A Scream in the Streets

Scarecrow-88

A woman-hating rapist transvestite killer on the rampage. Here's another oddity from the fine folks at Something Weird Video. To tell you the truth, this is just a basic subplot where the killer is mentioned in dialogue a few times (by cops) and has about three scenes with women in or near a park (including the opening credits where he gets to undress a fainted victim) where he earns their trust (even a woman cop undercover who tells him that she is undercover!) before threatening (and eventually killing) with a knife. Most of the film spends time with two plain clothes cops, on the job arresting druggies, a peeping tom, and a hold-up murderer. The rest consists of sex with a cop shagging the redheaded dispatching officer, two stoners (the peeping tom eyeballs them happily), the head detective and his concerned wife (she is worried about his safety with that rapist/killer on the loose; and rightfully so, since he'll meet a tragic fate thanks to the trans-psycho), and two lesbian lovers (peeping tom eyes them, too). There's a lengthy sequence in a "massage parlor" (that involves an old man banging one of the hired help; nothing makes me more flaccid than an old man's ass in close-up getting spanked or an old man faking pleasure in a weak-ass attempt to convince us in a softcore sex scene with her) which has the owner ordering his female employee to do her job as a pleasurer for their client who likes to rough up the girls (when she is whipped repeatedly by this old fart, the owner demands the police get him some help, not the least bit worried about the wellbeing of his employee; nice guy, this prick). As a plotted film, Scream in the Streets stinks. As a sex film, it has its moments. While not exactly beauties, the girls that get naked have nice figures and seem comfortable nude in front of the camera and joyfully randy with their partners. The film is a mixture of softcore/hardcore. You get oral sex and flashes of pecker. There are some shootouts with blood packets popping as the bad guys are downed by the cops. The dialogue has lots of laughable back-and-forth foreplay (particularly the cop and his dispatch lady) or "cop talk", with the criminals verbally antagonistic towards them. Then the wife voices her concerns to the cop who tries to assure her that everything will be alright (but her concerns are warranted and end up coming true). Without the sex (which can be a bit too softcore and staged; like the stoners because the girl's panties stay on while her man dry humps her on their waterbed, and he orally pleasures her with them on), I can't figure this film has much of interest to even the hardcore SW audience. The transvestite is clearly a man under a grandma wig (could have come right off the head of Vicki Lawrence from Mama's Family) although he fools everyone, including the male cops at the end. Seeing an old man shagging a much-younger girl does have a niche audience who enjoys that kind of sex, but the softcore work between the two actors is so poorly performed, I can't imagine even that crowd will find this scene much to be desired. For me, the girls aren't bad to look at and I enjoy women who are uninhibited in front of the camera, but otherwise, this left me wanting. I guess as a curio before the hardcore sex craze in the 70s fully bloomed this film might be of some intrigue. I can't imagine it offers much more than that, however. As a cop film, the cast, characters, and their story need to be compelling enough to keep our attention; but this is clearly more inspired as a sex film.

score 3/10

Scarecrow-88 6 March 2013

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2763581/