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She Freak
Alley of Nightmares / Asylum of the Insane
USA 1967
produced by David F. Friedman, Alan L. Sonney (associate), R.I. Long (associate) for Sonney-Friedman Pictures
directed by Byron Mabe
starring Claire Brennen, Lee Raymond, Lynn Courtney, Bill McKinney, Claude Smith, Ben Moore, Van Teen, Madame Lee, Marsha Drake, Felix Silla, William Bagdad, Sandra Holcomb, David Boudrot, David F. Friedman, Byron Mabe, Bobby Matthews
written by David F. Friedman, music by William Allen Castleman
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Jade (Claire Brennen) leaves her old job waiting tables at a diner in
the middle of nowhere to travel with a carnival ... and wait tables. She
soon befriends stripper Moon (Lynn Courtney) and starts an affair with
ferry wheel operator Blackie (Lee Raymond), but ultimately she lays her
eyes on freak show owner Steve (Bill McKinney), whom she marries, even
though she is - and excuse the pun - freaked out by his freaks. The
marital bliss doesn't last long however, and while he gambles away his
nights, she rekindles her affair with Blackie - until the are one night
caught by Steve, who soon enough gets into a fight with Blackie and is
killed. With Steve out of the way, Jade takes over the freak show, raking
in the riches and treating the freaks, for whom Steve had fatherly
feelings, like dirt - until they retaliate, and make her one of theirs. Quite
obviously, this film was based on Tod Browning's 1932 classic Freaks
- even if the freaks are surprisingly absent from this movie, and only
glimpses of them show up in the finale. Instead, the film is padded out
with tons of footage from a real travelling carnival, giving the audience
a tour of what must be all of its rides, showing it being set up and torn
down again, and taking stroll after stroll through the place. This all
only helps in distracting from the actual plot which seems to proceed only
on the sidelines. Now all the carnival footage might be interesting in a
nostalgic way for a while, but ultimately it gets in the way of the film's
plot and becomes a bona fide nuisance - though on the other hand, the
film's plot is rather feeble, clichéd and ultimately uninteresting as it
is, so there is really not that much point in watching the film anyways.
Only the final scene which shows Jade as a freak packs some punch as the
makeup is quite impressive - but that's hardly enough to save the film.
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