Viewed from a rational perspective, the
hard-to-classify exploitation flick Poor
Pretty Eddie is pure trash, combining showbiz ennui with murder, rape, and
stereotypes. Viewed from a more adventurous perspective, watching Poor Pretty Eddie is like patronizing an
all-you-can-eat buffet with nothing but junk food—everything might seem tasty
at first, but indigestion is sure to follow. The loopy plot begins with
African-American pop singer Liz Wetherly (Leslie Uggams) taking a break from
the celebrity grind. Unwisely venturing alone into the Deep South, Liz
experiences car failure near a roadside motel/restaurant, so she walks onto the
property—even though it looks like a junkyard—to seek help. First Liz meets
hulking handyman Keno (Ted Cassidy). Then she meets handsome but smarmy Eddie
(Michael Christian), the kept man of the facility's owner, Bertha (Shelley
Winters). Despite many red flags, Liz sees no choice but to stay until Eddie
and Keno fix her car. This draws her into a sordid situation.
Aging and
overweight, Bertha runs her place like a fiefdom and builds her life around
Eddie, even though she doubts his loyalty. Sure enough, Eddie lusts after Liz
and rapes her the first night she's in the motel. Liz confronts Bertha with
this information the next morning. That’s when things get really ugly: Bertha’s
okay with Eddie using Liz as a plaything so long as that keeps him docile. When
Liz seeks help from local authorities—grotesque rednecks played by Dub
Taylor and Slim Pickens—her nightmare
escalates.
Even with this potboiler of a plot, Poor Pretty Eddie wanders into tangential weirdness at regular
intervals, notably Eddie’s inept, Elvis-inflected
performance of a country song. Furthermore, certain scenes include trippy
intercutting and superimpositions, vignettes of gruesome violence are rendered
in loving slow-motion, and the overarching aesthetic is surpassingly vulgar. In
the most extreme sequence, shots of Eddie raping Liz are intercut with shots of
rednecks forcing pigs to have sex, all to the accompaniment of a folksy love
song. Oddly, the film’s performances are not as gonzo as the storytelling.
Winters does her usual share of screaming, but she also imbues her pathetic
characterization with a measure of pathos. Similarly, Christian’s portrayal of
Eddie has a disquieting little-boy-lost element even though Eddie is
unquestionably a monster. As for Uggams, she works a straightforward
exploitation-flick groove while tracking a victim-turns-violent arc,
lending Poor Pretty Eddie a touch of
blaxploitation attitude.
All of this makes for a strange vibe, and not a
pleasant one; Poor Pretty Eddie is fascinating
in that old can't-look-away-from-a-traffic-accident sort of way. Weirder still?
The film’s producers, capping what appears to have been a wild production
experience, released Poor Pretty Eddie
in several different versions under multiple titles, including an almost
completely re-conceived and re-edited cut bearing the name Heartbreak Motel. After all, it’s better to recycle trash than to
simply throw the stuff away, right?
Poor
Pretty Eddie: FREAKY
