The Strange Vengeance of Rosalie

Childish and slightly unhinged Rosalie imprisons hapless jewelry salesman Virgil in her dusty farm.Poor guy is strapped to an iron bed after Rosalie has broken his leg with the back end of an axe.Suddenly a demented biker appears and they both find themselves dominated and tormented by him...I am fairly sure that after watching "The Strange Vengeance of Rosalie" Stephen King took the main idea to write his bestselling novel "Misery".Bonnie Bedelia is excellent as the uneducated,naive and aggressive captor.The final twist is rather silly,but I liked dry and utterly remote desert setting.The film was cut by the studio to achieve the desired PG rating.Thankfully I managed to see all the nude scenes censored from American release.8 out of 10.Very rare 70's film from director Jack Starrett of "Race with the Devil" fame.

Since my fifty years as a movie buff, I had never heard of this Jack Starett's movie. He who is one of my favorite seventies director. This one shows us Bonnie Bedelia sixteen years before she becomes Mrs Holy - Generro - McLane in DIE HARD, and several years after her performance in THEY SHOOT HORSES DON'T THEY. This is a strange but not uninteresting film, that can make you think of MISERY in terms of scheme and settings; isolation and more or less disturbed characters. I am very happy to have discovered this little gem. I still don't uderstand how this film could remain under my radars.....

Richard (Ken Howard) is very clean and white in comparison to a brown and dusty landscape filled with brown, dusty people. He stands out like a cultivated plant in a wild desert garden. Rosalie is the girl you, at times, feel sorry for and, at times, are just simply disgusted with. Bonnie Bedelia does a wonderful job of playing her with a very hard stubborn edge that can drive you crazy. You will leave this movie feeling bewildered and frustrated to all hell.

This is a film from the early 70's that I watched in the early 80's, it wasn't a new movie, but it wasn't dated for the time either, on the contrary, in the 80's I was a teenager and the feeling I had was that the films from the previous decade (70s) were more impactful on me than those from the current decade (80s). Many of the most memorable films of my life belong to the period 1966-1974, and I watched most of them in my adolescence.

With this film it was no different, I watched it one late night on the couch at my house in the early 80's and it was like a punch in the stomach. I can give other examples, such as "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" (1966), "Midnight Cowboy" (1969), "Brewster McCloud" (1970), "Straw Dogs" (1971), "The Beguiled" (1971), "Deliverance" (1972), "The Wicker Man" (1973), "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" (1974), and many others, the list is huge.

I never rewatched "The Strange Vengeance of Rosalie" after that, so I'm pretty sure if I were to watch it today I would find it to be a pretty bad and outdated movie. And for that very reason I prefer not to watch it again, because I prefer to keep in myself the unique and devastating feeling it caused me at the time, which puts the film among the most memorable of my life.

This film was so impactful that when I watched the release of "Misery" (1990) in theaters, I thought it was rubbish, a great disappointment, because the origin of the inspiration was evident and even a certain plagiarism in the story, until today the film of Rob Reiner doesn't get down my throat very much. Okay, everyone can claim nowadays that "Misery" is a much better movie, better made, with better actors, etc, but for those who knew the illustrious unknown original B movie that probably served as inspiration for that Stephen King story , none of these better elements are enough to elevate it to the heights of a superior film.

That's it, so if you like small and simple old productions, different and obscure, with a high degree of suspense and tension, "The Strange Vengeance of Rosalie" is a full plate.

Whilst searching for the next slice of schlock for my B-movie collection, it's pretty much common knowledge, by now that I'm either gonna end up with something painfully bad, or if I'm lucky, something so bad it's good. But sometimes, on a one of those rare occasions, I'll unearth something unexpected. Something interesting. Dare I say something Incredible. If Stephen King got his idea for Misery from this movie, all I can say is that he sure could have done a lot worse. The Strange Vengeance Of Rosalie, at first centers on Virgil, who is passing through the New Mexico desert on his way to a Hawain vacation. Uh-oh, a hitchhiker. Unfortunately, this is the early 70's. A time when people thoughtlessly picked up hitchhikers. But really. This is a teenage girl we're talking about, here. Rosalie is a Native American, kinda hickish, like the beverly hillbillies, in the way of not knowing about stuff. But anyway, she's nice enough. Once Rosalie guilt-trips unsuspecting Virgil into hauling her miles upon miles out in her shack in the middle of the desert, she repays him by breaking his leg. The thing is, Since Rosalie's grandfather died, it's been awfully lonely around the desolate homestead, and loneliness can do strange things to one's mind. In other words, Virgil ain't going' nowhere. Other than the fact that she's half-crazy, kinda immature and perhaps a bit backwards, Rosalie is pretty easy to get along with. So, to be fair, ol' Virgil could do much worse in the way of captors. No torturing, or anything like that. Just somebody to talk to... also, maybe someone to control.Man, what a strong feeling of isolation. Poor Virgil might as well be on another planet. At least ten miles from anything. Car ain't workin', leg sure as hell ain't workin'. Reasoning with the captor is frustrating, and possibly hopeless. As the captor, Rosalie can be an unlikeable character, yet often pitiful, and occasionally endearing. As the viewer, I found myself rooting for Virgil to just give up and stay in that hell hole. This would be around the time that Rosalie shows that she's nothing but poison, perfectly willing to mame or murder, if it suits her. It just doesn't seem like it's because she's a bad person. Poor girl just don't know no better. Besides the breaking of the leg, for roughly the same reason, what this film has most in common with Misery is that constant feeling of dread, hopelessness and isolation all rolled into one. The Strange Vengeance Of Rosalie isn't quite as well-known or big budget. This film is from a different time, and is for a different audience. This film has that odd drive-in obscurity feel to it, as opposed to the early-90's made-for-TV feel of it's counterpart. I wouldn't say the character of Rosalie is anywhere as deep or complicated as that of Kathy Bates, but Rosalie is a different kind of animal. While still stubborn and set in her ways, Rosalie's needs are more primitive, if you will. All the girl wants is some company. Someone to talk to. Perhaps a husband, if it leads to that. Whatever Rosalie decides. Virgil has no say, he has a broken leg. I truly have not been this impressed with an obscurity like this in a long, long time. Most low budget films I get a hold of are of the Horror genre. Rosalie is more of a suspense-thriller. So, in closing. If you ever get tired of the same old so bad it's good, gory, schlocky grainy-screen goodness, perhaps you're in the mood for something different. Something that'll make you think. This is quality Drive-In cinema. 10/10