A Scream in the Streets

This jaw-droppingly odd and obscure softcore crime film was on a double-feature cassette with "Axe" and that's how I saw it. It starts off with the most jarring set of opening credits ever. Basically, a booming male voice shouts over a black screen "A Scream in the Streets!" then it abruptly cuts to the Fastest Scrolling Titles Ever superimposed over footage of an unconvincing drag queen killing someone (1970's police show music raging in the background). The film settles down a bit after this into something resembling a story, although I can't remember what it is. My only memory is that it involved a massage parlor and lots of sex scenes (one, at least, verging on hardcore). The men were the ugliest beasts I've ever seen with their clothes off. They couldn't have found more hideous men for this film. Towards the end, the ludicrous drag queen from the opening credits shows up again and implausibly stalks a park while going completely unnoticed. Then something happens and the film ends.... For fans of runny color and grainy cinematography only.

"A Scream in the Streets" fulfills its requirements as a 70s trash film. It's basically a variety of sex scenes occasionally interrupted by the plot. And the plot involves two police detectives, Ed Haskell (Joshua Bryant, the original 'Salem's Lot'), and Bob Striker (Frank Bannon, in his only film role), who must deal with various lowlifes: a young punk robbing a deli, a peeping tom, and the kicker: a rapist who is able to avoid detection because he's always dressing in drag!

The movie does have its moments. This viewer liked best the scene where two lesbians decide to "put on a show" for the peeping tom while surreptitiously placing a call to the police. Also among the thoroughly depraved male characters is a massage parlor customer who gets his kicks by whipping an employee with his belt. Her boss calls in the cops, but is far more concerned with the damage that the customer did to HIM. (He smashed his head with a beer bottle, and yet later we don't see a single drop of blood on the dodo's face.) The rapist is a total creep and yet is undeniably a hoot because there is no way in real life anybody would be fooled by this guy.

The dialogue is often quite amusing, and the performances likewise have a cheesy appeal. Also appearing are Linda York ("Chain Gang Women"), Colleen Brennan ("Delinquent School Girls"), Sandy Carey ("Drive In Massacre"), and John Tull ("Below the Belt").

Viewers hoping for a copious mixture of cheese & sleaze will likely have a good time with this one.

Six out of 10.

There is a cross-dressing rapist/murder on the loose and two plain clothed cops are on the case, but they are too busy battling peeping tom, foodmart robber, and having personal problems in this run-of-the-mill action film. One actress looks like Colleen Brennen. The video print is the edited down version, but still has most of the stuff intact. Could've been a good cop film, but the paper thin script made it impossible to like. Suprisingly has a decent car chase for a low-budget film. Not recommended.

A cross-dressing serial killer/rapist in drag beats a woman to death before the opening credits start rolling, and that's pretty much the entire movie. From there we see two cops start going about their rounds to find the killer, which never amounts to anything except that this thing turns into a porno flick with endless sex scenes and a peeping tom who always happens to find the right window at the right time so he can watch. I like gratuitous sex as much as the next guy, but there is a limit in a straight "feature", and certainly not when it's unimaginatively presented and whatever existing plot line was initiated completely becomes ignored. This is a very bad movie. 0 out of ****

Anytime John Tull is in a movie it is hard not to like it. Something Weird Video offers many Tull titles and each one has its own ridiculous charm. I love the line in the film where he is talking to his girlfriend on the bed and says something like, "Now, for those split beaver pants"! (His girlfriend was dressed for a 1950s costume party...) Lines like this make A Scream in the Streets and John Tull a "gem" of 70s sleaze cinema.

It's not only Tull that captivates me, but how about that scene where the robber holds up the convenience store? I love the look of "horror" on the owner's face. (Actually, it looks like the guy has no idea what is going on...) I also love when the robber jumps out of the glass door in slow motion. Hey, they don't make movies like this anymore! A movie so horrible that I can't help but love it! The cross dressing killer somehow goes unnoticed (though it is so obvious that "she" is a man), the dialog is amusingly horrid, John Tull bares "Tull junior", and don't forget the flaccid member during one of the sex scenes in the massage parlor! God, I wish I lived in the 70s to experience this stuff first hand!