THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT (1961)

Ted has just graduated from night school; to celebrate, his hot-to-trot girlfriend Terry (who looks like a femme fatale in training) is waiting in her car for him. The two roar off, making out while driving, and get in a car crash. When Ted comes to, he sees the driver of the other car, apparently dead, hanging out of his window. Not able to deal with the situation, he has a mental break of some sort, wanders off in a daze, and develops amnesia. The first person he runs across is Noah, an itinerant preacher who takes him under his wing. Soon, Ted (calling himself Tad) has become a faith healer. Over time, he makes a name for himself and is on a crusade to raise money for a children's hospital, with Noah as his assistant. Meanwhile, Terry has become an alcoholic slattern; it turns out that the other driver in the accident didn't die, but Terry was charged with drunk driving and her life spiraled downward. Now she lives in squalor with an alcoholic sleazebag named Pete. After reading about Tad's crusade, she realizes that he is actually Ted, and vows to get revenge. When she confronts Tad/Ted, he eventually remembers his past; when he mentions being responsible the other driver's death, Terry immediately decides to blackmail him—even though she knows the driver didn't die. She gets some money from Tad, but when she and Pete blow it all on clothes and booze, she decides on a more permanent situation: she'll force Ted to marry her so she'll always have access to money.

Now things get really sleazy: Ted starts burning with lust for Terry and they shack up together while he’s supposedly on "vacation." One night, she gets him so drunk that he passes out—she then calls a shady justice of the peace (at midnight, mind you) and has him perform a marriage ceremony while she holds the mostly unconscious groom up. (In the funniest moment in the movie, the oblivious justice asks if he can be the first to kiss the bride.) After leaving Ted on the couch, Terry has sex with Pete in the bedroom ("It’s your weddin’ night, ain’t it?" he growls). The further crimes and degradations shouldn't be spoiled, but suffice to say that the Lord seems to take a hand in the climax.

The title is odd; the seventh commandment is the one against adultery, but that would seem to be the least of the sins that go on here. But, no matter, this is a fun grade-Z crime movie posing as a religious story, or vice versa. Tad's healing powers are presented as real—or at least, we don't see the fakery if it exists—and he exhorts his congregation to give, not with the clinking of coins, but "the rustle of green leaves"; all his followers pull out their dollar bills and shake them in the air. The low-budget movie feels appropriately shabby and grimy and Terry and Pete come off as awful people. Pete is physically abusive, at one point saying to Terry, "I don’t like to beat you up, but sometimes I gotta!" Terry's way of consoling Ted when she leaves their room is to say, "If you get lonesome for me, you can pray to pass the time." The DVD is being marketed as film noir, and it does have some noir conventions, primarily the conflicted hero, but it's more an exploitation melodrama. I feel shallow saying this, but I wish at least one of the two male leads was attractive—both Ted and Pete are drab, unattractive men, even as Terry is quite a looker, albeit in a cheap noir way. Interesting flick, with a wild ending. Above left are pictured Lyn Stratten as Terry and Jonathan Kidd as Ted. [DVD]