Purely Joyful Movie!

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

This one mainly stands out in my memory because it stars Pamela Sue Martin of Dynasty fame in the title role in a trashy delight. I'm writing this from my 25-30 year old memories of this film's appearance on HBO, so forgive any errors on specifics. Polly Franklin (The lady in red) is a rather naive rural Depression era girl when the film opens who is a victim of one set of harsh circumstances after another. She gets kidnapped by gang of bank robbers, beaten and thrown out by her father when she gets home late that night as a result because he assumes she could only be late because she was sleeping with some guy, arrested when - homeless and hungry - she has to resort to supporting herself via the world's oldest profession and her first john turns out to be a cop, meets up with the world's meanest and most corrupt prison guard while in jail, and on and on it goes. Ultimately, she ends up as Dillinger's girl - the famous "lady in red". The big coincidence here - Dillinger was the bank robber whose gang kidnapped her and started her life on its downhill slide in the first place. Of course this film is complete fiction, but ultimately Mr. Dillinger is in for a big shot of Karma for ruining this girl's life, and that wasn't even her aim. That's only fair, since I'm sure he didn't mean to ruin her life when he kidnapped her as a human shield way back on the farm.If you're 50 plus and remember when HBO, independent studios, and even the big studios used to make all kinds of small trashy treasures such as this, smile and say "cheese", I think you'll like it. I will warn you there are some very violent scenes, though, and I'm not just talking about machine guns. I'll put it this way - you'll probably never look at big electric salon-style hairdryers the same again after you see this movie.

Sweet and resourceful farm girl Polly Franklin (delightfully played with infectious charm and exuberance by the lovely Pamela Sue Martin) lives one hell of a lively, eventful, and exciting life in Chicago during the Great Depression of the 1930's: She starts out toiling away in a brutal sweatshop, works briefly as a dance hall girl, does a stretch in prison, gets forced into prostitution at a brothel after she's paroled from jail, and eventually secures a gig as a diner waitress prior to becoming the unsuspecting girlfriend of notorious, but gentlemanly criminal John Dillinger (a credible portrayal by Robert Conrad). Ably directed by Lewis Teague, with a sharp and compact script by John Sayles, a plausibly gritty, vivid, and unsentimental evocation of the period, a ceaseless brisk pace, a jaunty and flavorsome score by James Horner, coarse, crackling dialogue, startling outbursts of raw'n'brutal violence, bright, attractive cinematography by Daniel Lacambre, nice touches of dark humor, a handful of rousing action set pieces, and a generous amount of female nudity, this film manages to effectively transcend its modest B-flick exploitation origins on the strength of its extremely absorbing story, plenty of surprisingly astute and insightful social observations on race, sex, and class, and a hugely sympathetic and strong-willed main character who engages audience interest throughout. Kudos are also in order for the uniformly fine acting from a sterling cast, with especially praiseworthy work by Louise Fletcher as tough, classy, and cagey madam Anna Sage, Robert Hogan as sleazeball newspaper reporter Jake Lingle, Laurie Heineman as Polly's feisty best gal pal Rose Shinkus, Glenn Withrow as eager kid Eddie, Christopher Lloyd as nasty, disfigured mobster Frognose, Nancy Parsons as vicious prison warden Tiny Alice, Alan Vint as top G-man Melvin Purvis, and Dick Miller as slimy and despicable sweatshop manager Patek. Robert Forster has a sizable uncredited role as suave and affable hit-man Turk. Popping up in neat bits are Mary Woronov as a gun moll and Michael Cavanaugh as an undercover vice cop. An immensely worthwhile and enjoyable picture.

If they had called it "The life of a Gun Moll", nobody probably would have gone to see it. So they went with the Dillinger angle, but forget it this is Pamela Sue's film.If you ever wondered how "good little" girls end up being window dressing for some of the most notorious gangsters that ever lived, this film gives a good look at her rebellion against her strict religious up bringing and her descent into crime and prostitution.Pamela Sue is so cute, you have a hard time believing she is a hardened criminal, but she just about pulls it off.

Clearly a product of the Corman School, Sayles's first major screenplay shows that he already knew how to tell a great story from an interesting angle, something he has never forgotten how to do.Director Teague keeps the pace rattling along, and hammers the message home fast (he was an occasional assistant to Sam Fuller, of course).The plot's quite straightforward, and all the better so - this packs something of the punch of the 30's classic gangster films, but with distinctly 70's sensibilities to violence.Where the film becomes more interesting than your average low-budget 'gangster-exploiter', however, is in the telling of the story through her eyes, rather than his (a distinctly 70's approach). Yet it's wonderfully ambiguous, on reflection, as to whether the film champions her willingness to break away and start acting for herself (she's a great strong character), or whether she just goes from one woman in peril situation to the other (which is the plot, basically).I've probably over-analyzed it already, but if you've got a spare hour and a half on your hands, give it a chance. A classic of its kind.