Prime Cut (1972)

Editor's Note Michael Ritchie busts out the ammunition with PRIME CUT, a dramatic thriller that features unforgettable performances from tough guys Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman. Marvin plays Nick, a Chicago mobster who is sent down to Kansas City in order to investigate the mysterious disappearance of one of his acquaintances. Once there, he meets "Mary Ann" (Hackman), a Kansas City mob boss who also operates a meat processing plant. Upon arriving in the city, Nick discovers the extent of Mary Ann's evil. Along the way he stumbles into a barn that is occupied with captured young women who have been drugged and stripped of their clothes. One of these girls is Poppy (Sissy Spacek), who wants desperately to aid in Mary Ann's tragic demise, freeing her tortured friends in the process. The film opens with a raucous shoot-out in a factory and ends in a famous duel set in an abandoned barn. Thrown into the mix are two brilliantly staged chase scenes that cover a fairground and a cornfield, respectively. Ritchie's second film is a violent yet poignant and entertaining work that will forever be remembered as the movie that introduced Spacek to Hollywood.

	Angel Tompkins
	Gene Hackman
	Lee Marvin
	Sissy Spacek
	Carl Pingitore - Editor
	Gene Polito - Cinematographer
	Joe Wizan - Producer
	Lalo Schifrin - Musical Score
	Michael Ritchie - Director
	Robert Dillon - Writer

In Michael Ritchie's PRIME CUT, a Kansas City mobster uses a meat processing factory as a front for his drug and prostitution business. There, gangsters are ground into sausage, and women are sold like cattle. Things change, however, when Chicago tough guy Nick comes to town. USA Today
"[T]his is fairly essential Marvin. There's also the curio factor of Sissy Spacek's screen debut..." 06/24/2005 p.6E