Sixpack Annie

AIP ventures into hicksploitation via much cussin', beer drinking, brawlin', a sassy buxom heroine, a lustful Sheriff who slips on a banana peel, two old geezers telling corny 'take my wife' type jokes n' cameos from Billy Barty and a blacked-up Ray Danton...plus lots of plugs for Dr Pepper. Its rather like a big-budget version of a Harry Novak sexploiter (even the poster seems very Novak-ian) had Novak cut down on all that there fornicating and sold his soul to Dr. Pepper

As a serious moviegoer, you should periodically spend ninety minutes or so with a picture such as this one. You will clear your mind of such considerations as camera angles, lighting effects, directorial nuances, and similar aesthetic clutter. There will be no demands on your analytical abilities or your appreciation of cinematic excellence. You will forget your troubles, lose yourself in the sheer mindlessness of it all, and probably enjoy yourself immensely.

Warning: Don't watch it a second time. You will be left wondering how you not only could have sat through it once, but genuinely liked it.

Then watch it a third time to see which previous impression was correct. I dare you.

Another redneck comedy of the 1970s, SIX-PACK ANNIE centres around the titular character who needs to make money quick and is thus looking for a rich guy to fund her schemes. It's an oddly disjointed and uninspiring production, neither funny nor particularly titillating despite the usual sleaze and nudity from the era, and perhaps a bit tamer than you might be expecting. Having watched this on a double bill with DIRTY O'NEIL I'd say that the other film has a lot more going for it. This one, on the other hand, is static and near plotless, just a collection of run-ins between various uninteresting characters.

Throughout the 70's, we saw the rise and fall of the b-movie subgenre known as the redneck film. With the likes of Smokey and the Bandit, Gator Bait, and Walking Tall all packing in the theaters, Six-Pack Annie stands on its own as perhaps the Marx Brothers equivalent of the redneck film. No, its not as funny or witty as a Marx Bros film, but it is jam packed with mile a minute jokes. Okay, so 99% of the jokes are pretty weak and lowbrow, but what this film has is energy. The pacing is fantastic, and whether or not the jokes are funny, it is so consistent with one one-liner after another, it becomes a charming, little, stupid movie.

Basically the film revolves around poor, dimwitted, but sincere Annie trying to save the family restaurant, by finding herself a `Sugar Daddy' in the `big city', Miami. Its your basic country girl in over her head story as Annie's slow, innocent, bumpkin ways crash into all these city folk sensibilities and highjinks ensue. Features cameos by well-faded vaudeville comedians Stubby Kaye and Doodles Weaver. A good notch above other drive-in redneck cinema, obviously some effort was put into it, and it works as a guilty pleasure lowbrow comedy. Its really too bad the makers didn't seem (according to the imdb) to do anything else, because its a good 70's redneck film.

With a title like "Sixpack Annie" I'm sure your expectations are low. I'm not sure how to rate movies that are so bad they are good. This is like a mildly raunchy episode of "Hee Haw" if you are old enough to remember that. This is not a movie you want to watch sober. The lead actress is fun to watch.