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Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Filed under: Imported

The three pictures that made up last week's clues were from Petey Wheatstraw, the Devil's Son-in-Law, starring the one-and-only Rudy Ray Moore.

If you don't know Rudy's best-known films, Dolemite I and II, they are a crazed combination of blaxploitation, kung fu and chitlin'-circuit humor that have to be seen to be disbelieved.  In his own foul-mouthed, arrogant way, Rudy is almost as charming and likable a screen presence as Jackie Chan, although Jackie never needed his martial arts scene speeded up like Keystone Kops to make them look better. Dolemite II (The Human Tornado) is especially recommended as a truly great bad movie.

Petey Wheatstraw is Rudy's lesser-known cinematic alter-ego, and if it's not his Citizen Kane, it's at least his Chimes at Midnight. Petey is a nightclub comic who, because of his supernatural birth and powers (in the hilarious opening scene, he's born fully-grown), becomes the Devil's first choice for a son-in-law. "Lucipher" is played by non-actor G. Tito Shaw, who looks both  satanic and ridiculous running down the street in a jogging suit, and Petey's arch-enemies are a couple of old-school black comics named-- brace yourself-- Leroy and Skillet. The movie goes from maudlin social drama to X-rated nitwit comedy, sometimes in the same scene, all of it held together by Rudy's intensely awful wardrobe.

(The film looks fine on DVD, but don't bother with the new commentary track by the star himself. Rudy seemed to be feeling no pain whatsoever, and says very little except "Okay, DVD lovers, run it back" when he comes to a favorite scene. That's not often, either-- there are long stretches of silence, making me wonder if Rudy wasn't dozing through much of it.)

So congrats and a dose of the Alabama claps to Wayne A. Palmer (of course),  Evan Cook (welcome), and Hank Parmer (welcome back).

P.S. Don't know if this represents the market for Rudy Ray-affiliated vinyl these days or it's just the act of a new eBayer gone mad, but a sealed copy of the soundtrack-- which is tasty stuff-- which went for $5 a few years ago, just closed in an auction for $300!  That would have paid for all of the movies' special effects, with enough left over for Rudy to buy a new pimp suit.

Posted by Steve Monaco at February 14, 2005 5:25 PM

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