Originally shot as Swamp Rose a few years earlier, then chopped up and added to new film shot by a different director and even featuring 2 different actresses playing one character - somehow strange forces intervened and created this booze-soaked trashfest of enjoyability. Baby Doll is coming to town to stay with and "take care of" her Uncle Shug, but unfortunately he's having a problem getting rid of his common-law wife who refuses to leave (played by the ever overacting, always entertaining cult star Annabelle Weenick).
Common-law Wife is a sleazy exploitation drive-in movie that is so awful it's good. The story is about a cheap dancer named Jonelle--nicknamed Baby Doll--who returns to her small southern home town to shack up with her aging, wealthy Uncle Shug, who has just kicked out his longtime live-in girlfriend Linda.
"Common Law Wife," a made-in-Texas drive-in quickie directed by exploitation maestro Larry Buchanan ("Mars Needs Women," etc.) has it all: inept cinematography, bad acting, dubbing that's reminiscent of a Sir Run Run Shaw production, and, best of all, twisted, hate-filled characters like lusty old Uncle Shug, who wants to get rid of his aging common law wife, a shrieking harridan played by Anne McAdams (who would go on to have a lengthy career), so he can shack up with his niece, Jonelle, who wants to get rid of HIM -- permanent-like!
I rented this DVD because the auteur of crap, Larry Buchanan ("Zontar: Thing From Venus" and "Mars Needs Women") made part of the film. Originally, Buchanan started a project named "Swamp Rose" but ran out of money.
Common Law Wife (1963) ** (out of 4)A rich and mean old man (Shugfoot Rainey) decides to throw Linda (Anne MacAdams), his lover of five years, out of his house because (WTF?) he wants his young and sexy niece Jonelle to come live with him.
In her film debut in the title role, veteran exploitation queen Annabelle Weenick (under her original alias of Anne MacAdams) really brings the opening and closing scenes of this misanthropic trash shot in Forney in Texas to life; and it lags badly during the interminable middle section when she's offscreen.That the script is by a woman may account for why the scenes between the female characters are far more entertaining than those with the men - with the notable exception of those between Linda and her rancid old sugar daddy Shugfoot Rainey.
***SPOILERS**** Hard to watch and ever harder to figure out 1963 exploitation flick about this old geezer Shugfoot "Don't Rain on my Parade" Rainy who's getting sick and tired of his middle age live in girlfriend Linda and decides to trade her in for a new and improved model his hot to trot 22 year old niece Baby Doll a strip tease dancer just back from her job, entertaining the horny oil rig workers, in the red light district of New Orleans. With being threatened to be thrown out in the cold Linda with her lawyers help come up with her ace in the hole in that she's Shugfoot's common law wife.
Lecherous old Texas oilman Shugfoot Rainey (a perfectly slimy portrayal by George Edgley) decides to kick his aging and bitter line-in girlfriend Linda (fiercely played with venomous aplomb by Annabelle Weenick of "Don't Look in the Basement" fame) to the curb so he can shack up with his conniving stripper niece Jonelle (voluptuous brunette knockout Lacey Kelly). However, Linda claims to be Shugfoot's common law wife and stakes the foul geezer's house out as her territory, so Jonelle concocts a plan to bump off Shugfoot so she can still inherit his considerable fortune.
There's histrionics galore in this stark, trashy melodrama that should do the trick for hicksploitation aficionados. Annabelle Weenick stars as Linda, the live-in girlfriend for miserly old coot Shugfoot Rainey (George Edgley), who's made his fortune in oil.
