PROZZIE

CONTAINS MODERATE SPOILERS AND GENERAL WONDERMENT

Hurrah for Ulli Lommel, who divides his time between art-house and exploitation. I haven't actually seen any of his arty offerings but he did manage to get one title on the infamous Video Nasties list (The Bogey Man, which is not a film about someone picking their nose). The last thing I saw of his was an atrocious piece of incoherent sleaze entitled The Black Dahlia but, save for a few passing references in the ridiculous "Google the exposition" sequence, it might as well have been called Battle Of The Somme for all its relevance, being mainly concerned with a bunch of maniacs hacking people up in a warehouse for no reason at all.

But his 1981 offering Prozzie is much more interesting: a strange tale which starts in London and follows regular Lommel lead Suzanna Love who, years after witnessing her hooker mother's murder as a child, has ended up in a loveless marriage where she develops the need to dress up as a hooker and kill her clients (she doesn't actually do very much of this sort of thing, only favouring one bloke with an actual cash transaction, and it doesn't end well for him). Meeting and beginning an affair with the considerably more interesting Robert Walker Jr, everything unfortunately goes horribly wrong and her boorish husband ends up in the Thames. And then, weirdly, we follow not him, not her, but London Bridge, as it was sold to an American oilman and transported and reassembled in Arizona (oddly this happened 10 years before Prozzie was made). She's got a new life and identity, they meet up, and then it all goes horribly wrong again!

And the weird thing is I actually ended up rather liking it. It's a bit bonkers and the sudden lurch from the UK to the US is peculiar, but it has an odd charm about it and as an exploitation movie it delivers on the blood and nudity though most of it is more concerned with the relationships. Random DVD rentals can often throw up a ceaseless series of duff titles but occasionally a more interesting title will fall into the mix. Prozzie isn't great, but as a trashy bit of 80s nonsense it's not terrible either.

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