Leofwine_draca

TRACKDOWN is a typically rough-edged thriller of the 1970s which has a really grim feel to it. Mitchum is no substitute for his father and doesn't feel like he gets much screen time either, but the trafficking plot feels timeless and the film has an edgy street vibe that fits really well with the material. My main complaint here is that this lacks the thrills expected of an action picture; there's too much of the trafficking and exploitation which makes the revenge material feel a little rushed at the end. Youthful turns from Anne Archer and Erik Estrada round out this cheapie.

BEACH PARTY is the first in the AIP series of beach films and proved so popular that seven or so sequels followed. As far as I'm concerned, I'm glad these films exist because they helped to finance Corman's excellent Poe adaptations, which is enough for me. And I admit I was quite delighted with Price's little cameo in this one. The rest is the usual sand and surfing nonsense, although it feels better plotted than others I've seen thanks to the inclusion of the great Robert Cummings as an anthropologist investigating beach specimens.

THE WICKED DIE SLOW is an unpleasant little exploitation flick with a western setting. The main plot involves a woman being subjected to a brutal assault before a gunslinger and a loved one go in search of the people responsible. In essence, it's a string of tawdry sex and sexual assault sequences made with little in the way of finesse and littered with the kinds of basic errors you get in low budget filmmaking. There's a lot of unpleasantness but at this kind of budget it's not particularly disturbing.