Cry Uncle! (Troma/1971)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: B- Film: C+
John G. Avildsen is one of the last of a line of solid
Hollywood journeyman directors who knew how to direct and actually knew the
meaning of storytelling, narrative and audience consideration. Though now cemented forever as the helmer of
feel good films Rocky and Karate Kid (the latter actually based
on a DC Comic) that became commercial film franchises, he began doing
interesting films in the middle of the counterculture movement. After the still-impressive Joe with
Peter Boyle in 1970, which began Avildsen’s major feature film period, he
created Cry Uncle! (1971, aka Super Dick) and the rest is
history.
Before Chinatown, The Long Goodbye or The
Rockford Files, here was a film that boldly took apart the
detective/private eye genre from the opening scene of the very heavy set title
character Jake Masters (Allen Garfield) having blatant sex with a sexy woman a
third of his size and weight. From that
point, you see him running, scheming, dealing with cops of a mixed nature
(including an early performance by Paul Sorvino) and running into more villains
and counterculture types. Part of the
plot has to do with sex films, which are shown as negative footage, while there
is plenty of nudity and sex throughout as counterpoint, joke and subversion of
the genre that was always loaded with these items anyhow despite having to
suppress them.
Though it has not aged perfectly, it is more than just a
time capsule of its time. It’s boldness,
openness, honesty, progressive sense of humor, pacing, attitude and grasp of
the genre and how to mess with it is consistent and the acting all has that
slight lunacy that serves the writing well.
Because of the sex angle, critics and film theorists have allowed it to
become a forgotten film, which is amazing since it is not that old. However, critics liked it at the time and it
is ripe for rediscovery.
To distinguish itself from the then-rising (no pun
intended) XXX films of the time, not get censored or allow the sex/nudity to
distract, the sex is shot in obvious ways to obscure certain aspects that are
more obvious than ever in a society whose media has turned sex into a gaudy
Vegas act. This film particularly
targets gumshoe-type detectives form the late 1930s to late 1950s, some film of
which are actual Film Noirs. The film
is more of a rule-breaker than given the credit for, but is certainly a product
of that counterculture, of which Joe had some serious issues with. This film proves Avildsen was not the
Right-of-center reactionary filmmaker he has been so often accused of. He went on to direct more interesting pre-Rocky
projects, including the amazing Save The Tiger (reviewed elsewhere on
this site) that may be his best film.
We want to see the rest first before deciding, so we hope they’ll make
it to DVD too.
The 1.33 X 1 image is not bad, but the print shows its age
a bit. Detail is not always great, but
the Movielab color fares better. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also not bad for its age, so playback is decent for
an independent production. Extras
include the silly “Troma Intelligence
Test II” section, Tour Of Troma with Lloyd Kaufman as your host, stills
section with some interesting behind the scenes stills, four trailers for Troma
titles that includes one for this one, interview segments with five of the key
members of the film’s crew, another featurette on their reunion and an audio
commentary by Avildsen, Kaufman and writer David Odell.
Few indie films from the era get this kind of treatment,
but more should. It is worth you time
to take a good look at Cry Uncle!
Especially if you like detective genre, it is a must-see.
- Nicholas Sheffo
