Blaxploitation by way of the backwoods, Poor Pretty Eddie’s setup is tried and true: An outsider, en route to her vacation destination, has car trouble, causing a Deliverance-esque detour into dementia via a Southern-fried Podunk town and the racist, hillbilly denizens who hold court (literally).

Here, our victimized traveler is Liz Wetherly, a national recording sensation played by Leslie Uggams, who does battered and numb so convincingly, you’ll wonder if she took lessons from Tina Turner, bringing a disturbing grindhouse gravitas to the increasingly outlandish escapades. The titular Eddie (Michael Christian) is a delusional wannabe rockabilly singer in the key of an Eddie Cochran, just waiting for his big break. He’s been leading around sloshed sugar mama Bertha (Shelley Winters), who hopes to marry her poor, pretty Eddie.

When Uggams is towed into town by Ted Cassidy (Lurch from The Addams Family), Eddie recognizes the star and tries to seduce her. Baffled when his booty call is shot down, he resorts to forceful, nonconsensual boot-knockin’. It’s surely one of the most surreal rape scenes on film, as it’s spliced with an equally graphic slow-mo scene of Cassidy breeding his dog!

I guarantee there was no “test screening” for the very un-PC Poor Pretty Eddie, aka Redneck County, a shocking trip even today. It makes my heart yearn for the era of the drive-in. Where else could you see the likes of Lurch, Winters, Slim Pickens and Dub Taylor in one movie? —Joshua Jabcuga

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