“Yea, though I walk through the . . . uh . . . shadow of Death Valley.” And so begins the Paul Bartel send up of spaghetti westerns, Lust in the Dust. With Divine as dance hall girl Rosie Velez, Tab Hunter as the mysterious stranger Able Wood, and Lainie Kazan as the local madame Marguerita, a group of oddball characters (including Cesar Romero and Geoffrey Lewis) search for the lost gold of Chili Verde. Well worth watching.
From 1989 and the discount rack, Cage is the story of Billy (Lou Ferrigno) and Scott (Reb Brown). In Vietnam, Billy saves Scott’s life at the cost of taking a bullet in the head leaving him with a child’s mind in a very big guy’s body. Scott makes it his mission to repay Billy by taking care of him. The two come to the attention of a gambler during a fight at Scott’s bar when they beat up a gang bent on causing trouble. The gambler destroys their lives and manipulates Billy into a death match cage fight where he’s sure the mentally challenged man will beat the champ and provide him a way out of his debts. A fair buddy action flick of sorts with the interesting twist being the mentally challenged Billy, but nothing to go out of your way for other than the muscle men stripped to the waist.
Antonio Banderas is Antonio Benitez in Law of Desire (La ley del deseo, 1987), a disturbed young man who stalks his favorite film maker Pablo Quintero (Eusebio Poncela). When Antonio’s affections aren’t returned with the fervor he hopes for, he sets out to elminate the competition. We’re treated to a very brief nude, long shot of Banderas, but the film is much more generous with the “charms” of Poncela (NSFW).
