The Lady in Red (1979 film)

The Lady in Red (also known as Guns, Sin and Bathtub Gin) is a 1979 American action-drama romantic film directed by Lewis Teague and starring Pamela Sue Martin and Robert Conrad.[2] It is an early writing effort of John Sayles who became better known as a director in the 1980s and 1990s.

Not to be confused with The Woman in Red (1984 film) or The Lady in Red (1935 film).
The Lady in Red
Film poster
Directed byLewis Teague
Produced byJulie Corman
Written byJohn Sayles
StarringPamela Sue Martin
Robert Conrad
Music byJames Horner
CinematographyDaniel Lacambre
Edited byLarry Bock
Ron Medico
Lewis Teague
Distributed byNew World Pictures
Release date
  • July 1979 (1979-07)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$400,000
Box office$900,000[1]

Quentin Tarantino called it "my candidate for most ambitious film ever made at Roger Corman’s New World Pictures... Not only do I think this thirties era epic... is Sayles best screenplay, I also think it’s the best script ever written for an exploitation movie."[3]

Premise

The film tells a 1930s' crime story of a poor farmer's daughter who leaves for Chicago, where she is sent to prison, serves as prostitute, falls in love with notorious criminal John Dillinger and finally tries bank robbery.

Cast

Production

The soundtrack of this film is notable as the first film score composed by James Horner, who became one of the best known film score composers in Hollywood.

Teague recalls, "I was given that script and told to go with it. I didn't really have a chance to mold or change it. It was very socially conscious for an action picture about the Great Depression. I had 20 days to shoot it, and three to edit and a budget of less than a million."[4]

John Sayles later said the film "didn't turn out the way I wanted because they just didn't have the budget to make the movie right. I wanted that to be a real breathless, '30s, Jimmy Cagney everybody-talking-fast type movie. It turned out a little more like Louis Malle. Different movies have different speeds."[5]

Release

The film was not a big success at the box office. Roger Corman re-released it in 1980 under the title Guns, Sin and Bathtub Gin, but it did not fare much better.[1]

On December 17, 2010, Shout! Factory released the title on DVD, packaged as a double feature with Crazy Mama as part of the Roger Corman Cult Classics collection.[6]

References
  1. Christopher T Koetting, Mind Warp!: The Fantastic True Story of Roger Corman's New World Pictures, Hemlock Books. 2009 p 169
  2. "The Lady in Red". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
  3. Tarantino, Quentin (16 February 2020). "The Lady in Red". New Beverly Cinema.
  4. Yakir, Dan (1985). "Big League Teague". Film Comment. New York. 21 (6): 26–28, 80. ProQuest 210237874.
  5. Schlesinger, Tom; Sayles, John (1 July 1981). "Putting People Together: An Interview with John Sayles". Film Quarterly. 34 (4): 2–8. doi:10.2307/1212137. JSTOR 1212137.
  6. "Roger Corman's Cult Classics". Shout! Factory. Archived from the original on 2010-04-11. Retrieved 2011-02-03.
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