Poor Pretty Eddie

Poor Pretty Eddie
Original film poster
Directed by	Richard Robinson
Starring	Leslie Uggams Shelley Winters Michael Christian
Production company	Artaxerxes Productions Michael Thevis Enterprises
Release date	1975
Running time	86 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Poor Pretty Eddie is a 1975 American film starring Leslie Uggams, Shelley Winters and Michael Christian. Made on a relatively small budget, it is known for having an atypical narrative and directorial style, which combines elements of horror, exploitation film making, Southern gothic, and pornographic film. It has subsequently become popular in cult and B movie circles.

Liz Wetherly is a popular black singer in need of a break from her hectic schedule. When her car breaks down, she ends up stuck in a remote southern town that‘s been left for dead “ever since they put in the interstate.”

She is forced to spend the night at “Bertha’s Oasis”, a rundown lodge that serves as the bizarre fiefdom of an overweight ex-burlesque star who lords over her much younger boyfriend, Eddie, and a cast of equally-strange townsfolk. Eddie fancies himself a singer on par with Elvis, and expects Wetherly to make him famous. But things turn ugly for Wetherly, who endures rape and abuse at the hands of her captors, before culminating in her bloody revenge on the “rednecks” that terrorized her.

Most of the individuals involved in the production of Poor Pretty Eddie were, at the time, nominally employed in the world of adult films, with the picture representing an opportunity to "go straight." According to the DVD's extensive liner notes, they secured backing from Michael Thevis, a notorious Atlanta-based businessman commonly known as “The King of Pornography” whose other interests included a chain of sex shops, a record company, and the manufacture of peep show booths. Further motivating Thevis was a desire to launder money he had made through dealings with various Mafia figures, which had attracted the attention of the FBI. Shortly after the film's production, Thevis was jailed on an assortment of charges and, following a prison escape in 1978, was placed on the FBI’s most-wanted list.