Theme Song:
“Love’s Strange Ways” by Chris Rea. Heavy ‘80s-era Roxy Music/Scott Walker vibes on this one. I dig it.
Interesting Dated References: Asking at the local bar if you have any messages.
Best Line: None
Social Context: Canadian filmmakers attempting to convince people road movies filmed in Canada can be passed off as American road movies by using eroticism as a means to distract from the native scenery.
Summary: High-strung ad executive Evan (Richard Beymer, West Side Story, Twin Peaks) splits Philadelphia for the East Coast the same day his girlfriend/prostitute/lesbian/coworker is found murdered. During one last stop at his favorite wood-paneled watering hole, he picks up the vivacious Lois (Nina Axelrod, Motel Hell) and her mysterious traveling partner/boyfriend/cuckold, John.
Things start off strange with Evan having paranoid delusions that Lois and John are somehow trying to set him up, and then get even more strange when Evan immediately assumes he can do butt stuff with Lois the first night at the hotel while John cries outside the room. John forgets about it the next day, though, when he gets Lois to give him a handjob while he’s driving, as Evan pretends to be passed out in the back seat.
Are you titillated yet? It’s filmed well and kind of droll, but there’s little engagement going on as the trio bops from one city to the next, exchanging various paranoid rants and bodily fluids.
This entire time, Sgt. Roersch (Michael Ironside, Nowhere to Hide, American Nightmare, Scanners, Top Gun, Total Recall) runs around the Canadian town posing as Philadelphia, asking people about the dead prostitute/girlfriend and where her boyfriend went.
Eventually Roersch ends up finding the cabin Evan and Lois are staying in (John has since been mysteriously killed) and a final confrontation ensues. The big reveal nobody cares about: Lois killed Evan’s ex because she didn’t deserve him. Oh, and they were also lesbian partners. After Lois stabs Roersch, Evan decides to drive Lois off a cliff.
Worth Mentioning:
– Nicely directed by Paul Lynch (Prom Night, Humongous, Bullies) with lots of tracking shots and zoom.
– There’s a super-strange threesome/foursome scene that plays out as follows: All parties are at a bar; John meets townie girl Alma and brings her back to the hotel with Evan and Lois; the two girls start rubbing on each other and rebuff John’s attempts to join, but then invite Evan to join; instead, he watches closely and starts narrating out loud about their passionate, thrusting tongues while John, now spurned, vigorously eats from a cheese plate in the background.
– Based on a book of the same name by Herbert Kastle, which is allegedly much more violent and erotic.
Poster and Box Art: The Embassy Home Entertainment videocassette release has a great cover, minus the overly angular/bony hips.
Availability: Used VHS.
audio link seems to be faulty.
somehow listening to the theme song here, “Love’s Strange Ways”, may/could affect a paradigm shift in a human’s/listener’s life.