Been a bit of a break since my last Meyer review. To make up for the delay, I'm revving backing with a double bill. Here's the first review...
As with the last few Meyer epics, I have never seen Finders Keepers... Lovers Weepers! It is not one which gets mentioned a lot. I don't recall Jimmy McDonough being particularly complimentary about it, preferring to skirt over it in order to get to Vixen. So going into this one, I felt a little trepidation.
This movie starts at a gallop, with a terrific montage at a topless bar -- gyrating dancers, leering patrons; cash register; booze; with the production credits as bottle labels. Two creepy hoodlums in suits enter and take in the scene -- they're here to case the joint.
The colours in this sequence really pop. The print used for the DVD is not as dirty and faded as some of the other movies I've seen, and it adds a real energy to Meyer's typically sharp editing and sound mix. Meyer shoots this sequence like his take on an old noir movie, with plenty of extreme angles and chiaroscuro.
As with the James Bond franchise, new ideas are rare things in the Meyer canon, and each new twist on the old formula should be highlighted and valued. As a genre, a heist movie is the perfect framework for Meyer's bells and whistles.
Sadly, before the action can take off, our hero, bartender Paul (Paul Lockwood), decides to go and have an erotic(?) chest wax from a random woman. The movie grinds to a halt while Christine (Jan Sinclair) bores us all to death with stories of her childhood as a Mennonite.
Paul le Douche goes home to his wife Kelly (Anne Chapman) where he proceeds to get drunk and fall asleep.
Enraged, she runs away for a fling with Ray (Gordon Wescourt), the other bartender at Paul's bar.
This is where the plot kicks in -- 40 minutes into a 70 minute movie.
Paul wakes up and goes to check out the bar and gets knocked out by the bank robbers who have been hiding in the bathroom the whole time.
Ray and Kelly stop by the bar when they see Paul's car out front. Ray and Kelly go inside to check things out and wind up knocked out with Paul.
The climax of this movie is tedious. Just a bunch of unlikeable schlubs stuck in a dark room together.
This movie is a real slog. The reason this review took so long to finish was because the film is so goddamn boring. After a solid run of movies, this one is a major misstep.
It's more of a traditional genre picture, but Meyer is not invested enough in the story to make it interesting. Sadly, the inspiration ran out after they came up with the title.
Russ Meyer will return with Vixen!
For previous entries...
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