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Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman, Angel Tompkins, Gregory Walcott, Sissy Spacek ... see more see more... , Janet Baldwin , Eddie Egan , Hugh Gillin , Les Lannom , Howard Platt , David Savage , Gordon Signer , Bob Wilson , Clint Ellison

Michael Ritchie, better known for his gentle satires of American social institutions, enters Don Siegel territory in the unusual crime thriller Prime Cut. Lee Marvin is surly collection agent Nick Dev... read more read more...lin, who is hired by Chicago racketeer Jake (Eddie Egan) to collect an overdue payment from Kansas cattle baron Mary Ann (yes, Mary Ann!) (Gene Hackman). When Devlin travels west to get Jake's money from Mary Ann, he finds the cattle king mixed up in complex drug deals and pimping wild women -- two of which are Poppy and Violet (Sissy Spacek and Janit Baldwin -- both in their film debuts). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

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62% liked it

1,854 ratings

Critics

70% liked it

10 critics

R, 1 hr. 26 min.

Directed by: Michael Ritchie

Release Date: June 28, 1972

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DVD Release Date: June 14, 2005

Stats: 109 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (109)

  • deano
    September 20, 2009
    deano
    Sissy Spacek made her film debut in this sleazy but energetic crime thriller about big-times gangsters and the slaughterhouse they use to convert their enemies into sausage is a highly entertaining gangster film with co-stars Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman.
    Michael Ritchie takes ic... read moreonic actors like Marvin and Hackman, who only have to be visible to make an effect. He puts in lots of destruction of property, and neo-Nazi blond bad boys falling by the score. There's shotguns and submachine guns and carnivorous farm equipment and 18-wheel trucks and all sorts of unlikely weapons. And the usual movie dichotomy of country good, city bad is stood on its head, with agriculture fairs and cornfields and sunflower fields as dangerous to life and limb as you could hope for (paging Alfred Hitchcock!).
    And young Spacek looked so beautiful and hot in her nudity scenes. Whooo!
  • puffchunk
    December 2, 2007
    puffchunk
    This movie made me kinda sick. Nothing like women being sold like meat to make you feel all good inside.
  • gator681
    December 1, 2005
    gator681
    [font=Century Gothic]In "Prime Cut", Mary Ann(Gene Hackman) hides his prostitute and drug operations behind his legitimate livestock business in rural Kansas. Since he owes the Chicago mob $500,000, they have sent three men out to have a quiet chat with him about it. The first ... read moretwo are killed and the third is shipped back in hot dog casings. Then, the mob decides to get serious and sends Nick Devlin(Lee Marvin) and friends to engage in more forceful discussions. While at Mary Ann's ranch, Devlin liberates one of his human "livestock", Poppy(Sissy Spacek, in her first prominent role), on the way out.[/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]"Prime Cut" is an off-beat gangster movie(accentuated by the quirky Lalo Schiffrin score). It is fun in a violent way and there is some good action but the hinted back story for the characters only manages to confuse things.[/font]
    [font=Century Gothic][/font]
    [font=Century Gothic]The movie is about how human beings should not be treated like animals.(Note to animal rights activists: animals should not be treated like human beings.) There is a subtext here about the conflict between urban and rural areas.[/font]
  • Dannyrovira
    June 7, 2010
    Dannyrovira
    A Chicago mob enforcer Nick Devlin played in grand performance by Lee Marvin who is as always a charismatic and compulsively watchable screen presence, is sent to Kansas City to settle a debt with depraved cattle rancher named "Mary Ann" who owes the Chicago mob $500,000, he is p... read morelayed by Gene Hackman who proves once again that he is master in playing larger-than-life-villains. Mary Ann is a serious kind of sadistic monster who not only grinds his enemies into sausages, but sells teenage naked girls drugged into passivity as sex slaves. One of the young girls is played by Sissy Spacek in her film debut, she is rescued by Devlin which enrages Mary Ann who is now out to kill Devlin. Excellent tongue-in-cheek crime melodrama, well-cast with a effective supporting performance by Gregory Walcott as a sadist named Weenie. Fine direction by Michael Ritchie and beautiful cinematography by Gene Polite. This movie rocks a great period the 70s, and pulls no punches in all the right places. A prime delight. Highly Recommended.
  • zardoz3
    May 29, 2010
    zardoz3
    The lurid Lee Marvin & Gene Hackman crime thriller "Prime Cut" wasn't the kind of lightweight entertainment that director Michael Ritchie specialized in during his Hollywood career. He made memorable comedies such as "The Candidate," "Downhill Racer," "The Bad News Bears," "Smil... read moree," and "Fletch." Ritchie was often far better than the material that he made, but "Prime Cut" qualified as quite a departure. "99 and 44/100% Dead" Scenarist Robert Dillon penned this concise, 86-minute, Technicolor shoot'em up that featured Marvin as a mob troubleshooter who rides to Kansas to collect a half-million dollar debut that Mary Ann (Gene Hackman of "The French Connection") owes to Chicago mob boss Jake (Eddie Egan of "The French Connection") but has no intention of paying off.

    "Prime Cut" couldn't be remade in today's Hollywood because this R-rated actioneer contains nudity. Academy Award winning actress Sissy Spacek made her cinematic debut as Poppy, a young, clueless girl that Nick Devlin (Lee Marvin of "The Dirty Dozen") buys from Mary Ann. Mary Ann sells flesh and dope along with cattle. When Nick enters the barn on Mary Ann's premises, he sees men gathered around the livestock bins, but the bins don't contain livestock, naked chicks are sprawled in drug-induced hazes in the straw. Nick finds Mary Ann chowing down on a plate of guts when he inquires about the $500-thousand that he owes to Jake. Mary Ann has no intention of paying off his debt. In fact, he sees Chicago as a dying, old sow and believes that only the Heartland of Kansas provides the only salvation from the eastern big cities with their multicultural populations. Predictably, Mary Ann and his witless but violent brother Weenie (Gregory Walcott of "Thunderbolt & Lightfoot") clash with Nick and his henchmen. There is a cool scene when a harvester munches on a limo in a wheat field and an amusing scene in a Kansas City motel when Poppy dines out with Nick in a see-through gown that attracts the attention of other diners. Moreover, Ritchie offers a close-up shot of Spacek's breasts in the sheer, gauzy material.

    Ritchie is an imaginative director and the first scene in the slaughterhouse as the livestock is being butchered is neat. Weenie takes over when the naked body of a man, one of Jake's henchmen, shows up on the conveyor belt. When all is said and done, Weenie has the dead mobster ground up into a string of frankfurters. Jake catches up with Nick in a Windy City bar and shows him the message that Mary Ann has sent him. Nick collects a crew and they hit the highway and cruise to Kansas City. Ritchie doesn't draw out "Prime Cut," so this crime melodrama never wears out its welcome. After the initial confrontation with Mary Ann at the barn, Nick shows up at a Mary Ann sponsored fair and the villainous Hackman refuses to ante up the necessary dough. Instead, he tries to have his shotgun-wielding farm boy bodyguards kill Nick. They manage to wound Nick's men and they abduct Poppy, so Nick arms himself with a grease gun, like the one that he used in "The Dirty Dozen" during the training sequences, and crashes an eighteen wheeler into Mary Ann's farm. A brief shoot-out ensues in a barn and the wounded Mary Ann becomes partial luncheon meat for a rowdy hog. The thing that makes Nick a sympathetic character is the act of rescuing Poppy and then at fade-out liberating the orphanage where Mary Ann had her held.
  • mpghoul1973
    November 4, 2009
    mpghoul1973
    This is a strange but well made tough guy film. Characters have names like Poppy, Weenie, Mary-ann(Hackmans character!) and Clarabelle!? Lee Marvin is great in this. Bringing alot of depth to his character, he's not only a bad ass but he's got feelings too. Theres several funny s... read morecenes with Marvin, one in particular involves him tasting milk. They dont make leading men like him anymore!
    There is a real sleazy element involving a white slavery auction. And it is here that Sissy Spacek makes her acting debut...butt ass naked lying on a ground of hay in a cattle pen. Thats one hell of an entrance Coal Miners Daughter!
  • jrmcm
    October 3, 2007
    jrmcm
    Kansas City, meet Sissy Spacek. A unique cat-and-mouse game with Lee Marvin acting hard and Gene Hackman making quite the hateable villain. The taut shootouts and chases take place in some oddly colorful settings.
  • fushmange
    July 20, 2007
    fushmange
    If meat, boobies, gangsters, prostitute auctions, Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman, and a nubile Sissy Spacek don't appeal to you than you are an asshole.

    Or a woman. An asshole or a woman.
  • decals74
    May 31, 2007
    decals74
    classy 70's action speckled with gratuitous nudity. sissy spacek was pretty damn nice when not covered in blood. lee marvin is great in these pseudo-hero roles and gene hackman was a thoroughly convincing hillbilly farmer thug.

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Critic Reviews

Fernando F. Croce
September 25, 2009
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

Enchantingly perverse fairy-tale Full Review

Pablo Villaca
May 12, 2006
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena

A imbecilidade deste filme pode ser resumida pela ridícula cena de perseguição envolvendo uma ceifadeira. Não vale nem como curiosidade por ter marcado a estréia de Spacek no cinema.

Chuck O'Leary
February 18, 2006
Chuck O'Leary, FulvueDrive-in.com

A prime piece of machismo. Full Review

Christopher Null
June 20, 2005
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com

more watchable than it ought to be Full Review

David Nusair
June 10, 2005
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews

...you really can't go wrong with a film that casts Gene Hackman as a sleazy villain named Mary Ann. Full Review

Steve Crum
October 15, 2004
Steve Crum, Kansas City Kansan

Nasty stockyard mob tale filled with human link-sausages.

Dan Lybarger
July 27, 2003
Dan Lybarger, Nitrate Online

Mesmerisingly tacky crime film about evildoing in a Midwester meat empire that could only have been made by people who never set foot in Kansas.

October 18, 2008
Variety

Click to read the article Full Review

February 20, 2008
Village Voice

Click to read the article Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Click to read the article Full Review

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