Common Law Wife

Originally shot as Swamp Rose a few years earlier, then chopped up and added to new film shot by a different director and even featuring 2 different actresses playing one character - somehow strange forces intervened and created this booze-soaked trashfest of enjoyability. Baby Doll is coming to town to stay with and "take care of" her Uncle Shug, but unfortunately he's having a problem getting rid of his common-law wife who refuses to leave (played by the ever overacting, always entertaining cult star Annabelle Weenick). Baby Doll is played by 2 different actresses, but I didn't notice until after I read it - and is a beautiful atrocious monster who you just can't take your eyes off of. Trashy fun with a great ending.

Common Law Wife (1963)

** (out of 4)

A rich and mean old man (Shugfoot Rainey) decides to throw Linda (Anne MacAdams), his lover of five years, out of his house because (WTF?) he wants his young and sexy niece Jonelle to come live with him. This sends Linda into a rage until she realizes that she's legally his common law wife.

COMMON LAW WIFE is a rather weird film that was sold as an exploitation movie but it barely fits into that genre. I guess the idea of you living with someone and then legally being considered married was a "shocking" subject to some back in 1963 but the film itself isn't quite as good as one would have hoped. With that said, there are enough weird moments to make it worth watching.

I thought the first half of the film was better than the second half. During the opening we get to have fun meeting all of these strange characters including the niece who seems to have no problem being sexual with her old uncle. This is a rather creepy but funny moment and we also get some rather funny dialogue dealing with the lover character seeking revenge as the new wife. The second portion of the film gets bogged down in a bunch of melodrama but it does lead up to a rather shocking ending.

The film was directed by Eric Sayers but for years it was rumored that Larry Buchanan had a hand in it. It turns out that some footage from a Buchanan movie was used here and that's the reason for the confusion but according to the audio commentary on the Something Weird Video disc it seems that very little of his footage made it into this film. COMMON LAW WIFE is a mild entertainment if you're looking for a cheap "C" movie.

Another in the so-bad-it's-good barrel, Lacey Kelly is the K-Mart Anita Ekberg in this fun, totally trashy backwater potboiler. It has all the pedigree of the best (if there is such a thing) Russ Meyer productions, which were being churned out around the same time. Great bad acting, with editing to match, sexy jazz score, and gowns by Orry-Kelly (just kidding).

When old Uncle Shug tires of his live-in girl (Annabelle Weenick), he plans to replace her with his gold-digging stripper niece, Baby Doll (Kelly), but she aint abut to go without a fight. While Shug is trying to work out the details, Baby Doll has lots of time to sample the local male cuisine, and she's got quite an appetite. What could possibly go wrong? Make some popcorn and find out!

"Common Law Wife," a made-in-Texas drive-in quickie directed by exploitation maestro Larry Buchanan ("Mars Needs Women," etc.) has it all: inept cinematography, bad acting, dubbing that's reminiscent of a Sir Run Run Shaw production, and, best of all, twisted, hate-filled characters like lusty old Uncle Shug, who wants to get rid of his aging common law wife, a shrieking harridan played by Anne McAdams (who would go on to have a lengthy career), so he can shack up with his niece, Jonelle, who wants to get rid of HIM -- permanent-like! Jonelle (stripper name: Baby Doll) has been takin' it all off in New Orleans, and damn if they didn't cast a real stripper in the part!

No nudity here, just your garden variety sleaze and down-home depravity. They don't make 'em like this any more, which is either a good thing or a bad thing...

There's histrionics galore in this stark, trashy melodrama that should do the trick for hicksploitation aficionados. Annabelle Weenick stars as Linda, the live-in girlfriend for miserly old coot Shugfoot Rainey (George Edgley), who's made his fortune in oil. Shug is about to kick the over the hill Linda to the curb in favor of his own niece Baby Doll (Lacey Kelly), a stripper from New Orleans. Linda isn't about to go quietly - Hell, she isn't about to go at all, once she learns that according to Texas law, she is Shugs' common law wife. But the nasty, conniving, trampy Baby Doll is equally determined to lay claim to Shugs' money.

"Common Law Wife" was begun as a color feature by Texas based schlock purveyor Larry Buchanan (of "Mars Needs Women" fame) in 1960, under the title "Swamp Rose". Eventually, it got recut, and supplemented by new footage shot by director Eric Sayers, with the final film completely shown in black & white. It's basically fun, but the unaware should know that for a movie running just over 76 minutes, it IS padded to a degree. (Lots of cutaways to ducks in this thing!) It also isn't quite as interesting when it starts exclusively focusing on Baby Doll, and the way that she plays up to a moonshiner named Bull, while also making time with Jody the Sheriff. (And he's already married.) Still, Kelly, a stripper in real life as well, is compulsively watchable, especially when she does a steamy dance routine.

This may be a somewhat rough slog for some viewers, seeing that the principal trio of characters are not exactly nice people, but this will only add to the experience for others. The performances suit the material, with Weenick - to eventually gain her greatest fame in S.F. Brownriggs' "Don't Look in the Basement" - making the most of her starring film debut.

Worth a look for those that dig regional exploitation features from decades past.

Seven out of 10.