Sins of Rachel (1972)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

...But not THE Bruce Campbell. Bizarre, salacious story about a former fat singer getting herself killed by a host of possible candidates. It seems that Rachel - played by Ann Noble who also wrote this dreck - has a thing for younger men including her own son. A terrible actor poses as a policeman and we hear various characters go through their whereabouts at the time of Rachel's demise as well going into detail about their relationships with her with him brooding over what they say. It seems that a fairly plump, older woman in her late 40's or early 50's with little money can have the pick of all the young studs in town. The film is cheap, the story flimsy - particularly if you are buying the above pretext which was way too hard a sell for me. The acting is overall bad but I have seen much worse. Most of these actors have maybe only one other screen credit. so we are talking about negligible talent at best. Yes, the film introduces Bruce Campbell - but this is a Bruce Campbell that didn't go on to bigger and brighter things in the movie business.

The Sins of Rachel is a murder mystery, The story revolves around who killed Rachel, a former nightclub performer (played by Ann Noble). She is murdered at the beginning of the film and remainder is told through the police investigation and flashbacks. The prime suspect is her son Jimmy (played by Bruce Campbell). Their is also am investigator who was going to be writing her memoirs who is looking into who killed her. During the investigation themes of incest and homosexuality come into play. This is not as bad as some of the other reviews have indicated but that does not make this a recommend film to see. It is a low budget film with so so to pretty bad acting and direction. This movie is a typical low budget "grinder" from the early 70's.

Well, this isn't quite the bottom of the barrel, but it's pretty close. Leading lady Ann Noble wrote this herself. It's a twisted tale about a portly has-been cabaret singer who is mercifully murdered. The only reason you might care to find out who did it is to thank them. She's a shrew who makes a pass at her gay son - but don't be fooled - that makes the movie sound more interesting than it is. The entire cast seems to have graduated from the Ed Wood school of acting. Any pleasure derived from watching this film is purely unintentional on the part of those involved. And... the credits say that it's filmed in "Texturetone", which apparently means that the print is really scratchy and the lighting doesn't match from one shot to the next