Rant #2,264: Goin' Down

How was your pre-Thanksgiving-Holiday weekend?

Mine was sort of OK, but my bad streak continued late last week.

I fell at work. Yes, I actually plopped on the ground.

It was strange, to say the least.

I opened up my drink, and it exploded a little bit, onto the ground and evidently onto my footwear, which at the time, I did not realize.

I know it went on the floor, so I was getting up to go to the kitchen and get some paper towels to wipe up the mess.

I walked out of my room, proceeded to turn the corner, lost my footing, and plop! down I went.

I fell right on my knees, where there is no meat, so I did feel it on Friday and into the weekend.

My right knee got a little of it, it hurt for about a day and then the pain pretty much went away.

My left knee evidently bore the brunt of the fall, and it hurt badly through Saturday at least.

It has calmed down now; I still feel a little pulling, but otherwise, it isn't that terrible today.

So I kind of bit a bullet, because you never know, I could have fallen like my father did several weeks back and have something much worse to deal with.

Yes, that black cloud remains over me, and it does not look like it is leaving any time soon.

And as I said, I have told you a little about this cloud, but honestly, you don't know the half of it, and probably never will.

Anyway, we had a busy weekend, but when we finally could sit down and just simply relax, I chose to do it with watching another one of these out-of-left-field films that I manage to find on YouTube, and I found another one this weekend.

This one is from 1968--although the black and white film looks like it was shot about two or three years earlier--and it is called "Jennie: Wife/Child," a title which pretty much explains what the movie is about.

The film--directed by Robert Carl Cohen and written by James Landis--is another swamp saga that was popular during this period, taking place in the hot south, so it gives the production reason for the men and women to wear skimpy costumes and sweat a lot.

In this particular film, that part of the sleaze factor pretty much stops there, as there is lots of innuendo, but very little is shown.

But let's get to the sleaze factor that is shown, right in the basic premise of the story.

Jennie Peckinpaw--who looks like a skinnier Nancy Sinatra and is played by Beverly Lunsford--is in a rotten marriage to a man--Albert Peckinpaw, played by Jack Lester--who is at least three times her age. It is alluded to that Albert married Jennie to get her out of a bad situation, so she pretty much has gone from bad to worse in this marriage.

Albert owns a farm, with just one farmhand (this is a low budget production)--Mario Dingle, played by Jim Reader--who happens to be dim-witted hunk who laughs out loud at comic books, but also loves women and smoking and drinking, so if Jennie is a wife/child, then Mario is a child/man, if you get my drift.

Anyway, to get out of her marriage, or at least fantasize about it, Jennie falls for the hunky Mario, and they finally have a dalliance amid Mario's protests. Of course, he also has town floozie Lulu Belle, played by Virginia Wood, on the side. We know that Lulu is the town floozie because she dances around, drinks and her breasts are bigger than Jennie's are.

Anyway, Jenny finally convinces Mario to run away with her, but they cannot find the money that Albert has stashed away, which Jennie hopes Mario will use to buy her pretty dresses. Albert catches wind of the plot to steal his money and his wife--in that order--and he shackles Jennie and Mario up inside one of his barns.

They escape, and just when you think that Albert is going to shoot the two supposed lovers, the film takes a decided detour.

Yes, it does appear that Albert does divorce his young wife, and that she hooks up with Mario.

But the two men are so involved with Lulu Belle--watching her dance and drink at the bar, with her breasts bouncing up and down like a dribbling basketball--that Jennie is still left to fend for herself, and is not getting the attention from Mario that she had longed for.

Will Jennie ever find happiness?

No, there was no sequel to this film, so we will never know.

Actually, this film is done pretty well for its storyline and its low budget, and it just pushes the envelope a little bit, leaving me to believe, again, that the film was made a few years before it was released.

For rock and roll buffs, Davie Allan and the Arrows make an appearance as the bar band, and the music soundtrack isn't too bad.

All in all, the film engaged me for its less than 90 minute running time, and it might do the same to you if you give it a chance.

It can be found at https://youtu.be/ygMtoaouhLA

So that was my wonderful weekend in a nutshell.

How was your Saturday and Sunday?

Poor Jennie, and poor me.

We are goin' down, but at least I know that I will be getting up sometime soon.

But when? I have no idea, no idea at all.