Violence/Gore: There’s some gunplay and rough-housing, but the worst is kept off screen, with an opening sequence that only suggests one of the Chicago mob boys has just been turned into hot dogs.

Sex/Nudity: Copious nudity when Mary Ann offers his girls for sale, and Poppy’s green gown leaves nothing to the imagination. There’s also a horrific gang rape that happens off screen to Poppy’s friend, Violet; we only see the aftermath.

Best Line: “You just bought the farm.”

Score:

When Chicago mob hitman Nick Devlin (Lee Marvin) heads to Kansas City to shake down Mary Ann (Gene Hackman with a very weird character name), a defiant cattle rancher/beef distributor who’s been stiffing his Mafia bosses to the tune of $500,000, Nick gets a lot more than he bargained for. First of all, the serene, windswept fields of the American Midwest are no place for an Irish city guy like Devlin, and soon he finds himself playing cat and mouse in the tall grass with corn-fed Aryan types all too keen to perforate him and leave him for fertilizer or process him into sausage. Second, he’s about to face the biggest challenge of his sin-filled career: falling in love with an innocent young thing who looks up to him as her own personal savior. You see, Mary Ann has a side business in white slavery, selling drugged girls in cattle pens to depraved businessmen, and Nick has just taken a shine to one would-be sex slave, the red-haired, doe-eyed Poppy (Sissy Spacek).

Lee Marvin turns in a mesmerizing performance as a man who has so much blood on his hands and yet instantly earns our respect and sympathy for his strange but pronounced sense of morality. The man is clearly a killer, but he instantly takes a fatherly role when he rescues Poppy. Although their relationship may eventually become sexual–this is left unclear–it’s obvious his paternal affection for her is genuine. It’s almost as if this is a man who has found in a young girl something that can make him feel human again, and he welcomes the emotional connection. He does have some inkling of her attractiveness, though, as he goes out of his way to dress her in a transparent green gown that leaves nothing to the imagination and then takes her out on the town, practically daring those around them to stare at her. But really now, is she that stupid? Does she not notice she’s wearing a thin film of gauze? Strange girl.

Never mind his softer side. Marvin never once comes across as a man who can’t take out anyone stupid enough to get in his way. In some respects, the film has no suspense at all, because you never believe for one second that Hackman and his bulky overall-wearing cronies have a chance in Hell against Marvin’s steely-eyed determination to execute every last damn one of them.

As for Marvin’s co-stars, Hackman is at his sleazy best. An actor who always seems to be one step away from a complete violent meltdown, his short-tempered Mary Ann–what is with that name anyway?–makes a great adversary for Marvin’s methodical Devlin. Hackman’s last scene is a bit of a letdown, but it’s a minor quibble in a movie that otherwise delivers the goods; there’s even an incongruous chase scene with a thresher that ends with a car being chewed to pieces by the whirling blades. Now that’s entertainment. As for our damsel in distress, trust me–you will never see Spacek look this impossibly alluring, and paradoxically this pure, ever again. In her first major film role as Poppy, she’s the perfect mix of angelic innocence and sex appeal. Also keep an eye out for Gregory Walcott, who does a great job as Weenie, a beefy guy who always looks like he’s sweating but who cult movie fans will recognize as the heroic airline pilot in Ed Wood’s immortal classic, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.

PRIME CUT is a very satisfying slice of ‘70s sleaze leavened by a pleasant moral streak and an ending that should leave a smile on your face.

DVD Extras: Absolutely nothing.

ATB