My crime film fest continued last night with a weird entry from 1972… PRIME CUT starring Lee Marvin as a Chicago enforcer who heads out to the fields of Kansas to collect a $500,000 debt from Gene Hackman, another enforcer who has gone into the cattle business. But beef isn't all Hackman is selling…he's also selling women like cattle. Literally. The movie isn't quite sure what it wants to be, a satire or a violent bit of Farm Noir. Marvin's performance is steely, tough, and straight…but Hackman is chewing everything in sight, from the scenery to big, heaping plates of pig guts. Sissy Spacek makes her movie debut naked…and in a ridiculous role as an orphan raised to be a sex slave. Hackman made this movie right after shooting THE FRENCH CONNECTION, where he played NYPD detective Popeye Doyle, a character based on real-life cop Eddie Egan, who has a bit part in this movie as a mob boss.
I wanted soooooo much to like this movie. How can you go wrong with Gene Hackman and Lee Marvin? My dad and I suffered through it, however, and discovered it was one of those movies where you can fast forward through significant portions and not miss anything. Lee Marvin was fun to watch, so it wasn’t a totally wasted evening.
I really like PRIME CUT, and (I’m guessing here) it’s clear Hackman made it before THE FRENCH CONNECTION was released, because I doubt he would have wallowed in anything this sleazy after receiving Popeye’s plaudits. The chase through the wheat field is aces.
I first saw this on TV when a teenager and was riveted. Sex, guns, midwestern gangsters, naked chicks, Lee Marvin.