The Naked Road (1959)

Director: William Martin

Writer: William Martin

Composer: ???

Starring: Jeanne Rainer, Ronald Long, Art Koulias, Frances Hammond, Eileen Letchworth, Harry Stanton, Kent Montroy, Ed Jordon, Paul Judson

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Unbelievably-Fantiscally TRUE! The brutal facts behind the expose of the so-called PUBLIC RELATIONS racket!

Plot: When a woman is left with a corrupt Judge as collateral for a speeding ticket, a Good Samaritan bails her out... then holds her prisoner as a future sex slave!!!

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? I just might.

This is the second film in the six movie set from Something Weird Video called 'Weird-Noir' and it's pretty damn good.  This one runs 74 minutes which feels a little too long.  I'm getting ahead of myself.  I didn't know a single thing about this picture when I popped the disc in and that was a good thing.  The setup of getting Gay (Rainer) from innocent model to hijacked into white slavery and hooked on the drugs takes quite a while and it's a well-thought out and elaborate scheme that gets her there.  I liked that writer/director Martin takes his time with that because it goes a long way into taking you on that journey with her.  I really felt bad for the gal.  These people are sleazy.  Then it's a matter of her spending time in the organization and trying to figure her way out of it.  That's when it slows down.  It doesn't help that some of the actors say their lines slower than they should.  It feels like amateur filmmaking sometimes but the story and Gay's situation is compelling enough to keep you interested until it almost suddenly ends.  This is the first of four pictures Martin directed.  I hope he got better but this is a pretty good start and a pretty fun and sleazy film noir that's under the radar.  Thanks, SWV, for putting these out.