1982 black comedy Rating: 6/10
Plot: A boring and seemingly asexual married couple needs some money to open up their dream restaurant. When they accidentally kill a swinger with a frying pan and find a wad of cash in his wallet, they get the idea to do that for a living.
A friendly dominatrix and the titular swindler help them with their business. There’s a parade of perverts in this movie, and you think you’ve seen it all until the door swings open to reveal none other than Billy Curtis—my favorite little fellow—with a dog and a very funny voice. I’m sure this wasn’t his proudest moment. Then again, the guy played Mayor McCheese, so maybe vanity wasn’t a big deal for him. Paul Bartel, one of Corman’s buddies, directed and starred in this. He looks a lot like Chris Elliott, something that probably made me like his character more. As a writer and director, it doesn’t seem like Bartel’s had a lot of interaction with actual people because the dialogue is awkward and silly. Maybe it’s intentional. He gives it this off-beat sitcom texture with some corny music, the couple sleeping in a pair of twin-sized beds, and this general prosaic feeling.
It reminds me in tone of Parents with a dash of A Bucket of Blood, but it’s too silly and not clever enough. I did pick up a line that I will likely use if I ever have sexual relations again: “Look out! Here comes the duke now!” Oh, and this is only the second movie that I’m aware of that uses the word “pendejo” (Do you know the other?), a word I used in class the other day and immediately regretted since my Spanish-speaking students ooh’d like I had just cursed. Anyway, this movie gets a big bonus point boost for the Billy Curtis cameo, but it’s otherwise kind of a one-gag movie that, in the end, seems like just one huge joke with a punchline that’s given away in the title. Should I have typed “spoiler alert” before telling you that?
