THE WICKED DIE SLOW (1968)
Label: Scorpion Releasing
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 100 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: William K. Hennigar
Cast: Gary Allen, Steve Rivard, Helen Stewart, Jeff Kanew
A true regional obscurity comes to us today, the New Jersey shot western The Wicked Die Slow (1968) made by people who obviously loved the Italian Spaghetti Westerns and wanted to make their own roughie exploitation homage to the flicks or Sergio Leone and Serio Corbucci' only more chock full of violence, nudity and misogyny. The film opens with a bizarre half hour prologue tacked on by producers when the director turned in a 70-minute movie, the first half hour opens with anachronistic sequence of a busty woman in a bright yellow crewneck t-shirt and cut-off denim shorts riding horseback, then into an more appropriately Old West tale about a sharp-shooter bounty hunting priest. This tacked-on prologue totally throws you off the film, you will have no idea what the fuck it means or how it's connected to the film, but when it gets under way proper 30-minutes in things get a bit more coherent, but just a bit.
The main story follows a poncho-wearing gunfighter named The Kid (Gary Allen, Black Shampoo) and his Mexican sidekick Armadillo (Jeff Kanew, who would go onto direct Revenge Of The Nerds and Eddie Macon's Run among many others), who saddle their way through the post- Civil War West (New Jersey actually) looking for his errant brother Luke. On his travels he encounters a troubled woman (Susannah Campbell) who spins a sad tale of how her father molested her after the death of her mother before offing himself, which is when The Kid's brother showed up and abused her some more. They hit it off and The Kid and her strike up a relationship, but one day when left alone on the farm she is raped by four native Americans (white dudes in stereotypical costuming), setting The Kid and Armadillo on a path of vengeance. They track down and kill the offending rapists, but then encountering a trio of dusty cowpoke thugs at a bar who racistly harass his Mexican mate, leading to a saloon gunfights and three corpses. After that they save a young woman named Yolanda (Yolanda Signorelli, Doris Wishman's Too Much, Too Often!) from yet another trio of baddies who attempt to rape the woman after they bloodily beat down her father aging father (Richard Palenskea, young dude with horrendous old age make-up) - who repays the pair by allowing them to have sex with his buxom and quite willing daughter in the nearby bushes - the Old West certainly was a rough place.
Unfortunately for The Kid and Armadillo the men from the saloon were members of a band of outlaws lead by the sadistic Bart Lenoir (Steve Rivard), doing his best Klaus Kinski, a cackling maniac who leaves a path or rape and death in his wake, and eventually the parties meet, after a lot of tense poker playing, and you just know that someone is going to die slowly for sure!
This is a low-budget slice of regional filmmaking that clearly has a love of Spaghetti Westerns, not sure where this is supposed to be set, but it certainly isn't the dusty Old West, it was shot on verdant New Jersey, and it is plenty green, heck, there's even some fresh cut grass in several of the scenes - gotta love that regional filmmaking. Anachronisms and well-manicured prairies aside this is plenty entertaining, if a bit baffling at times, flick - that 30-minute prologue proving to be the biggest head-scratcher of 'em all, but it's not insurmountable. The acting is not great, but it's about average for a cheap roughie of this era. Dialogue is obviously dubbed in post, which if both off-putting and also right on target to emulate a Italian western.
Audio/Video: The Wicked Die Slow (1968) arrives on Blu-ray from from Scorpion Releasing in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen, sourced from a 2019 HD scan of the original, uncut film elements. The source elements are in fantastic shape, they look like they've been sitting untouched and in good conditions for the past 55-years, and the HD image on this Blu-ray is mighty impressive considering the low-budget/regional limitations. The source is nearly immaculate, grain levels are solid, colors are pleasing, and depth and clarity are also positives. Fine detail highlights textures of clothing and fabrics, and the rough, dirty, stubby facial features of the characters, and skin tones look quite natural, plus the autumnal colors of Jersey inthe Fall look splendid. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with optional English subtitles, everything sounds solid if not remarkable, no source related issues other than some his during the prologue.
The sole extras is a 16-min On-Camera Interview with Jeff Kanew who talks about landing the gig as screenwriter and co-starring, shooting without sync-sound as a nod tot he Italian films, and why Cannon Films added the prologue
after the film was finished.
Special Features:
- On-Camera Interview with Jeff Kanew (15:57)
The film is quite interesting as a regional slice of late 60's roughie-western Americana that set out to capitalize on the violent Spaghetti Westerns coming out of Italy at the time. It packs in a surprising amount of distasteful exploitation with no shortage of rape, murder, and suicide, and while it's made on the cheap and ramshackle in it's construction I was thoroughly engaged once I got past that first 30-min prologue, not because it wasn't interesting, it just doesn't go anywhere and it's not really a part of the larger story. With that caveat, if you like your westerns weird, wild, ultra-violent, a bit anachronistic and low-budget there's plenty here to chew on, recommended. Oh, and interestingly this is a pre-Golan and Globus incarnation of Cannon Films, which I thought was minorly interesting.
There's an Amazon link below but it's bit pricey, the best price I found on this right now is through either Ronin Flix or Diabolik DVD, where it's currently $22.99 from both - go supportthese guys, they're awesome.
