| The Lady in Red | |
|---|---|
 US film poster | |
| Directed by | Lewis Teague |
| Written by | John Sayles |
| Produced by | Julie Corman |
| Starring | Pamela Sue Martin Robert Conrad Louise Fletcher Christopher Lloyd |
| Cinematography | Daniel Lacambre |
| Edited by | Larry Bock Ron Medico Lewis Teague |
| Music by | James Horner |
Production company | Lady in Red Productions |
| Distributed by | New World Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 93 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $400,000 |
| Box office | $900,000[1] |
The Lady in Red (also known as Guns, Sin and Bathtub Gin) is a 1979 American crime drama film directed by Lewis Teague and starring Pamela Sue Martin and Robert Conrad.[2] It is an early writing effort of John Sayles who became better known as a director in the 1980s and 1990s.
Premise
The film tells a 1930s crime story of a poor farmer's daughter who leaves for Chicago, where she is sent to prison, works as a prostitute, falls in love with notorious criminal John Dillinger, witnesses his death, and finally tries bank robbery.
Cast
- Pamela Sue Martin as Polly Franklin
- Robert Conrad as John Dillinger
- Louise Fletcher as Anna Sage
- Robert Hogan as Jake Lingle
- Laurie Heineman as Rose Shimkus
- Glenn Withrow as Eddie
- Rod Gist as Pinetop
- Peter Hobbs as Pops Geissler
- Christopher Lloyd as Frognose
- Dick Miller as Patek
- Nancy Parsons as Tiny Alice
- Alan Vint as Melvin Purvis
- Robert Forster as Turk (uncredited)
Production
The soundtrack of this film is notable as the first film score composed by James Horner, who went on to a multiple Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy-winning career.
Teague recalls, "I was given that script and told to go with it. I didn't really have a chance to mold or change it. It was very socially conscious for an action picture about the Great Depression. I had 20 days to shoot it, and three to edit and a budget of less than a million."[3]
John Sayles later said the film "didn't turn out the way I wanted because they just didn't have the budget to make the movie right. I wanted that to be a real breathless, '30s, Jimmy Cagney everybody-talking-fast type movie. It turned out a little more like Louis Malle. Different movies have different speeds."[4]
Release
The film was not a big success at the box office. Roger Corman re-released it in 1980 under the title Guns, Sin and Bathtub Gin, but it did not fare much better.[1]
On December 17, 2010, Shout! Factory released the title on DVD, packaged as a double feature with Crazy Mama as part of the Roger Corman Cult Classics collection.[5]
Reception
Quentin Tarantino called it "my candidate for most ambitious film ever made at Roger Corman’s New World Pictures... Not only do I think this thirties era epic... is Sayles best screenplay, I also think it’s the best script ever written for an exploitation movie."[6] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an aggregated score of 83% based on 5 positive and 1 negative reviews.[7]
In popular culture
In Quentin Tarantino's novel Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in an alternate history, he himself had released a remake of the film in 1999.
References
- 1 2 Christopher T Koetting, Mind Warp!: The Fantastic True Story of Roger Corman's New World Pictures, Hemlock Books. 2009 p 169
- ↑ "The Lady in Red". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
- ↑ Yakir, Dan (1985). "Big League Teague". Film Comment. New York. 21 (6): 26–28, 80. ProQuest 210237874.
- ↑ Schlesinger, Tom; Sayles, John (1 July 1981). "Putting People Together: An Interview with John Sayles". Film Quarterly. 34 (4): 2–8. doi:10.2307/1212137. JSTOR 1212137.
- ↑ "Roger Corman's Cult Classics". Shout! Factory. Archived from the original on 2010-04-11. Retrieved 2011-02-03.
- ↑ Tarantino, Quentin (16 February 2020). "The Lady in Red". New Beverly Cinema. Archived from the original on 23 March 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
- ↑ "The Lady in Red". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 1, 2022.