Common Law Wife / Jennie Wife-Child

Rating:
Summary: Outrageous and peculiar chicken-fried exploitation trash!
Review: This terrific Something Weird DVD pairs the legendary exploitation classic Common Law Wife with the curious backwoods soaper/nudie-cutie Jennie: Wife/Child. Common Law Wife originated as Swamp Rose, a pastoral study of a "girl of the swamps" shot in 16mm color by low-budget Texas auteur Larry Buchanan (Naked Witch, Mars Needs Women, etc.) Exploitation entrepreneur Michael A. Ripps (Bayou/Poor White Trash, Macumba Love) edited some of Buchanan's film into newly-shot footage, creating a lurid, outrageous, hard-as-nails B&W exploitation gem. Nasty old Shugfoot Rainey throws darts William Tell-style at live-in companion Linda (Annabelle Weenick), informing her she's too old ("How much do you want to get out?") and that he's sent for his obnoxious stripper niece Jonelle (nicknamed "Baby Doll") to replace her. "Hell, that's incest!" shrieks Linda, storming off to the sheriff to check their legal status. Jonelle arrives from New Orleans, ostensibly to shack up with Shugfoot, but instead takes up with brother-in-law Jody, the town sheriff, with whom she'd had a "fling" after their graduation dance. (She struts down the street tempting the local males to the same brassy stock cues heard in Strange Rampage, Mundo Depravados, The Hellcats, and other '60s barrel-scrapers) It turns out that a motel stay years earlier makes Linda Shugfoot's common law wife so she confronts Rainey and Jonelle with her wedding band. Briefly returning to Buchanan's original footage, moonshiner Bull takes Jonelle for a speedboat ride deep into the bayou to see his still, then (back to Ripps's footage!) obvious doubles enact a chase through the swamp. Inexplicably teleported back to sister Brenda's house (nice geometric drapes!) Jonelle smokes, drinks, and reviles Brenda, who begs Jonelle to leave Jody alone and finally throws the acid-tongued tramp out at gunpoint. Jonelle plots further maliciousness, and it all winds up with a wild, shockingly violent (for the time) finale in the swamp. Loaded with inflammatory dialogue and overwrought acting (Weenick chews the scenery mercilessly), Common Law Wife is a cut above similar Texas-shot sleaze (e.g. Hot Blooded Woman, whose director, Dale Berry, has a bit part here), but not by much. Most of the dialogue is competently dubbed, but due to the movie's patchwork nature there are plot holes you could drive a truck through. Some of the actors appear in both sets of footage and, deepening the confusion, Jonelle is played sweetly in Buchanan's scenes, but is obviously doubled and played as a raging vixen in Ripps's footage. Buchanan's audio commentary is a fascinating look at how these things were pieced together, as he identifies which footage is his and which was added (really all the best stuff; sorry Larry!). In the encyclopedia under "exploitation movie" they should have stills from this film. Print quality varies radically, with Buchanan's footage exhibiting excessive grain, scratches, and a dark, dupey look; the added scenes (fortunately most of the film) look excellent overall, with some light speckling/blemishing and minor emulsion dings but otherwise presenting a nice, crisp B&W image.
Jennie: Wife/Child is a real oddity: a B&W rural sexual melodrama (think Russ Meyer's Mudhoney), with silent-movie-style title cards accompanied by wacky sound effects; a custom C&W soundtrack featuring psych/biker band Davie Allan and The Arrows (!?!); and a brief nudie-cutie interlude. Gorgeous blonde "river-bottom" tart Jennie cringes at elderly farmer husband Albert Peckingpaw's touch, but must still perform her wifely duties ("Time for my 'nap' Jennie"). She's jealous of boneheaded farmhand Mario's 'girlfriend' Lulubelle, with whom he drinks, smokes, and dances foolishly at local gin mill The Cobblestone, where, amazingly, The Arrows are the house band. (Mario takes Lulubelle on a drunken motorcycle ride while she strips!) Jennie pursues Mario aggressively, distracting him from his Dell Davy Crockett comic book by skinny-dipping in a local creek ("How do you like me in my birthday suit?" warbles on the soundtrack). Albert and Mario throw a wild, drunken birthday party for Jennie and further plot twists involve cuckolded Albert's plans for revenge, some hidden money, and a surprising encounter between Albert and Lulubelle. By the end, everyone's boogieing to the Arrows down at the Cobblestone as a title card asks "Will Jennie ever find true love?" Violence and nudity are tame, and Mario gets quite annoying, but Ms. Lunsford carries the film with her charm, and the movie has a goofy, endearing quality that nicely counterpoints with Common Law Wife's in-your-face luridness. Can't wait to find the Tower Records soundtrack LP. Jennie's cinematography looks terrific (pre-fame Vilmos Zsigmond) and other than a bit of lining, light speckling/blemishing, and a few splices, the print quality is excellent overall.
The trailer for Common Law Wife features a televangelistic narrator in a cheesy motel room and contains no footage from the movie, yet manages to be appropriately sleazy. Other extras: 1940s/50s exploitation/bad girl roadshow artwork gallery; a cookie revealing the trailer for 1940s swamp trash melodrama Child Bride, and the awful 1970 B&W feature Moonshine Love, the kind of movie SW must figure (rightly) that you'd never knowingly pay money for. Starting promisingly with scenes that redefine bad acting as some inept thugs plan a robbery/mugging in a Woolworth's parking lot, this really takes a dive as soon as the amnesiac gang member with the loot is found by a scuzzy hillbilly and his nubile "daughters" (?). Despite nudity, skinny-dipping, some go-go dancing by a chick in white boots and spangles, and the provocative "carrot love" scene, I found this slow and boring even at 61 minutes. I would much rather have seen a 1950s/60s Swamp Trash trailer collection in its place. Otherwise, an immensely entertaining, fabulous set, highly recommended.