Showgirl Murders . Weekly Alibi . 10-27-97

Showgirl Murders

DIRECTED BY: Dave Payne

REVIEWED: 10-27-97

OK, I'm gonna catch hell for revealing this, but director "Gene Hertel" is actually Albuquerque's own Dave Payne, director of Not Like Us and much beloved by yours truly for getting TBS' "Dinner and a Movie" hostess Annabelle Gurwitch naked (in a movie, I mean). Unfortunately, this flick just ain't as much fun as NLU, and while Showgirl does star Videodrome fave Maria Ford, she just doesn't compare to Annabelle Gurwitch. The flick opens with Maria drugging her coke-head boyfriend, then stealing his dope and heading to L.A., where she goes to work as a cocktail waitress at a seedy bar run by a loser and his booze-hound wife (who has nightmares about '50s kids with hula hoops). Promising to "bring in two grand a night," Maria convinces the loser to let her handle the "entertainment," and before you can say "Late Night Swingin' Titty Theatre," the seedy bar becomes a seedy strip joint. Things meander along until Maria's (real-life) Corey Feldman-lookin' cheeseball boyfriend shows up, and soon she's got the bar's owner talked into murdering his wife. It's all pretty standard stuff, served up with heaping gobs of nudity, and I tell ya, Maria Ford's strip-club "choreography" is amazingly true-to-life--if I'd been drinking a seven-dollar glass of grape juice, I woulda thought I was in Bob's Classy Lady in Hollywood. Not a particularly outstanding effort from our boy Dave (hence the nom de flick), who is capable of much better--but if you want to see Maria Ford get naked over and over and over you've come to the right place. And Annabelle, if by some bizarre twist of fate you're reading this, I've got a script you'd be perfect for--and you don't even have to get naked (unless you just want to)! (New Horizons)

--Scott Phillips

Other Films by Dave Payne
Alien Terminator

Film Vault Suggested Links
She-Mob
The Replacement Killers
The Avengers

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