Curtis Harrington’s RUBY is one of those B movies that has everything we love about B movies. Actors past their heyday, warmed over storyline (actually a ripoff of CARRIE and THE EXORCIST), cheap production values, limited special effects and goofs galore. It’s even set in a drive-in. One of the goofs would be so obvious to a movie geek like Harrington (we have him to thank for ressurecting James Whale’s OLD DARK HOUSE) that it has to be deliberate although Harrington says nothing about it on the commentary. The film takes place in 1951 but the movie playing at Ruby’s drive-in is ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN which wasn’t made until 7 years later. For the record the drive-in screen is post 1953 (for widescreen movies) and several of the cars are post 1954 but this may be budget considerations in that Harrington and company had to use whatever was available.
Piper Laurie rechannels her overbearing persona from CARRIE (minus the religious angle) as the title character who is the mother of a 16 year old mute daughter who becomes possessed by the spirit of her father, a gangster who was betrayed and murdered by his gang. One by one the various gang members meet horrible deaths at Ruby’s drive-in theater until a psychic investigator is called in and the truth about what happened is finally revealed leading to an unlikely conclusion (added by the producer). In addition to Laurie is Stuart Whitman, an old hand at low budget nonesense, as well as B movie stalwart Len Lesser who has the film’s most interesting demise. Roger Davis of DARK SHADOWS fame is the paranormal specialist and the striking looking newcomer Janit (yes with an I) Baldwin plays the daughter.
In the commentary Curtis Harrington complains bitterly about how the executive producer added scenes to make it more horrific while removing scenes that he didin’t like. Harrington was an accomplished low budget film director as can be seen by any of his other films (WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH HELEN, NIGHT TIDE, even the Soviet-American hybrid QUEEN OF BLOOD) so the odds on him making a film this sloppy on his own are highly unlikely. Nevertheless in spite of all the post production tampering, RUBY remains a highly entertaining film that stays with with you in spite of its low budget background. It is well photographed and has several quality moments thanks to Harrington’s poetic sensibilities and of course Piper Laurie’s bravura performance. RUBY is another of those films that exists in several terrible public domain releases so beware. Be sure to get the VCI version as it is the closest to how the film appeared in theaters and comes with several worthwhile extras.
The Capsule Critic 