Ruby

How about a good, old-fashioned drive-in rip-off movie... that's kinda artsy? Now, one would think the titlular "Ruby" would be the freaky looking girl on the poster/cover who's screaming and covered in blood. Nope, that's Leslie (Janit Baldwin), Ruby's daughter. Leslie's been possessed and even does a variation of the "Exorcist" spiderwalk scene decades before that footage was released!

Piper Laurie (fresh off of filming "Carrie") is Ruby, who was a gangster's moll in the '30s. Unfortunately, her beloved Nicky was killed by his own men and mistakenly thought Ruby set him up to take the hit. So now his spirit wants revenge on Ruby and the men who killed him, and he conveniently finds them all together working for Ruby at a drive-in movie house in the 1950s. Now, throw in a deaf, dumb and blind man who's telepathic, a paranormal investigator and factor in a lot of overacting and another campy performance from Laurie, and here you have one thoroughly bizarre film!

"Ruby" was directed by Curtis Harrington, a director whose first love was horror movies. Unfortunately, problems always seemed to abound with Harrington's films -- and "Ruby" was probably the most problematic for him. 'Til the day he died, Harrington spoke ill of producer Steve Krantz , describing him as a cheap, power-mad man with no taste. Krantz conceived the story and clearly wanted creative control -- he meddled in casting, demanded cuts, completely changed the ending (to give it a annoyingly derivative "Carrie" shock), and then he further cut the movie and had additional non-Harrington footage inserted into the television print... which was inexplicably released on home video. For decades the theatrical print was thought to be lost (as Harrington's cut now is) but it's currently available on DVD from VCI, paired with Kiss of the Tarantula. It's a highly flawed, plodding film, but it's just weird and unique enough that it's memorable.

As for that TV/Home Video version with newly-shot scenes by Stephanie Rothman, it includes an entirely new subplot about the Sheriff and his cheating wife, the latter of whom had three lines in Harrington's original cut of the movie, additional scenes with Dr. Keller trying to uncover the truth about what happened the night that Leslie was born, and one additional scene with snotty Lila June acting like... Lila June. The non-Harrington scenes are very static, very wooden and clearly don't belong in the film... though the scene featuring Lila June trying to hide her wicked ways from her mother is moderately amusing. Perhaps the additional footage will make its way to a future DVD release.

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DOWNLOADS

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Here's a pretty rare promotional 45 that was released to radio stations to market the film in the USA. Along with two cheesy radio spots for the film, it also includes the schmalzty, radio-friendly '70s title song by Don Dunn. Unfortunately, "Love's So Easy," the Piper Laurie tune heard crooned several times during the film, doesn't seem to have ever been issued anywhere... but if someone can prove me wrong on this, it's highly encouraged! (I personally showed this album to Ms. Laurie and she was disappointed that her song wasn't included.) Mp3s of this 45 can be downloaded from MediaFire or DivShare.

And remember! If you or a loved one are possessed by a demonic spirit (of a loved one), simply stop, drop and roll! Wait a minute, that's not right...