The lurid Lee Marvin & Gene Hackman crime thriller "Prime Cut" wasn't the kind of lightweight entertainment that director Michael Ritchie specialized in during his Hollywood career. He made memorable comedies such as "The Candidate," "Downhill Racer," "The Bad News Bears," "Smile," and "Fletch." Ritchie was often far better than the material that he made, but "Prime Cut" qualified as quite a departure. "99 and 44/100% Dead" scenarist Robert Dillon penned this concise, 86-minute, Technicolor shoot'em up that featured Marvin as a mob troubleshooter who is chauffered to Kansas to collect a half-million dollar debut that Mary Ann (Gene Hackman of "The French Connection") owes to Chicago mob boss Jake (Eddie Egan of "The French Connection") but has no intention of paying off.
"Prime Cut" features some interesting R-rated nudity. Academy Award winning actress Sissy Spacek made her cinematic debut as Poppy, a young, clueless girl that Nick Devlin (Lee Marvin of "The Dirty Dozen") buys from Mary Ann. Mary Ann sells flesh and dope along with cattle. When Nick enters the barn on Mary Ann's premises, he sees men gathered around the livestock bins, but the bins don't contain livestock, naked chicks are sprawled in drug-induced hazes in the straw. Nick finds Mary Ann chowing down on a plate of guts when he inquires about the $500-thousand that he owes to Jake. Mary Ann has no intention of paying off his debt. In fact, he sees Chicago as a dying, old sow and believes that only the Heartland of Kansas provides the only salvation from the eastern big cities with their multicultural populations. Predictably, Mary Ann and his witless but violent brother Weenie (Gregory Walcott of "Thunderbolt & Lightfoot") clash with Nick and his henchmen. There is a cool scene when a harvester munches on a limo in a wheat field and an amusing scene in a Kansas City motel when Poppy dines out with Nick in a see-through gown that attracts the attention of other diners. Moreover, Ritchie offers a close-up shot of Spacek's breasts in the sheer, gauzy material.
Ritchie is an imaginative director and the first scene in the slaughterhouse as the livestock is being butchered is neat. Weenie takes over when the naked body of a man, one of Jake's henchmen, shows up on the conveyor belt. When all is said and done, Weenie has the dead mobster ground up into a string of frankfurters. Jake catches up with Nick in a Windy City bar and shows him the message that Mary Ann has sent him. Nick collects a crew and they hit the highway and cruise to Kansas City. Ritchie doesn't draw out "Prime Cut," so this crime melodrama never wears out its welcome. After the initial confrontation with Mary Ann at the barn, Nick shows up at a Mary Ann sponsored fair and the villainous Hackman refuses to ante up the necessary dough. Instead, he tries to have his shotgun-wielding farm boy bodyguards kill Nick. They manage to wound Nick's men and they abduct Poppy, so Nick arms himself with a grease gun, like the one that he used in "The Dirty Dozen" during the training sequences, and crashes an eighteen wheeler into Mary Ann's farm. A brief shoot-out ensues in a barn and the wounded Mary Ann becomes partial luncheon meat for a rowdy hog. The thing that makes Nick a sympathetic character is the act of rescuing Poppy and then at fade-out liberating the orphanage where Mary Ann had her held.
"Prime Cut" features some interesting R-rated nudity. Academy Award winning actress Sissy Spacek made her cinematic debut as Poppy, a young, clueless girl that Nick Devlin (Lee Marvin of "The Dirty Dozen") buys from Mary Ann. Mary Ann sells flesh and dope along with cattle. When Nick enters the barn on Mary Ann's premises, he sees men gathered around the livestock bins, but the bins don't contain livestock, naked chicks are sprawled in drug-induced hazes in the straw. Nick finds Mary Ann chowing down on a plate of guts when he inquires about the $500-thousand that he owes to Jake. Mary Ann has no intention of paying off his debt. In fact, he sees Chicago as a dying, old sow and believes that only the Heartland of Kansas provides the only salvation from the eastern big cities with their multicultural populations. Predictably, Mary Ann and his witless but violent brother Weenie (Gregory Walcott of "Thunderbolt & Lightfoot") clash with Nick and his henchmen. There is a cool scene when a harvester munches on a limo in a wheat field and an amusing scene in a Kansas City motel when Poppy dines out with Nick in a see-through gown that attracts the attention of other diners. Moreover, Ritchie offers a close-up shot of Spacek's breasts in the sheer, gauzy material.
Ritchie is an imaginative director and the first scene in the slaughterhouse as the livestock is being butchered is neat. Weenie takes over when the naked body of a man, one of Jake's henchmen, shows up on the conveyor belt. When all is said and done, Weenie has the dead mobster ground up into a string of frankfurters. Jake catches up with Nick in a Windy City bar and shows him the message that Mary Ann has sent him. Nick collects a crew and they hit the highway and cruise to Kansas City. Ritchie doesn't draw out "Prime Cut," so this crime melodrama never wears out its welcome. After the initial confrontation with Mary Ann at the barn, Nick shows up at a Mary Ann sponsored fair and the villainous Hackman refuses to ante up the necessary dough. Instead, he tries to have his shotgun-wielding farm boy bodyguards kill Nick. They manage to wound Nick's men and they abduct Poppy, so Nick arms himself with a grease gun, like the one that he used in "The Dirty Dozen" during the training sequences, and crashes an eighteen wheeler into Mary Ann's farm. A brief shoot-out ensues in a barn and the wounded Mary Ann becomes partial luncheon meat for a rowdy hog. The thing that makes Nick a sympathetic character is the act of rescuing Poppy and then at fade-out liberating the orphanage where Mary Ann had her held.