Run Swinger Run! (1967) Roughie Sexploitation Transitional Noir

"Visually, Victoria Winters Breaks Bad" (Noirsville)

Directed Barry Mahon (a Santa Barbara native and WWII Ace fighter pilot BTW). 

Mahon was shot down and  POW 'ed in Stalag Luft III. He worked on the escape tunnels portrayed in The Great Escape and was played loosely the Steve McQueen character in that film.  Mahon received the British Distinguished Flying Cross in 1985. 

Mahon, on his style of low-budget filmmaking.

"We have not aimed for the single picture that is going to make us rich. We are looking for the business that's like turning out Ford cars or anything else. If there is a certain profit per picture and we make so many pictures, then we have established a business that is on a basis that's economical."

Written by William K. Hennigar and Barry Mahon. Cinematography by William Hennigar.

Starring Elizabeth Bing (Gretchen Rudolph,) as Laura. When I first watched this I was struck by Gretchen Rudolph's resemblance to TV soap Dark Shadows star Alexandra Moltke aka Victoria Winters. She's got the big raven hair and dressing in the same mid to late sixties A-line dresses and a mod trench coat too boot when, she's wearing anything at all. Hey it is after all a Grindhouse Sexploitation Noir. 

Elizabeth Bing (Gretchen Rudolph) as Laura

Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters - Dark Shadows

Alexandra Moltke

Elizabeth Bing (Gretchen Rudolph) as Laura

Elizabeth Bing (Gretchen Rudolph) as Laura

Any independent film that went even minimally beyond the old MPPC taboos in sexual matters were all shit canned into the catchall Exploitation and Sexploitation dumpster. Its worth doing some video archeology and see if there are any gems (like Aroused (1966) and The Pick-Up (1968) still out there in a film storage vault somewhere.

So, back to the film. The rest of the cast in Run Swinger Run! has Susan Evans as Blonde Junkie (uncredited), Bob Strong as the Bonneville driving "good" Samaritan, Janice Kelly as The General's Former Girl (uncredited). Keith McConnell as drug pusher Charlie (uncredited), Vincent Van Lynn as arms dealer Schneider (uncredited). 

Here is another Barry Mahon cheapo "Roughie" Sexploitation Noir. Roughie's, for those that don't know, usually have a dark plot and violence, and if it's shot with enough of the Visual Noir Stylistics it's going to tip Noir. 

Mahon made a lot of cheapo sexploitation, and of course if you your going to the well that many times, you are going to hit the right mix just by accident eventually. Two of his Transitional Noir that I've liked so far are Hot Skin, Cold Cash about a day in the life of a Times Square Hooker that includes a lot of archival footage of 1960s Times Square, and The Sex Killer, a great shoe string budget film about a nut job who works in a mannequin factory a homage to Killers Kiss, with again lots of archival footage of 1960s Times Square, the subways, and the Village.

Run Swinger Run! is another watchable cheapo. This film also has some archival footage of the Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, and Seal Beach, in North Orange County, California. The cinematography is at times very interesting.

Laura wrapped in a towel comes back out to a fenced in patio of one of those typical Anaheim, California apartment complexes. Think of a multi storied version of the old Southern California stucco bungalow units. 

She approaches a chaise lounge style beach chair. She lays down and removes her towel revealing that she is topless. 

She lays down on her tummy for a sun bath. She begins flipping through a picture book that she had left there earlier.

Out in a nearby parking lot a man wearing sunglasses and dressed in workman's clothes gets out of a 1959 Mercedes 220 SS. He walks around the vehicle and from the passenger side removes what looks like a tool box. We see him walking through various decorative plantings and towards a building carrying the box. 

We cut back to Laura who looks around to see if she has any watchers Satisfied that she is quite safe, she sits up exposing her breasts. She reveals that she is wearing just a G-string bottom. Laura begins to apply tanning lotion to her upper body. 

Meanwhile from a high balcony we now see the man with the sunglasses and work clothes spying down on Laura. She is unaware that she now has an audience. 

When we cut back to the man we see him removing from the box the parts of a gun. He begins to put together a sniper rifle. He uses the stucco balcony wall for support and ominously begins sighting a sniper rifle down at the back of Laura's head.  

Just as he pulls the trigger she bends a bit to apply more lotion, and the shot misses her and shatters a tea cup on a small glass table. 

Cue the wild jungle bongos, and the cheap funky jazz score. The titles are superimposed over the action. Its A Barry Mahon Production, Half the names are "stage names" or inside jokes. The make-up was done by a guy named Max Factor. lol

Panicked, Laura jumps up and runs back into her apartment sans towel. She covers herself with a light raincoat, puts on her shoes, and grabs her purse and quickly walks out of her building and out to the street. This, of course, is probably in part a homage to the Christina Bailey character in Kiss Me Deadly. 

Down at the street corner bus stop a Southern California RTD Route 42 Flxible built bus is waiting with it's door open. It's idling at the stop while the traffic light is red. Laura hops aboard. The light changes the bus pulls out.

Meanwhile the sniper who missed his target, has taken apart the rifle. Put it back in the box and runs out back to the parking lot and hops into the Mercedes. 

Now, He knows Laura doesn't have a car and is smart enough to figure out that if she isn't walking  around on the sidewalk she probably hopped the last Rt 42 bus that came through, like she always does. And that would be the one heading for Seal Beach. (None of that is spelled out in the film, BTW, lol)

At the bus stop on the corner of Seal Beach Blvd, and the Pacific Coast Highway (aka PCH ), Laura gets out. That stop is just outside a service station. She looks anxious. Looking around scanning the roads. A man, Bob, wearing a sports jacket and tie is waiting to pick up his '66 Pontiac Bonneville ragtop.  

He notices Laura and asks if he can help. Laura tells the guy that she is looking for a ride up the coast. The guy, of course tells her that he's going up the coast (wouldn't you?). He offers her a ride all the way to Junction City (about 300 miles). 

Laura, does exactly the opposite of what every mother tells their daughters, she hops in to this strangers car. How noir is that?

So Laura and Bob head North through Long Beach, Torrance, El Segundo, Santa Monica, towards Malibu. The man watches as Laura keeps fidgeting looking in the rearview, and asks her if she's running away. Laura tells him don't worry, she's over twenty one. She begins to tell him her sad story as we head up the highway and we go into a flashback. 

Pacific Coast Highway

The First Flashback

Laura's dad died young and her mother took in borders to help with expenses. One day her mother went to visit her friends and she instructed the boarders to eat at the diner that night. One of the boarders went, the other stayed behind. 

Laura tells us that she was laying on her bed  with just a top and panties on listening to records when she felt that she was being spied on. The border  that stayed behind, walks into Laura's room. When she see him she tells him that her mother instructed her to tell them to go eat at the diner that night. 

The border is not interested in that kind of dinner. He tells Laura that he's sick and tired of her flaunting herself at him in her short nighties and tiny bikini and he's going to do something about it, all while he's on the bed leaning over her. 

She tells the man, that, she'll tell her mother. The border counters with no you won't because I know what you do with the high school boys down by the river. 

He's been spying on her. he tells her that he wants a little bit for himself and tears open her shirt. Laura is yelling no, no, no, and struggling to get him off while he is trying to pull down her panties. 

The border has a definite bulge in his pants, how noir is that? The topper is, that once he gets Laura's panties off and starts grinding, she discovers that she has a weird kink and that she actually really likes it, (it happens). She is getting turned on.

Turned on, how kinky, how Noir is that?

She tells us when she stopped struggling the border who was getting off dominating a woman by force suddenly goes soft. How Noir-er is that? 

Bob asks her what happened to the border after that? Laura tells she doesn't know because she ran away from home because she felt dirty. She couldn't believe she enjoyed it. She continues on, relating that she had some money in a savings account so she bought a bus ticket to Los Angeles. 

"I felt dirty."

Pacific Coast Highway

The Second Flashback

Her mothers friend Mary, her unofficial "Aunt," always told her that if she needed help she could come to her.

Walking to Mary's

So here she was on her doorstep needing it. She rings the bell. Mary answers the door and she doesn't even recognize Laura at first. 

She tells her its a bad time and at first tries to blow her off (for a good reason) but she does the right thing by Laura and brings her in. The big twist is Mary is selling junk along with three other cronies. Charlie is  the mastermind of the outfit. Shades and Blondie the high school pushers.

When Mary brings Laura into the living room where Charlie and another man are packaging the heroin. Charlie gets livid.

Mary explains that she's OK. Mary tells Laura to go ahead and take a shower. When Laura is out of the room she tells Charlie that she's in trouble too, and they could use her now that need another girl. Mary tells Charlie that she will give Laura the score. Charlie tells her that he will do it. Mary backs off and tells him that "she is only a kid."

Charlie confronts Laura as she's undressing. He tells her that she already saw and knows too much. Charlie tells her to take her shower. 

It's Mahon version of the "Shower Scene." 

Charlie goes on with his spiel while getting an eye full of Laura. who is doing her best to arouse Charlie. The battle of the sexes right there in a nutshell. 

And, of course, after 33 years of the MPPC censorship and the Zeitgeist of living under the threat of nuclear annihilation creativity is going to break loose. The cinematography also gives you the realization of what we may have lost stiffing creativity back in 1934. 

Charlie says that she is going to have to join them so that she is in just as deep as the rest of them. only then will trust her. To earn their trust she is going to take the place of Blondie, other girl who got hooked on the stuff she was supposed to be pushing. That girl is now useless to them. They want her to hang around the local high school hangouts, mix in, and push hard drugs. 

Charlie: All you have to do is park your car in the parking lot and let it be known to the swingers, where the stuff is available. 

Laura: You mean I have to go back to high school? Wouldn't that cause complications.

Charlie: Well have the fake transfer papers made up and before they find out we'll blow for another town. We got in quick, and we'll get out just as quick.

Laura turns off the water and drying off, wants to thank Charlie. Naked she walks up to Charlie and presses up against him. Charlie, doesn't push her away. He has her holding her by the waist.

Laura: Why I wouldn't think of double crossing you Charlie.

Charlie: You better not. 

Laura: How about sealing our bargain with a kiss? 

Charlie: You do a good job and we'll talk about love making later.

Laura: Oh, Come on, just one little kiss.

He kisses her passionately for a few seconds 

Charlie: Go on get your clothes on I'll see you outside.

Maybe later sweetheart.

Maybe later Sweetheart

Cue the wild bongos!

As soon as they are not looking Laura sneaks out of the house and is last seen carrying her suitcase and running down the road in high heels. 

Cut back to Laura and Bob on the PCH in the Bonneville. 

Laura: So you can imagine how I felt the only person in town that I knew and she expected me to go in with her selling dope to high school kids. I couldn't do it. I know my weaknesses I don't mind doing what I have to do to make money, but dope I wouldn't do.....

Anyway, she tells us after fleeing Mary's she found a hotel where things go even more Noirsville. 

The Third Flashback

We see Laura sitting at the hotel bar reading the want ads. A well dressed man named Schneider with a slight German accent approaches Laura. Excusing himself, he explains that he saw that she was looking at the want ads and that he assumes she is looking for a job. Laura says yes, and the guy tells her that he knows how she can make a thousand dollars a week. 

Interested, Laura and Schneider sit at a table where Schneider explains that he is a business man with a large house which he uses to entertains businessmen from around the world. He needs beautiful women, not prostitutes or streetwalkers, to entertain the men while they are in town. Schneider tells her that he passes the women off as friends and relatives. He tells Laura to think about it and gives her a one hundred dollar bill for her time and to prove he is legit. If she is interested, he asks her to meet him tomorrow night here at the same time in the same place.  

We cut to Schneider walking in on what looks like a torture session. A woman, we learn is named Dianne, sits topless hands tied behind her back with blood on her face. Two men are working her over. 

Schneider asks what seems to be the problem. One of the men replies that she had disappeared from the house and they caught her at the airport with a ticket to New York. 

Dianne tells him she wants to get married and have kids like any normal woman.

Don't leave any marks on her

Schneider tells her she's got six months left on her contract and she's going to fulfill its terms. Then, before leaving, Schneider instructs his men to make sure that they leave no marks on her.

Schneider tells her she's got six months left on her contract and she's going to fulfill its terms. Then, before leaving, Schneider instructs his men to make sure that they leave no marks on her.

We cut back to Laura and Bob in the Bonneville.

She tells Bob that she wished she knew about how they treated Dianne and all about Schneiders international arms smuggling racket before she took his money and decided to take Schneider up on his offer. 

Noirsville

Pacific Coast Highway

Getting acquainted with Schneider

A little overdoing passion.

Pacific Coast Highway

Pacific Coast Highway - Malibu

Pacific Coast Highway

Pacific Coast Highway

Mahon throws in a little extra T&A 

More T

Pacific Coast Highway

Pacific Coast Highway

Pacific Coast Highway

These Grindhouse Exploitation flicks made all there money back if they played just two weeks. It was a business, they made the content that the grindhouse needed. Call it magic, or by fluke, that every once in a while, most of the components come together. A director who knows what he's going, a story that's remotely entertaining, most of the actors are decent, the out in the streets with no permits  gruella style Noir-ish cinematography, the cheap jazz, and decent editing. This is watchable, it's no hidden gem, and while you are watching you think hey, this would have worked better if they had done it this way. But then you remember, shoe string budget.

If the film had a good cinematographer like this one, it gives you an idea of how some Noir Films based on Chandler, Hammett, Woolrich, Cain, Spillane, McDonald, Miller, etc., etc., may have looked like if there was no MPPC code censorship. 

"Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness." (Pablo Picasso)

I'd rate it a 6/10. 

Posted on March 24, 2021 by bandsaboutmovies

Barry Mahon may struggle to make a decent movie at times, but he's always great at coming up with titles that make me grab his films. This time, he's telling "the startling story of a girl who would do anything with anybody at anytime." "A young girl alone...marked for death by the crime syndicate!" "The exciting story of Laura...a call-girl!"

Despite their lurid titles and rampant nudity, Mahon's films are the very antithesis of sexiness. Instead, Lauren (Gretchen Rudolph*, My Body Hungers) goes out of control, from bad teen to someone using drugs and selling sex. Then, you know, as these things happen, a sniper starts shooting at her. Bob Strong, who is in this, is better known for writing the song "I Hear Wedding Bells," which is in the movies Breaking Up and Grumpier Old Men. He appears alongside several women who show up in more than one Mahon film, like Susan Evans (she played Fanny Hill in more than one of his movies) and Janice Kelly. Oh yeah! Keith McConnell is in this and his career stretches from 50's adventure movies and TV to exploitation like this and ending his acting career as Lord Cavendish in one of the first adult - well, softcore - movies I ever saw, Young Lady Chatterley II. *Rudolph is billed as Elizabeth Bing. (B&S About Movies)

Sturdy adults only crime thriller

Woodyanders3 November 2014

Luscious young brunette Laura (nicely played with considerable pluck by fetching and shapely brunette Elizabeth Bing) runs away from home after she is raped by some creep. Laura goes to Los Angeles and hooks up with her drug peddling Aunt Mary. When that doesn't work out, Laura leaves and joins a call girl racket run by the mysterious Schneider (a pleasingly slimy portrayal by Vincent Van Lynn). However, things go awry after Laura discovers Schneider's dark secret and then finds herself the unwanted target of a lethal sniper. Writer/director Barry Mahon keeps the enjoyably seamy story moving along at a snappy pace, gives this picture a grimy noir vibe, populates the eventful plot with a rich rogues' gallery of colorful lowlife characters, and delivers a handy helping of both tasty female nudity and foxy babes in skimpy lingerie. William Hennigar's stark and grainy black and white cinematography provides a suitably seedy look. The groovy free-form jazz score does the funky bumping trick. A solid and sordid outing. (IMDb)