The Stepmother (1972)

Sorry, this movie sucks

So much average

Best movie ever!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Arriving home from a business trip, Frank Delgado (Alejandro Rey) finds that his wife Margo (Katherine Justice) has been entertaining his client Alan. In a jealous rage, Frank accosts Alan as he leaves his house, strangling him to death. After disposing of the body, Frank returns home, but the police are soon on his trail.Believe it or not, drive-in flick The Stepmother was nominated for an Oscar in the best song category; it didn't win, but it's an interesting fact for avid fans of low budget '70s trash, the only people for whom this film will hold any kind of appeal.A tawdry drama/thriller, The Stepmother is far from great cinema, suffering from a meandering storyline that takes an age to go anywhere, but it does deliver a few fun elements along the way, including those staples of the exploitation genre, violence and nudity (including the obligatory shower scene).The film also features a spot of jazz flute (always a bonus in my book), bizarre use of random slo-mo and freeze frame, a crazy film director called Goof who uses beatnik speak (It's a gas! You dig?), a seduction scene between Margo and Frank's virginal son Steve (Rudy Herrera Jr.), and a couple of moments that I found unintentionally funny (the death of Frank's friend and the 'He's got a gun!' ending).Worth seeing if only for the beautiful Ms. Justice. 4/10

Architect Frank Delgado returns to his home in Mexico. His wealthy client Alan Richmond forces himself on his wife Margo. Frank runs into Alan on his driveway. Suspecting them having an affair, Frank kills Alan and buries his body. He escapes without being seen by a fighting couple. The police investigates Alan's strangulation death but also the young Mexican woman. Dick Hill arrives with company to talk his business partner Frank into going to a beach house which belongs to Alan.This movie starts off well with a murder. However the tension that is build up by the opening is lost as the movie struggles through a slow boring slough. This is possibly the worst looking movie I've ever seen that is nominated for an Oscar. Alejandro Rey is a pretty awful actor. The movie has a few good actors and Larry Linville could have been an interesting lead. The staging is very static and the bad direction drains away all of the tension.

At first I thought IMDb's reference to an Academy Award nomination for The Stepmother must be a mistake. But it's true, and the funny thing is that Strange Are the Ways of Love really IS the best thing about the film. Alejandro Rey is dreadful as Mexican architect Frank Delgado, a deeply pious Catholic who kills his friend Alan after he discovers him pawing wife Margo (Katherine Justice). Worse, Frank is paranoid about the intentions of his business partner Dick (Larry Linville) and ends up shoving him off the roof. Whenever the police interview Frank he almost screams guilt, figuratively speaking, but the dumb cops take an awful long time to solve what should really be a very simple case. There's a groovy score that must have already sounded five years out of date in 1972, John D. Garfield as a skin flick producer named Goof, and a couple of full frontal scenes that don't advance the narrative.

I like weird 70's movies a lot, but this is weird even by weird 70's standards. It takes about half the movie, for instance, to even figure out why it's CALLED "The Stepmother"--it, at first, seems to be a movie about a jealous middle-aged, Mexican-American architect who murders a business associate after he finds him in bed with his younger gringa wife (and unbeknownst to the wife). By a weird coincidence another more lower-class Mexican also murders his wife in the same area and is framed for both murders. But the cops begins to suspect the architect, and his continuing jealously causes him to accidentally kill his partner and best friend (played by "MASH's" Larry Linville). He then has to fend off the amorous advances of the friend's widow before the cops grow even more suspicious. Got all that so far? So why is it called "The Stepmother"? Well, about halfway through the man's son shows up from Mexico City, and he also starts messing around with the young wife (his stepmother)and the off-kilter plot REALLY goes into over-drive.There are a few reasons to see this. First, if you're a weird 70's film completist. This film is kind similar to early 70's bizarro flick "Swinger's Massacre", which was equally ridiculous but had a less random plot. Second, if you're a fan of Larry Linville, he's actually pretty good here and acts circles around the rest of the unknown cast. The best reason perhaps though is this was the first appearance of cult drive-in queen Claudia Jennings. Jennings has a cameo role as a stoned-out hippie chick who has one hilarious line where she tell the cops she was "way too ripped" to remember what happened the night of the murder. (And if that isn't worth the price of admission, she also has her typically gratuitous full-frontal nude scene). Weird, weird movie, but if any of this sounds interesting to you, check it out.