot at her fellow showgirls, including Raquel Welch. Miss Welch flees to Los Angeles, but Askew pursues. Will Miss Welch survive to find life and love with James Stacy, or will the crazy guy kill her?

It's a cheap feature, distinguished from a TV movie only by the topless dancers -- although Miss Welch is not one of them. Her specialty has her wearing clothes, and she spends the rest of the film in a tight top, schoolgirl-length skirt and white knee socks. The dialogue is blah, the cast is thoroughly undistinguished, save for Gordon Jump, and the highlights are the topless dancers and the scene in which Miss Welch sets her pursuer on fire. It's exploitation all the way from producer Leon Fromkess, whom you may remember as Executive In Charge Of Production for PRC.

Cars, Go-Go Girls and 60's Vegas. A fun time capsule. Unfortunately a pretty poor movie that would have sufficed being an episode of Police Woman. Worth seeing once if you're old enough to appreciate the time period.

Good, creepy bad guys that you can find in every 70's police dramas like Barnaby Jones or Mannix. This is one of those movies you want to label 'so bad it's good' but it falls short of that. The film stock quality seems to be very good which makes me wonder why so much money was invested in this unworthy effort.

Raquel is nice to look at. Stacy is a decent actor, and there are a few familiar character actors worth seeing. Otherwise, don't worry if you never see this one.

Alan Morris guns down his estranged wife in cold-blood, and blames her friends namely Vegas showgirl Michele for turning his wife against him. She was there when it happened and he goes after her. This leads her to flee Vegas and make her way to Los Angeles, but Alan tracks her down. Late 60s flabby psychedelic psycho stalker on-the-run thriller that's thick on melodramatics but lacks tension despite moments of searing cat- and-mouse action and neon noir shades. However it remains hypnotic due to the wonderful presence of Raquel Welch and vivid Las Vegas and Los Angeles backdrops beautifully projected by agile camera-work. Sometimes the locations are much more of a character on screen then its leaden stars. Even though it's seedy in context and the nightlife shows, it's probably a touch too polished in presenting it, but its acts of violence have a touch of brutality. Pacing is somewhat a problem, as it seems to get lost in the neon lights, glitter and dance numbers. But the romance angle simply lulls between Welch and Stacy's characters and the script awkwardly goes about it. This just makes the film drag, until it reaches the fiery conclusion (now I know what the title means) between Welch and the steely Luke Askew. It's hearty in execution and well-made by director James Neilson, but generically crafted and less than exciting.

"What's a girl gotta do to get a job around here"?

If you love camp as much as I do, then you will love "Flareup". From the opening credits we know it's a camp fest by the gyrating "go-go" dancer doing the boogaloo around the credits. Opening scene at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas is great, with Raquel and two friends having lunch "al fresco". The hairstyle on the one friend looks as though it needs a building permit. She immediately gets shot by her ex-boyfriend (maybe he thought the hair-do was a little too much as well). He then turns on Raquel (whom he blames for the breakup) and spends the rest of the movie trying to kill her. If you love location shooting then dig all the groovy shots of Las Vegas and Los Angeles before they made both towns into an overbuilt, gaudy mecca that both cities are today. What sends this movie over the top is when Raquel mounts a horse and practically dislocates her head from the throwing back and forth of her mane of hair. AND THIS WAS BEFORE PROZAC! I loved every second of this movie, it has more entertainment value than anything I've seen in the past 10 years.

I just watched this movie and this was a Raquel Welch movie that I had never seen before. Let me say right off that I'm not one of those people who trash RW's acting. I don't understand those people. They seem ignorant to me. She's not a trash actress. She can act. She can say lines. She can emote. She can make you believe at times. That's all you need to be an actress. And if you're gorgeous on top of it then movie goers should be thankful. You don't have to be Meryl Streep.

Okay, so I very much enjoy the actress and icon known as Raquel Welch. I also really enjoy go-go dancing which this movie has in abundance. I don't care for strippers. I don't care for pole dancing. I don't care for topless dancing. I don't care for dirty dancing. But I love go-go dancing. I can't put my finger on why I like it so much, but to me it's the perfect marriage of dance and female beauty. It's exquisite to watch. So they could have put lots more in and I would not have complained one bit. And there is one go-go dancer at a LA club called The Losers who is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Wow. Just a total knockout. She's worth the price of admission all by herself.

Okay, so the movie. Well, there's this wacko dude who kills at the drop of a hat. He has a psychological problem. He can't stop killing. That's not good. He also wants to kill Raquel Welch. That's not cool. She's trying to avoid him and that's not easy. People keep telling him where she is. Morons. There's a lot of stalking going on with this guy. I guess you could say that this is basically a stalker movie.

Raquel gets into a romance with a guy. He's the proverbial nice guy. He's a guy who lives in Los Angeles and he doesn't have a car. Everybody in Los Angeles has a car. I know because I lived there for 10 years. And I had a car. But not this guy. Raquel does not hold that against him which is surprising I guess you could say. He romances Raquel who falls for him fairly easily. She needed a nice guy in her life and she found one. But be careful, Raquel......the stalker is still out there and he's still stalking you.

Some people said this movie is flat and boring. They must have been in a bad mood. It's not flat and boring at all. It has a lot of tension and some explosive and violent action. And of course lots of go-go dancing. And lots of beautiful women. What's boring about that? Some people are hard to please I guess. They want every movie to be like Star Wars or JAWS. Those movies were sociological and psychological earthquakes. Not every movie is going to be like that. So just eat your popcorn, shut the heck up, and enjoy the movie.

I enjoyed this. I'm glad I finally got to see it. I gave it a "7".