Poor Pretty Eddie (1975)

Interesting facts

Poor Pretty Eddie is a 1975 American film starring Leslie Uggams, Shelley Winters and Michael Christian. Made on a relatively small budget, it is known for having an atypical narrative and directorial style, which combines elements of horror, exploitation film making and Southern gothic. It has subsequently become popular in cult and B movie circles.

Background

Most of the individuals involved in the production of Poor Pretty Eddie were, at the time, nominally employed in the world of adult films, with the picture representing an opportunity to appear in mainstream films. According to the extensive liner notes packaged with the film's DVD, backing was secured from Michael Thevis, an Atlanta-based businessman commonly known as “The King of Pornography” whose other businesses included a chain of sex shops…

The movie's script, loosely based on the Jean Genet play The Balcony, was the work of television writer B. W. Sandefur, who also wrote for such shows as Barnaby Jones, Little House on the Prairie and Charlie's Angels.

The film was shot on location in and around Athens, Georgia in 1973. The film’s biggest star, Shelley Winters, was flown in on a private plane that nearly crashed upon landing.

Contemporary reviews for the film were almost unanimously negative, owing to the film's dark racial undercurrents and repeated depictions of rape. One Georgia-based film writer concluded: “Upon leaving the theater, I quite honestly felt nauseous.”

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