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The Lady In Red (1979)

Directed By: Lewis Teague
Screenplay By: John Sayles
Starring: Pamela Sue Martin (Polly Franklin), Robert Conrad (John Dillinger), Louise Fletcher (Anna Sage), Laurie Heineman (Rose), Rod Gist (Pinetop), Glenn Withrow (Eddie), Peter Hobbs (Pops) and more.
Rated: R (nudity, coarse language, adult themes, violence)


The Lady In Red is the story of Polly Franklin, the last girl that bank robber John Dillinger was involved with before his death. Polly is thrown out of her home and leaves for Chicago, where she is eventually arrested and imprisoned. When the warden of the prison offers her a way out by working at a local brothel and giving her a cut, Polly takes it to save a friend.

Polly befriends Pops, the bar manager, Pinetop, the piano man and Eddie, a local street kid, as well as Anna Sage, the operator of the brothel. When it's shut down after a mob client kills a girl, Anna opens a restaurant and employs them all. When Anna realizes that Polly's new love interest is John Dillinger, she works out a deal with the FBI, and John is killed coming out of the movies with Polly.

Polly is then lambasted in the papers as "The Lady In Red" who got Dillinger (a cult hero) killed. She runs to Eddie, who at first shuts the door on her, but she manages to convince him of her innocence. She convinces Pop, Eddie and Pinetop to plan a daring bank robbery with her, as she is being pursued by hit men who want her dead.

When the robbery goes wrong, Eddie drives off with her in a high speed chase. As they quickly refuel, Eddie tells Polly and Pops to leave and he'll hold the cops off. As Polly and Pops drive away, a huge explosion rocks the gas station they just left. With Pops dying and unwilling to spend his last minutes in prison, he begs Polly to shoot him. Polly eventually leaves for California, leaving a wake of death behind her.

Glenn plays Eddie, the young kid (he was 25 playing 18) that Polly befriends. I really liked all of the interaction with Pops, Pinetop, Eddie and Polly, and I wish there had been more in the film. The movie really isn't about Dillinger, it's Polly's story from the beginning. It has a really interesting view, since it's told from the POV of a female trying to do what she has to to make it in the 1930s.

I honestly was most interested in the scenes with them preparing for their bank heist and working together. There's a lot of different things going on in this movie, from Polly's friendship with a hit man, to the storyline with Rose in prison, to Tiny Alice getting her comeuppance to Polly and Dillinger's love story, to the FBI and Anna working together, to the bank heist ... you get the idea. So much happens in the 90 minutes of this film that the minute you find an aspect you like, it's time to move onto something else.

Pamela Sue Martin does a great job (Fallon!) and despite everything she is involved in, she remains a very likeable character until the end. Glenn was just great as Eddie - he and Pamela Sue Martin had some great scenes together and I really liked their energy in their scenes.

Yet again, Glenn's character manages to die in a film. I think that makes 9 that I know of. He really did a great job in the scenes after the heist, where they're trying to get away from the police and Eddie essentially sacrifices himself for Polly. The character of Eddie goes from this street kid to a guy who ends up sacrificing himself so his partner can get away.

Purchase Information

DVD - The DVD is currently out of print and is quite hard to find, although it's often in Amazon.com's Used section for around $60+.
VHS - Available on eBay and in Amazon.com's Used section for $14+

It was reissued in 1980 under the title "Guns, Sin and Bathtub Gin".

Pictures
(Click to enlarge)



Polly finds Eddie (Withrow) on the streets.



She takes him back to Anna Sage's (Fletcher) house.



Polly (Martin), Eddie (Withrow) and Jimmy aka John Dillinger (Conrad) talk after a movie.



After Dillinger is killed, Eddie is reluctant to trust Polly at first.



Eddie, Pops, Polly and Pinetop discuss their plans for a bank robbery.



Eddie and Pops stake out the bank.



Eddie cleans his gun as Polly comes home.



Eddie confesses he wants Polly.



The bank job goes awry and Eddie has to hold off the cops.



This shot is a movie still from moviegoods.com. Eddie holds off the cops after Pops is shot.



Eddie and Polly try and get away with Pops in the backseat bleeding to death.



When their car runs out of gas, Eddie tells Polly to leave him behind to hold off the cops.



Eddie watches Polly drive away.



No Eddie ... don't look that way.



Uh oh. Eddie decides he's going to try and make a run for a car nearby ... (Again with the frickin' fantastic eyes!)



... and ducks behind ... a fuel pump. Which is probably the reason Polly didn't want Eddie to come along in the first place.

I bet you all can guess what happens after that?

Video Clips



Polly runs into Eddie on the street and brings him back to Anna Sage's.