This one is gold! Ok, it's not well acted, and I guessed part of the surprise ending right away, but that matters not!
It opens with a prostitute, sleepy from a hard nights work, who doesn't notice her murderer enter. He slits her throat--cut to title card. Next we meet our intrepid detective, Mr. Burns. He wants the case even though the pay is poor: he likes a challenge!
Another murder is committed, and a local boy fingers a latino horse trader. Some townies lynch him (#@$%ing racists). Mr. Burns arrives just in time to find the body and berate them for not following the rule of law. But the local sheriff is tired of having his toes stepped on (veteran character actor Jack Elam), so he challenges Burns to a punch out. The beat each other up until they become friends.
Meanwhile, someone is still knifing the "ladies"...
We meet a bunch of interesting characters, most of them get shot or stabbed, then the final gonzo ending. While Burns and the sheriff are discussing a new clue, they hear screaming and run to see what is going on...
I won't ruin it, but if you're a fan of gonzo 70s movies, this one delivers in the final act, and Burns, the sheriff, and his attractive niece (Diana Ewing, famous for playing Droxine in an episode of the original run of Star Trek, here in her last onscreen film role) get the next stagecoach out of town while "Evil Lady" serenades us through the final credits.
Haha, wait, what? Yes, exactly.
Most of the film is us following Burns around as he gets no closer to solving the murders, but it's mostly still fun as we meet an interesting cast of potential suspects (watching the mortician trim his nose hairs before going out is one of my favorite parts) leading up to the gonzo finale. Go ahead, eat something, wash your dishes, make some popcorn, then get ready for the final act. Be careful not to miss it though, there's virtually no warning until the screaming starts and then its over.
For those interested, this was produced by the infamous Bryanston Pictures, the mafiosos who gave us Deep Throat, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Return of the Dragon, and Flesh for Frankenstein.
I'm not sure I can fully explain why I love these movies so much; I think it's mostly just because they don't care about your rules. Is this a horror film, a western, or a detective story? Yes, says the producers. Do we have any big stars for this? No, who needs stars!?! Roll camera! A drive-in somewhere needs a B movie and will buy this. And, back in the day, they did! And you never knew what you were going to get. If you ever wanted to see Jack Elam as the star of a horror-western-detective movie, your prayers have been answered!
Obviously this is all a little tongue in cheek. If you want to see the new big superhero movie, you will not enjoy this. If you need "relatable" characters and plot-driven narrative, you will not enjoy this. If you need to see Scarlet Johansson or Leonardo DiCaprio in a movie to feel like it was "good," you will not enjoy this. This movie doesn't care about your needs. All it has to offer you is a knife in the dark...