Golden Girl Double Feature: The Rotten Apple/Hollywood After Dark
Two with Rue! Long before she starred on TV as one of The Golden Girls, Rue McClanahan played Sandy, a reluctant stripper struggling to survive Hollywood After Dark. Embarrassed at having to peel for the public, Sandy is offered a way out by Tony, a loser in love who promises her cold hard cash once he commits a robbery for a sleazy mobster. Unfortunately, a double cross is in the cards along with a couple of murders in this brooding bit of existential exploitation that aspires to be a bit more profound than the average "B"... Plus: Miss McClanahan is Poochie, the "crazy damn whore" who lives in a junkyard in The Rotten Apple. When Ben's car breaks down, the poor guy leaves it by the side of the road with his wife and infant daughter, enters Harry's Junkyard seeking a spare part and, well, steps into Hell. He's promptly seduced by Poochie, framed by owner Harry ("a wrecker of human beings"), and beaten by two corrupt cops, while a bruiser named Blowhard attacks Ben's wife. Re-released as 5 Minutes to Love, this version contains the original title and a lengthy prologue by producer-star Paul Leder (director of I Dismember Mama and My Friends Need Killing) who asks the burning question: "Why would anyone want to make a story like this?"