Poor Pretty Eddie

David Worth, in collaboration with producer Richard Robinson, makes his directing debut by painting a disturbing, perverse, racially offensive portrait of social malaise, set in a desolate, bucolic corner of the Deep South that seems to have been left to its own devices (the filming was done in Georgia).

Not too far removed from early Tobe Hooper in depicting the degradation of a pathological world dominated by madness and perversion, “Poor Pretty Eddie” (aka “Heartbreak Motel”) succeeds in its mission of discomforting the viewer without needing to rely on lurid narrative devices – here the monstrosity doesn’t need to wear a grotesque human-skin mask to announce itself.

The director mainly seems to take an experimental approach, starting with a recipe that mixes together a number of subgenres in a novel way (blaxploitation, hixploitation, rape and revenge, geriatric thriller), in order to come up with several decidedly original scenes. The addition of surreal touches and jarring slow-motion scenes, as well as unconventional editing choices, produce a decidedly intriguing final product.

Cast: Shelley Winters turns in an excellent performance in the role of the faded, overweight, show-business has-been who tries to drown her fears of abandonment and loneliness in alcohol. Considering the fact that even the supporting actors seem perfectly cast (the lewd Sheriff Orville with his overgrown, mentally handicapped son; Keno, the handyman with the angular face; the disgusting Justice of the Peace/innkeeper), we have to acknowledge that the only weak link here is the protagonist, a one-dimensional, overly icy Leslie Uggams.

Most memorable scene: Sheriff Orville doesn’t exactly go by the book writing up his report of Liz’s rape.