Review of Prime Cut (1972) by Ola G — 09 Sep 2013

The mob enforcer Nick Devlin (Lee Marvin) is hired by Chicago racketeer Jake (Eddie Egan) to collect an overdue payment of $500,000 from Kansas City cattle baron Mary Ann (Gene Hackman). The previous attempts to collect the money has resulted in Jake´s men having been mauled into sausages and drowned in the Missouri River. Devlin agrees to the fee of $50,000 and asks for some additional muscle. He gets a driver and three other younger members of the Irish mob as help him in the mission. When Devlin confronts Mary Ann at his cattle ranch in Kansas City it´s revealed that he also sells women as sex slaves. One of them, who is later revealed to have the name Poppy (Sissy Spacek), begs Devlin for help. Devlin takes her with him "on account". The next day Devlin is supposed to pick up the money at a county fair, but Mary Ann has other plans for Devlin and his men...

"Prime Cut" was considered highly risqué for its time based on its violence and particularly its graphic depiction of female slavery, including a scene depicting naked young women in pens being auctioned like beef cattle. It is also noted for its depiction of the beef slaughtering process, and a famous chase scene involving a combine harvester, in an open field. Seeing Lee Marvin in the shoes (in this case white loafers!) of a hit man or enforcer is not really something out of the ordinary as he did a few roles as specifically that. His performance is low-key and yet you know that Devlin is a highly dangerous man who won´t stop for anything when on a mission. Gene Hackman is in great and nasty shape doing yet another bad guy you truly mislike the minute he appears. "Prime Cut" is gritty and I love how Michael Ritchie has directed it with a touch of Hitchcock goes hillbilly. The action is pretty solid, even if it wobbles sometimes. I love as well that Devlin uses a Smith & Wesson M76 submachine gun which is a copy of the Swedish Carl Gustav M/45. The funny thing is that I have been looking at this movie a couple of times, but the cover was so shitty I didn´t think it would be any good. Then I found the movie in a remastered version with a different much more appealing cover in Berlin and thus I bought it. Meaning a dvd cover design does make a difference. "Prime Cut" is a gangster action/drama that stands out specifically with the very ugly view on female sex slavery, but also with great performances by Marvin and Hackman.