Sixpack Annie

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.

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.

In a career neatly balancing mainstream episodic television like THE DUKES OF HAZZARD and exploitation cinema such as COVER GIRL MODELS, Lindsay Bloom is by far the cutest starlet to appear in the latter: providing a girl-next-door innocence within the infamously risque guilty-pleasure drive-in cinema...

Herein a perfect fit for the rural hangout romp SIXPACK ANNIE, where her titular character realizes a plot-line halfway through... to find a sugar daddy with enough cash to help her aunt pay for the family diner, where she waitresses with AMERICAN GRAFFITI bellhop Jana Bellan, a cherubic brunette to Bloom's adorable blonde...

It's a shame the pair couldn't be involved in more of the first half's small-town adventures... including run-ins with handsome local Bruce Boxleitner and a boisterous good-old-boy sheriff... since the their down-home-dazzling presence lights up the grungy one-horse town, from pickup-truck-cruising-exteriors to beer-guzzling-barroom interiors...

But once in Florida... where Annie gets dodgy advice from older bubbly-blonde Louisa Moritz, being thrust from one male dud to the next (mostly without sidekick Belllan)... the second-half fails to compliment an actress with enough natural charm to have carried things as far as she could - as SIXPACK ANNIE the character far exceeds the movie.

This likably stupid film should only be watched by people who can turn their brains off, and any intellectual analysis of this film is missing the point. Predictably, the two leads are played by busty women, but these two have a certain charm that is usually lacking in films like this. This movie is also full of silly sexual jokes, but somehow, I actually found many of them to be funny. Perhaps this is because this is a good-natured film, and therefore things never get too raunchy. Whatever the reason, this is a solid viewing selection if you're in the mood for some undemanding fun.

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