Monday, May 16, 2011

Cry Uncle!

Cry Uncle! (1971)
Dir: John G. Avildson (Rocky 1 and 5/ Karate Kid 2 and 3/Foreplay)

This film just goes to show you never know what a director is capable of. Before winning an Oscar for his direction of The classic film Rocky John Avildsen made a few sex romps such as Fore Play and this number here Cry Uncle. Years after the film faded into obscurity the minds at Troma decided it was worthy of a DVD release and they bought the rights to the film. This is not your typical Troma schlock as it is a pretty well made and done Sex Comedy/ Murder mystery film.
The film is centered around famous Private Dick Jake Masters , A pudgy playboy who is called upon by local big rig Jason Dominic to clear his name as he has been framed for murdering one of his lady friends. Jake takes the case and is told to meet with a contact named Cora Merill, another one of Dominic's Lady friends. Once the Detective and his trusty sidekick and nephew Keith arrive at Dominic's ship they are shown a sex tape that the deceased in question had planned to use in order to blackmail the tycoon. After gathering some leads Masters gets on the trail along with Cora and Keith.  After Cora seduces the young nephew of Masters, They head out to find a local goon by the name of Gene Sprigg, Upon finding him we see that Cora has quite a short fuse and she threatens Sprigg at gun point for some info on the girls in the video. This ;eads them to a man whom had tried to take Dominic out before Larry Caulk and his two lady accomplices from the video Lena Right and Olga Winter.








While trying to locate Mr. Caulk, Masters finds answers in a local prostitute from the video named Connie. While pretending to be a average John he ties her up and forces the location out of her.Masters then heads to a Hotel where Caulk is hiding out with his two ladies and he gets himself ambushed. While being held captive someone outside knocks out Keith who is providing lookout. While Masters is being interrogated by Caulk and his Lady Goons , Caulk heads out to fetch Keith and shots are fired, This allows enough distraction for Masters to break free and we see Caulk lying dead in the parking lot. Now with no leads in the case Masters begins to think this is a cold case.


Not willing to give up yet Masters goes to find Olga to question her on who may have been out to get Caulk. He finds her passed out in a hotel room and after investigating he decides to have sex with her unconscious body, Meanwhile in the Hall Lena is armed waiting to attack Masters. He hears a gunshot and then notices that Olga is in fact dead so he has been having sex with her corpse. After giving chase to Lena he finds himself in custody of the police for murder and he spills the info on his case. He tells the officers he believes that Cora has been behind it the entire time and that she plans on killing himself in the process in order to obtain Dominic's fortune.So back at Masters place he acts as if all is well while the police listen in from next door,  After some clever word play he gets a confession out of Cora and she attempts to shoot Masters before the police come in to make the save, Killing Cora and clearing Dominic's name in the process. When Masters returns home he finds his loyal girlfriend Deena has returned and he realizes that he does in fact love her as the credits roll.
Cry Uncle is on the surface the typical Private detective story and there is nothing wrong with how it is done. The acting is decent and the humor is a bit dated but harmless and at times funny but nothing real memorable. As for a sex comedy you could do much worse than this film as even though everyone in this film seems to be sex starved it never reaches the point of being annoying like so many other films like this do.If you enjoy films like Police Story and Police Academy you may like this one and it has allot of nudity for fans of 70's T&A. The actress who plays Deena is adorable but her screen time although one of the highlights of the film is short lived and the woman never went on to do anything else which disappointed me because I gotta say she looked good naked. All the characters in this film are rather likable and that gives this film some major points and it never really hits a dull spell so after thinking about it for awhile, I would say I could safely recommend this one to fans of the genre , that genre being the silly Sex Comedy. A genre that often falls victim to lack of story at least this one attempts to have one and what it does it does well.

Gore:1
Nudity:8
Story:5
Characters:6
Overall: 6 out of 10

3 comments:

  1. Well written review.

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    1. Thanks for the kind words, It is always nice to get feedback of any sort here. It let's me know at least someone out there is checking my little place out. Thanks again and I hope you continue to enjoy the site.

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  2. Good review, John Avildsen

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