Ruby

This oddball horror/possession flick was yet another '70's film made in the race to rip-off the super horror hit THE EXORCIST. However, this one is better than most because it was directed by cult favorite Curtis Harrington who pays special attention to plot, character, atmosphere and detail rather than reverting to spinning heads and vomiting pea soup. Furthermore, Piper Laurie(who won an Oscar nomination the previous year for her role in CARRIE) gives a marvellous performance in the title role, and Janit Baldwin is also impressive as Laurie's disturbed young daughter. Roger Davis(of DARK SHADOWS fame) also does well with his role as a psychologist who gets caught up in this eerie tale of the supernatural. BEWARE: Although most video editions of the film run fifteen minutes longer than the version that was originally released to theatres, they slash much of the gore(which wasn't really all that graphic to begin with) and substitute it with dull, pointless footage featuring supporting characters that really have no connection to the plot or action of the film. This version of the film is credited to the pseudonymous Allen Smithee and was apparantly the version that first aired on network television. If you are lucky enough to find the 84-minute version credited to Curtis Harrington, the film's original director, you"ll fare much better.

Despite a multitude of minor blemishes, RUBY stands as an effectually devised psychological/supernatural chiller which gainsays its deficient funding.

Piper Laurie turns out an impressive performance as Ruby, a hard-drinking harlot in ownership of a weatherbeaten old drive-in movie theater. In years past, she was a knockout gangster's moll whose man was murdered gangland style. Before he died, he vowed to return from the grave...a promise which, it seems, he has kept.

A cleverly formulated B quickie thick with gloom and disquietude, RUBY is an honorable short-order undertaking which emanates a pleasingly differential mood of foreboding creepiness.

6/10

After a setup that kills her husband, Ruby a gangster wife has to raise her daughter alone, or maybe not. She have her ganglike family to support her. Then people start getting dying around her. Is it ghost, a crazed murderer, or could be; he dead husband seeking revenge.

I did not know this Curtis Harrington's film, and I have seen all the others he did. Such a shame.... This one is a real tribute to the fifties drive in movie theaters. And I guess Piper Laurie was chosen for her performance one year earlier in Brian De Palma's CARRIE, another horror yarn, and this time at a bigger, larger scale. A pure masterpiece, where she also was the mother of a "possessed" daughter. But this one, directed by a very gifted Curtis Harrington - some kind of William Castle's heir - is very enjoyable, gritty, riveting, and offers us a very good ending, which seemd to be in total opposition to the director's will. For once, the will of a producer over a director satisfies me !!!!

Horror movie with a needlessly convoluted plot. In 1935 a gangster's girlfriend named Ruby (Piper Laurie) sees her boyfriend shot down dead. At that moment she gives birth to his baby (!!!) The movie cuts to 16 years later. Ruby is an alcoholic running a drive in and Leslie is her daughter--born a deaf mute (I think). For reasons never made totally clear she has the guys who shot her boyfriend dead working for her in the drive in! Then they start getting killed--it seems Ruby's ex is coming back for revenge...

If that synopsis sounds confusing you should see the movie! Curtis Harrington is a good director and I'm giving this a 4 just because it is well-directed...it just doesn't make a lot of sense. I saw the director's cut which was thought to be lost. Harrington was fired before the movie was finished. The producer took the movie, cut out all the violence and shot scenes with a totally different cast! That was the one released. Harrington complained about it and said his version was gone. Somehow it was found and that's the one I saw. If this is the cut the director approved I can only wonder how bad the reedited version was! Scenes seem to end before they're finished; the plot meanders all over the place; there are way too many unanswered questions still lingering at the end; Ruby is inexplicably always dressed like a madam; the special effects are poor; the deaths are very poorly done (and look REAL fake); the twist at the end comes out of nowhere--and doesn't make a lot of sense and, basically, this is BORING!

Laurie is a wonderful actress but she's terrible in this. She appears to be drunk most of the time--or looks like she wishes she were. Stuart Whitman walks through his role. Janit Baldwin is actually pretty good as Leslie. And Roger Davis (fondly remembered from "Dark Shadows") pops up about 30 minutes in as a parapsychologist. He has little to do with the plot except have Whitman provide some clumsy exposition to him. It's supposed to clear up the plot--it doesn't.

A dull, confusing mess. Not worth seeing at all. It's really a shame-the VCI DVD looks just beautiful.