A Scream in the Streets (1973) User Reviews

The Massage Parlor Girl ( [e-mail])

[nexyboy · 6/10 · 17 January 2018]

Previous reviewers said pretty much all about the scene, so I'd just add that this scene looks more like an insert or even a short film that had been shoot prior or during the main production and than edited into the film before its release. A guest in massage parlor, Mr. Heat was played by the well-known softcore actor from the early 1970's, Norman Fields. The question is who played the girl. Does anybody saw her in any other movie , either feature length or short one? If someone has some information about that actress or can get it somehow, please let me know via e-mail. Thanks in advanced. P.S The DVD is very likely edited down version. I found the French version with running time of 120 min and also one Swedish site mentions approx. 119 min.

Reasonably amusing exploitation.

[Hey_Sweden · 6/10 · 27 December 2022]

"A Scream in the Streets" fulfills its requirements as a 70s trash film. It's basically a variety of sex scenes occasionally interrupted by the plot. And the plot involves two police detectives, Ed Haskell (Joshua Bryant, the original 'Salem's Lot'), and Bob Striker (Frank Bannon, in his only film role), who must deal with various lowlifes: a young punk robbing a deli, a peeping tom, and the kicker: a rapist who is able to avoid detection because he's always dressing in drag!

The movie does have its moments. This viewer liked best the scene where two lesbians decide to "put on a show" for the peeping tom while surreptitiously placing a call to the police. Also among the thoroughly depraved male characters is a massage parlor customer who gets his kicks by whipping an employee with his belt. Her boss calls in the cops, but is far more concerned with the damage that the customer did to HIM. (He smashed his head with a beer bottle, and yet later we don't see a single drop of blood on the dodo's face.) The rapist is a total creep and yet is undeniably a hoot because there is no way in real life anybody would be fooled by this guy.

The dialogue is often quite amusing, and the performances likewise have a cheesy appeal. Also appearing are Linda York ("Chain Gang Women"), Colleen Brennan ("Delinquent School Girls"), Sandy Carey ("Drive In Massacre"), and John Tull ("Below the Belt").

Viewers hoping for a copious mixture of cheese & sleaze will likely have a good time with this one.

Six out of 10.

Unbelievably cheap and bizarre from the abrupt and jarring opening credits on....

[TheMikeJustice · 13 November 2003]

This jaw-droppingly odd and obscure softcore crime film was on a double-feature cassette with "Axe" and that's how I saw it. It starts off with the most jarring set of opening credits ever. Basically, a booming male voice shouts over a black screen "A Scream in the Streets!" then it abruptly cuts to the Fastest Scrolling Titles Ever superimposed over footage of an unconvincing drag queen killing someone (1970's police show music raging in the background). The film settles down a bit after this into something resembling a story, although I can't remember what it is. My only memory is that it involved a massage parlor and lots of sex scenes (one, at least, verging on hardcore). The men were the ugliest beasts I've ever seen with their clothes off. They couldn't have found more hideous men for this film. Towards the end, the ludicrous drag queen from the opening credits shows up again and implausibly stalks a park while going completely unnoticed. Then something happens and the film ends.... For fans of runny color and grainy cinematography only.

A Scream in the Streets

[Scarecrow-88 · 3/10 · 6 March 2013]

A woman-hating rapist transvestite killer on the rampage. Here's another oddity from the fine folks at Something Weird Video. To tell you the truth, this is just a basic subplot where the killer is mentioned in dialogue a few times (by cops) and has about three scenes with women in or near a park (including the opening credits where he gets to undress a fainted victim) where he earns their trust (even a woman cop undercover who tells him that she is undercover!) before threatening (and eventually killing) with a knife. Most of the film spends time with two plain clothes cops, on the job arresting druggies, a peeping tom, and a hold-up murderer. The rest consists of sex with a cop shagging the redheaded dispatching officer, two stoners (the peeping tom eyeballs them happily), the head detective and his concerned wife (she is worried about his safety with that rapist/killer on the loose; and rightfully so, since he'll meet a tragic fate thanks to the trans-psycho), and two lesbian lovers (peeping tom eyes them, too). There's a lengthy sequence in a "massage parlor" (that involves an old man banging one of the hired help; nothing makes me more flaccid than an old man's ass in close-up getting spanked or an old man faking pleasure in a weak-ass attempt to convince us in a softcore sex scene with her) which has the owner ordering his female employee to do her job as a pleasurer for their client who likes to rough up the girls (when she is whipped repeatedly by this old fart, the owner demands the police get him some help, not the least bit worried about the wellbeing of his employee; nice guy, this prick). As a plotted film, Scream in the Streets stinks. As a sex film, it has its moments. While not exactly beauties, the girls that get naked have nice figures and seem comfortable nude in front of the camera and joyfully randy with their partners. The film is a mixture of softcore/hardcore. You get oral sex and flashes of pecker. There are some shootouts with blood packets popping as the bad guys are downed by the cops. The dialogue has lots of laughable back-and-forth foreplay (particularly the cop and his dispatch lady) or "cop talk", with the criminals verbally antagonistic towards them. Then the wife voices her concerns to the cop who tries to assure her that everything will be alright (but her concerns are warranted and end up coming true). Without the sex (which can be a bit too softcore and staged; like the stoners because the girl's panties stay on while her man dry humps her on their waterbed, and he orally pleasures her with them on), I can't figure this film has much of interest to even the hardcore SW audience. The transvestite is clearly a man under a grandma wig (could have come right off the head of Vicki Lawrence from Mama's Family) although he fools everyone, including the male cops at the end. Seeing an old man shagging a much-younger girl does have a niche audience who enjoys that kind of sex, but the softcore work between the two actors is so poorly performed, I can't imagine even that crowd will find this scene much to be desired. For me, the girls aren't bad to look at and I enjoy women who are uninhibited in front of the camera, but otherwise, this left me wanting. I guess as a curio before the hardcore sex craze in the 70s fully bloomed this film might be of some intrigue. I can't imagine it offers much more than that, however. As a cop film, the cast, characters, and their story need to be compelling enough to keep our attention; but this is clearly more inspired as a sex film.

A Scream In The Streets will cause angry screams from it's audience

[videorama-759-859391 · 3/10 · 7 March 2016]

Why does this movie suffer? Many reasons, and it's it own fault. You know a movies in trouble where the faceless killer's revealed at the start, with all the credits coming up the screen and if it's closing. If you caught your VHS tape at that moment, and rewound it, within a couple of seconds, with the tape stopping, you would give wonder, and that's how you'll feel all the way through this crap. The film has a good premise, and could really had potential, if approached right. "But no". What's happening here, is they've decided to make a porn movie but also a drama with a real story. You can't have it both ways. If this wasn't a sex film, you could of have a really good movie. There is some appalling "What the F" acting here, not from everyone, but I'd say the majority, and you'll definitely pick em. The plot sees a serial killer raping and killing women, one a fifteen year old girl, who we only hear about, thankfully. But we can't be thankful for much in A Scream In The Streets. One such scene I'm thankful for in a way, is the massage scene, featuring a sickie and a hottie, getting it on. Now riddle me this: the heartless owner gets a bottle smashed across his face, but no blood. I've seen unproduced films that are better than this crap. Honestly. You note too, the grainy picture with those lines running down the screen. This is just a shoddy and pathetic movie with so many pathetic moments, plus one of the worst drop dead falls, I've ever seen. Most of the cast deserve time in prison, but if acquitted, should do acting classes as probation. The people behind the movie should of made a choice, to just do a porno, or an actual movie, but they've done both, and look what's happened. There's some scenes that have nothing to do with the movie, where also there's some drawn out sex scenes, that deviate from the story.

A Scream in the Streets (1973) BOMB

[JoeKarlosi · 1/10 · 26 August 2007]

A cross-dressing serial killer/rapist in drag beats a woman to death before the opening credits start rolling, and that's pretty much the entire movie. From there we see two cops start going about their rounds to find the killer, which never amounts to anything except that this thing turns into a porno flick with endless sex scenes and a peeping tom who always happens to find the right window at the right time so he can watch. I like gratuitous sex as much as the next guy, but there is a limit in a straight "feature", and certainly not when it's unimaginatively presented and whatever existing plot line was initiated completely becomes ignored. This is a very bad movie. 0 out of ****

John Tull

[missyamerica18 · 7/10 · 16 April 2005]

Anytime John Tull is in a movie it is hard not to like it. Something Weird Video offers many Tull titles and each one has its own ridiculous charm. I love the line in the film where he is talking to his girlfriend on the bed and says something like, "Now, for those split beaver pants"! (His girlfriend was dressed for a 1950s costume party...) Lines like this make A Scream in the Streets and John Tull a "gem" of 70s sleaze cinema.

It's not only Tull that captivates me, but how about that scene where the robber holds up the convenience store? I love the look of "horror" on the owner's face. (Actually, it looks like the guy has no idea what is going on...) I also love when the robber jumps out of the glass door in slow motion. Hey, they don't make movies like this anymore! A movie so horrible that I can't help but love it! The cross dressing killer somehow goes unnoticed (though it is so obvious that "she" is a man), the dialog is amusingly horrid, John Tull bares "Tull junior", and don't forget the flaccid member during one of the sex scenes in the massage parlor! God, I wish I lived in the 70s to experience this stuff first hand!

LIGHT PORN

[kirbylee70-599-526179 · 2/10 · 28 June 2021]

I've said it before and I'll stick with this. While some movies leave a lot lacking there is always a reason to retain them for historical reasons. This includes pornographic films as well. They may not be what most of us watch but there is something about them that sociologists will gather information from about the times in these films. Perhaps most interesting will be those films that try to be proper feature films while at the same time featuring nudity and sex. A SCREAM IN THE STREETS is one of those types of movies.

The story is light here but then most porn movies are just that. It revolves around a rapist/murderer who is terrorizing Los Angeles. Detective Ed Haskell (Joshua Bryant) and his new partner Detective Bob Streeker (Frank Bannon) are on the case and adapting to one another. Lots of jibes, anger and yelling passes between the two before they finally click.

Along the way we get glimpses of other things to fill out the 91 minutes. One is a recurring peeping tom and what he sees as we witness various romps by different couples. Another is an officer and the dispatcher who become "acquainted". And lastly there is the killer, a transvestite who is so obviously male it is difficult to figure out why his victims never realize it. As portrayed by Don Covert it is by far the worst performance in the film.

That's it. That's all there is to say about the plot of the movie here. As with most pornographic movies of the time there is the tiniest story here around which to place naked bodies coming together. One thing about this one is you get the feeling they were trying to avoid the tag of porn because the degree to which the interaction goes just falls shy of pornography and just over the edge when it comes to hard R.

One amusing thing for many will be trying to place the face of Bryant. The entire time watching the film you'll find yourself thinking "I've seen this guy before". Let me save you the time. He starred in a number of episodic TV series and is probably most famous as Scully the helicopter pilot on the TV series M*A*S*H.

Severin has done a great job of saving this film from obscurity though with a 2k scan from the original film negative. In addition to that they've included several extras including "The Peeper" - two shorts made from outtakes from the film, trailers for this and other films and reversible cover art for the disc.

Most people will pass this one by. Film historians might have some interest in it. Pornography collectors will add it to their collection. It is an interesting film to watch from an historical perspective but other than that I can't recommend the film.

Best cop film ever

[frankdaft · 10/10 · 10 May 2008]

This would have to be one of the sleaziest cop movies i have ever seen.It's about two cops,Rookie and rule book who spend most of their time driving around L.A catching peeping toms and other perverts and occasionally blowing away bad guys.The back cover asks the question:How do cops find the time to love when they're listening for the next...Scream In The Streets? Well the answer seems to be obvious after watching this 70's flick,all the time!!Although i didn't do an accurate count but it seems to me that in the 70 minutes that it runs for there would be about 30 to 40 minutes of extended sex scenes,some grubbier than others,we get lots of tits,muff,kink, a lesbian scene and even a cock to look at.There's also a cross dressing killer on the loose who loves nothing better than to rape and kill women in the park every 20 minutes or so. The movie feels like a series of episodes just joined together to make a feature,which is fine by me!

In fact according to issue 5 of Fatal Visions this movie was also released in OZ as Girls In The Streets on the K&C label and has a longer running time,I've got the Platinum Video release which is cut but still really strong stuff. I highly recommend to all you perverts who haven't seen it!!

Too Bad, Your Getting A Drag

[gavcrimson · 2 December 2000]

WARNING SPOILERS INCLUDED 'The World is Full of Freaks' remarks one cop to another in A Scream in the Streets and the film itself seems on a quest to prove his point. A detective thriller by way of a transvestite horror movie by way of the down and dirtiest kind of sexploitation feature. Scream takes no prisoners, even as the credits are rolling we're privy to a berserk man in drag roughing up a girl and tearing her clothes off. The film takes place over a hot week in LA as cop Ed Haskell, married and by the book has to act partner to Bob Streeker a hotheaded bachelor. In a threadbare Dragnet fashion they drive around LA acting as a link to the films gamut of criminal behaviour. At a downtown massage parlour the bearded owner rages at one of his girls who wants nothing to do with a customer nicknamed 'Fanny Freak'. Mr Fanny Freak is a rich, decrepit, skinny bald old man whose rough treatment has already sent one of the girls down to the hospital. Eventually the girl plays along, Fanny Freak gets to give her the massage and genially gets his dollars worth from her but this does little to cram the urge for his vice. Fanny Freak eventually goes into a tantrum smashing the owner over the face with a bottle and moving in on the girl- chasing her around the parlour with his belt. Deeper in suburbia a bloated voyeur who like a punch drunk boxer is mad at the world, peeps through a window at a swinger couple smoking dope. Dressed in a joke shop 50's nostalgia outfit the woman inexplicably resembles some gangster's moll who has fallen on hard times and has to appear in loops with the ugliest looking man imaginable. It all gets too much for Streeker who seems to be in one foul mood that gradually gets worse and worse as the week progresses. He works off his aggression by blowing holes in bank robbers or stomping suspects. All the while the threat of the transvestite sex killer looms in the background. Despite his fat legs, pink dresses and blonde wig, the transvestite is somehow undetected as he prowls around a park. Whenever he's near a woman he freaks-out, laughing hysterically while issuing twisted demands at knife-point before performing psycho surgery on the women when things get too hot. 'I hate you, I hate all women, you're rotten ohhhh' he says as he pummels an undercover policewoman. Too empathise what a fiend the transvestite is we're told he's picked off one of Haskell's teenage neighbours, a fact that jars Mrs Haskell who its revealed was the victim of a similar teenage assault. We last see the Peeping Tom trailing a woman home, in the process learning she's part of a bored housewives group who have made making out behind their husband's backs an afternoon pastime. A mock twister game provides the films lewdest sight gag as the girls manage to keep the peeper occupied while phoning the police at the same time. Scream was shot in 1972 the same year that would see Deep Throat and its ilk legitimatize triple X rated films. Seemingly anticipating the gradual change from softcore to hardcore, Scream takes 'soft X' as far as it would go... maybe further. Like in the late Carl Monson's most popular offering Please Don't Eat My Mother the appearance of well known sex actresses in the cast as well as an hitherto unheard of on screen frankness poses a good case for Scream being shot as hardcore and then cut down for a more general release. Scream is also a bigger Trojan horse in that like producer Harry Novak's 1970 film The Booby Trap its extreme nature was down-played in its publicity which favoured to sell it as a straight forward crime thriller. A Scream in the Streets is less a straightforward narrative than a group of sadistic outbursts that skips on few fetish. You sit transfixed, always anticipating the worst as its degenerate character actors get ready to explode like fireworks. Uncannily suited to their scummy parts you wonder if Monson didn't just spot these people on the streets of LA, roll down his window and holler 'hey creep wanna be in a movie? theres some really purrtey girls in it'. Rarely seen in its 86 minute entirety, cut versions bearing titles like Scream Street and Girls in the Street often lose quite a deal of footage with the fanny freak or the bored housewives club scenarios being the first to be snipped or lost. A Scream in the Streets waves its Hollywood Boulevard sleaze flag high, capturing a place at its most extreme and lawless which makes its on the street shootouts and grubby massage parlours all too believable. The weeklong madness ends in its final sucker punch. The transvestite works over another girl then kills Haskell in the confusion. Finally he gets his comeuppance when he learns that men in dresses should not call an armed cop a 'schmuck'. The ironic fade out brings full circle the films cycle of violent men who can't control themselves, but what really sticks in your mind is that Scream's violent events are probably all ready to be played out again the following week.

Fun piece of prime 70's exploitation sleaze

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 20 April 2021]

Jaded veteran detective Ed Haskell (a solid performance by Joshua Bryant) and his eager new partner Bob Streeker (likeable Frank Bannon) go after a crazed transvestite psycho rapist (a hilariously unconvincing portrayal by Con Covert) who's been terrorizing Los Angeles. The pair also deal with other assorted criminal riffraff.

Director Carl Monson relates the enjoyably sordid story at a constant pace, maintains an appropriately in-your-face raw'n'scuzzy tone throughout, and delivers more than enough tasty bare female skin and scorching semi-hardcore sex to satisfy grindhouse cinema fans. Moreover, we also get lots of hysterically profane dialogue along with a pretty good and exciting car chase. Vibrant redhead vixen Sharon Kelly lends delightful support as sassy police dispatcher Jenny while soft-core regulars Sandy Carey, Sandy Dempsey, and Angela Carnon supply extra sizzle. The funky-throbbing score hits the get-down groovy spot. A total trashy blast.

A real turkey

[ralfbeckers · 12 June 2001]

OK, this was a bit of a disappointment. I purchased the German version of this movie from eBay which appears to be an ancient rental copy. The cover is really nice, it pictures a man with an axe dismembering a screaming woman. The German title literally is The Slaughterer and has the following catch lines on the cover: Chopped alive, he hates all women, his only love is his axe.

Unfortunately, the movie is quite different than what the advertising on the VHS cover suggests. Its 80 minutes long (PAL version) and not even ten minutes are devoted to the killer and his work. The lion share of celluloid is used for a number of rather steamy sex scenes, you get to see some genital parts indeed. The rest is second unit shots of the two cops driving their car doing their job.

The only thing that makes the movie worth watching 8and that is only the first 40 minutes of it) is a long scene in a brothel where an old pervert is doing his thing on a masseuse. The dialog is really fun.

The two or three scenes with the killer an his victims are mediocre at best. You don't get to see any stabbing, just the results.

This movie is real turkey and can only be beared when intoxicated. This film should NOT be viewed by minors.

Disjointed crime drama

[Serpent-5 · 31 March 2000]

There is a cross-dressing rapist/murder on the loose and two plain clothed cops are on the case, but they are too busy battling peeping tom, foodmart robber, and having personal problems in this run-of-the-mill action film. One actress looks like Colleen Brennen. The video print is the edited down version, but still has most of the stuff intact. Could've been a good cop film, but the paper thin script made it impossible to like. Suprisingly has a decent car chase for a low-budget film. Not recommended.