THE
SHAME OF PATTY SMITH (1962)/YOU'VE RUINED ME, EDDIE!
(1960)Directors: Leo Handel and R. John Hugh
Something Weird Video/Image Entertainment
THE
SHAME OF PATTY SMITH (1962)/YOU'VE RUINED ME, EDDIE!
(1960)Streeting
the same day as a triple feature of teen girls in heaps of trouble is this double-feature
of teen girls who end up knocked up before their prime. Morality tales were still
going strong in the exploitation market, years after roadshows had broke box office
records with MOM AND DAD and BECAUSE OF EVE, and these two shining gems of the
60s are just as good, if not better, than previous roadshow films resurrected
on DVD by Something Weird.
It's a lovely summer evening and young lovers Patty and Alan have a run-in with a trio of young hooligans who run a STOP sign and ram into Alan's car. Apparently they didn't cause enough trouble, so they follow the couple to lover's lane and gang-bang poor Patty while Alan is held back and forced to watch. Now, if this was the sick 70s, Alan would go on a blood-soaked spree of vengeance, or even better, Patty would pull a I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE on her rapists. But since this is the 60s, Alan calmly drives Patty home, who refuses to go to the police out of embarrassment and terror. To make matters worse, Patty discovers she is pregnant and is forced to ask her friendly roommate Mary (a very good performance by Merry Anders) for help in obtaining an abortion (shock! horror!).
THE
SHAME OF PATTY SMITH (1962) has a surefire exploitation title and a familiar concept
from countless other films of its ilk (STREET CORNER, for one), but it's really
much more bleak and better-realized than viewers may have been prepared for, then
and now. From the strikingly well-produced opening credits, the audience is made
aware this is not your typical shot-on-a-shoestring cautionary teen pregnancy
tale. Patty Smith is a likable young girl, well-acted by Dani Lynn, and her plight
is an easy one to identify with. We follow Patty as she goes from place to place,
seeking help for her problems, but is turned away by doctors and priests before
she finally is forced to sell family heirlooms and borrow money to pay for a back-alley
abortion organized by sleazy rotund Bruno VeSota. Here is where the film becomes
incredibly uncomfortable; where previous 30s films would have had a foreign caricature
portraying the abortionist, here it is a wife and husband team who are as American
as apple pie, running an abortion clinic out of a 
fitness
center with a fake medical license and no knowledge of how to perform the procedure
properly. It would be easy to laugh if the film was over-the-top and campy, but
SHAME OF PATTY SMITH simply isn't. It's a tense character-driven drama, with superb
performances and accomplished camerawork and editing, so don't be surprised if
you shed a few tears for poor pretty Patty. Also, I believe this is the first
roadshow film I've seen which features a valid argument FOR abortion from a respected
doctor who wishes he could legally perform Patty's operation, citing hundreds
of girls across the country who could benefit from such a procedure when suffering
from similar circumstances. By the end of the film, it's unclear where the film
stands on the pro-life controversy, which is still going strong today, but PATTY
SMITH is an entertaining, well-made feature film worth discovering.
And
now for something completely different: YOU'VE RUINED ME, EDDIE! is another diamond
in the rough of abortion dramas. You've probably never seen anything like it.
Rich girl Joan has a summer fling with working stiff Eddie, and thinks nothing
of revealing to him the fact that he's gotten her pregnant....and she plans on
aborting the baby! Now, if this was another abortion drama, Eddie would be overjoyed
and Joan wouldn't be so nonchalant about the procedure. Instead, Eddie pressures
Joan to keep the baby, at least so he can start a new family line (he grew up
in a repressive orphanage). The bitch staunchly refuses and goes to her stuffy
daddy about the matter. He tries throwing money at Eddie to buy him out, but cash
cannot buy Eddie's affections for his unborn child. Crazed with determination
to never give birth, Joan grabs her daddy's pistol and goes to settle the dispute
once and for all...
YOU'VE RUINED ME, EDDIE! (1960) is another flick that deserves an award for its dynamite exploitation title, but is in reality another well-acted, good-looking low-budget feature. Dentonville is the shoestring version of Peyton Place, populated by blue-collar everyday Joe's and overseen by the millionaire Denton family (Joan's family). Vikky Smith, the new girl in town, wants to help Eddie gain custody of the child, but fears she will violate her parole and lose her own child in the process. Eddie is played as a poor pathetic loser, but as the movie progresses, the audience does begin to feel sympathy for him, resulting in emotional conflicts: do we support the abortion of an unwanted child if the mother is so flippant about it, or do we force her to have the child for the sake of the father? It's an interesting angle that no other exploitation film has taken, as far as I've seen, and paired with another refreshing departure from the usual like SHAME OF PATTY SMITH, this is one of the best double features Something Weird has released this year! There's some very good familiar jazzy library music, lots of vicious hateful dialogue, and best of all, the final 10 minutes of a wild-eyed Joan chasing Eddie through the swamp, shooting wildly, must be seen to be believed! There's some surprising gore and plot twists along the way; to sum up, you've got to see YOU'VE RUINED ME, EDDIE!
A
collection of teen morality tale trailers is included: DAMAGED GOODS is the Sid
Davis color JD film, with alluring Dolores Faith as a femme fatale who comes between
an all-American high school couple. It was sold as a movie about venereal disease,
but that aspect only takes up the last 20 minutes. Something Weird released it
on DVD, paired with the far superior HARD ROAD. EIGHTEEN AND ANXIOUS for some
reason thinks teens of the 50s liked jazz and big band music....?! An over-the-top
trumpet player is a notorious womanizer, breaking hearts left and right, including
Mary Webster. Jim Backus is her father!! A pretty funny scen
e
has "The Millionaire" asking his daughter, "Are you pregnant?"
His response: drop the glass bowl in her hand and scream "Yes! Yes I AM!"
THE EMBRACERS is wall-to-wall bad acting in a Joseph Brenner flick, which means
it is probably lost. The lead actress sleeps with a slew of men after running
away from home, and is passed around by one of her men like a doobie! GIRL IN
TROUBLE is the excellent New Orleans exploitation masterpiece available on DVD
from Something Weird. See my review for the raves! MARRIED TOO YOUNG was exciting
for me because it's an early role for 70s cult fave Marianna Hill (MESSIAH OF
EVIL, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER) as a jukebox harlot. A teen couple must marry when
the girl gets pregnant. There's a police chase scene, for some reason! STREET
CORNER is a superb 40s roadshow flick starring former child actress Marcia Mae
Jones (HEIDI, A LITTLE PRINCESS) as a girl impregnated by her beau, who dies in
a car accident. If you don't already own the Something Weird DVD of this one,
shame on you! Get it now! It even has a Dave Friedman commentary! UNMARRIED MOTHERS
was a Swedish import complete with shocking childbirth scenes, but the trailer
shows no footage from this fascinating relic.
A
Special Intermission Book Pitch discusses the effects of teenage marriage (boy
quits school, girl can't be social) by an on-screen narrator whose eyes are obviously
reading cue cards. He then proceeds to sell a series of books discussing marriage,
sex, childbirth, and venereal disease called "The Mid-Century Marriage Guide."
I'm a sucker for these, so I'd probably hit the lobby to buy one! This would have
been a great disc for Something Weird to bring back the "Let's Go to the
Drive-In!" interactive feature and this intermission short would have fit
perfectly. An additional short is one of those ultra-cheesy McGraw-Hill Books
shorts, "How Much Affection?" A young girl is brought home after a date
and runs into the house without haste! It seems the two got a little too friendly
with one another and were shocked, appalled, and confused by their horny behavior.
They remember their classmates Fred and Eileen, who went "all the way"
and were cursed with a baby, forced to get marry, and now live their lives in
an unhappy state. Check out the other McGraw-Hill shorts "Is This Love?"
(a personal favorite) and "When Should I Marry?"! A gallery of exploitation
posters (many of which I've never seen before) is supported by awesome radio spots
(including DEVIL WOMAN and PARANOIA). (Casey
Scott)