Cry Uncle (1971) John G. Avildsen

Audio 2: Commentary with Director John G. Avildsen,
Actor Allen Garfield, Writer David Odell and Lloyd Kaufman

Private detective takes on a case and gets mixed up in murder, sex and blackmail. Fans of Rocky and The Karate Kid probably don’t know this, but the Oscar-winning director responsible for both mainstream cocklewarmers was making some very weird shit in the early 70s. Before coming down with a terminal case of Good Taste, Avildsen had cranked out the superior sex comedy Guess What We Learned In School Today? (1969) and the classic Summer of Hate film Joe (1970), starring Peter Boyle as a blue collar hippie-killer, and Cry Uncle, a totally whacked-out and very black private-eye spoof marketed as a sex film since you couldn’t do much else with its then porno-only X rating. Tubby Jewish comedian Allen Garfield (you’ll recognize the face, guaranteed)plays the “Super Dick’ hired by a millionaire suspect in a murder case. The investigation soon becomes a trail of dead bodies, including one Garfield has sex with, thinking she’s a comatose junkie!

Troma president Lloyd Kaufman was production assistant, as with all early Avildsen films from Joe onwards, and plays the bearded hippie on LSD in a motel room. A bad taste masterpiece, Troma later distributed the film, displaying a rare flash of good taste on their part!

Cry Uncle (1971)