Zephina
Media and Metropolis Post have released a Blu-ray edition of 1974’s Buster and
Bille, a teenage romantic drama starring Jan-Michael Vincent, Joan Goodfellow,
Pamela Sue Martin and, in his first film role, Robert Englund.
The
story is set in Georgia during 1948, where Buster is the local school athletic
hero who is known for pulling pranks such driving his truck in front of the
school bus and temporarily blinding the driver in a cloud of dust.Cocky and handsome, Buster is the leader of a
group of cool kids and misfits that includes an albino, Whitey (Robert Englund)
who has the shocking habit of dying his hair black.He’s engaged to a pretty classmate named
Margie (Pamela Sue Martin) who has decided they should not have sex until their
wedding night.The rest of Buster’s pals
make a nasty habit of coaxing Billie (Joan Goodfellow), a shy backwoods girl,
into their truck for sex whenever they’re feeling hard up.Buster, frustrated with Margie, decides to
ask Billie out, hoping for the same action his buddies brag about on Monday
mornings.
After
spending an evening with Billie, Buster begins to see there is more to this
girl than just an easy date.Buster
feels empathy at first, and then begins to fall in love with Billie as she
starts to talk and express her feelings.Not sure about his relationship with Margie and their upcoming marriage,
Buster calls it quits, which shocks his friends, parents and most of the
population of their small town.
Buster
takes Billie to a dance where all their classmates can see that these two are
truly in love.This angers the group of
boys who have been abusing Billie and they soon plot to get even.An ugly scene of rape and shocking violence
follows after the boys force Billie into their truck on a dark, rainy
afternoon.Afterwards they drive off leaving
her by the side of the road.Buster
becomes aware of what has happened and races into town to confront the boys at
a local pool hall where he exacts a harsh revenge.
Jan-Michael
Vincent is believable as the high school boy who learns there is more to a
relationship than just sex.He sees the
good in both Billie and Whitey.It is
revealed early on that Whitey was the victim of cruel jokes concerning his
medical condition, but once he became friends with Buster, the taunting
suddenly stopped.
Much
was made at the time of release of the full-frontal nudity Vincent displays in
one scene.In reality, it occurs during
a swimming scene with Billie where we do get a shot of Buster in the
altogether.This all happens in a flash,
no pun intended.
Joan
Goodfellow is excellent as the withdrawn Billie, a victim of some unrevealed
ugliness within her family.She shines
once Buster begins to draw her out and gets her to communicate her feelings.Billie is clearly in love with Buster and
begins to develop a sense of self-worth under his protection.
Horror
fans will, of course, recognize Robert Englund as the future razor-wielding
Freddy Kruger from A Nightmare on Elm Street.As Whitey, Englund is convincing as the naïve boy who doesn’t know how
to act around girls.He participates in
the attack upon Billie even though he knows it is wrong, and becomes tormented
afterwards.
Director
Daniel Petrie gives his characters a natural feel and they are believable as
typical high school students.The
bullies are not horrible kids, they just react inappropriately to situations
that allow them to feel better about their own insecurities.They commit a terrible crime, however, when
those feelings become mixed with alcohol and revenge.
The
script by Rob Turbeville gives us characters from the South speaking with a
dialect typical of the region.However,
the students, parents, police and other residents are refreshingly not depicted
as the hicks we see in so many movies set in this geographical region.
Buster
and Billie is another of those “product of their time†movies in that many
viewers may find it uncomfortable to watch.I myself found myself cringing during the rape scene due to its sheet
brutality.While attacking Billie, one
of the boys keeps telling her “I love you.â€This poignanlty illustrates the disrespect and hatred towards women and
minorities present in the 1940s, when the story was set and which sadly remains
part of our society in some segments 80 years later.
Mario
Tosi’s cinematography is gorgeous, taking advantage of the fact that much of
this film takes place in the countryside and features the colors of fall.Al De Lory provides a light score that
doesn’t sound too stereotypically Southern.No banjos or slide guitars take over the movie at any time.Hoyt Axton performs the title song and twice
during the film we hear Arlo Guthrie singing Shackles and Chains on a radio in
the background.
According
to information provided by the distributor, Buster and Billie was only released
once on VHS and has been unavailable for years.It was reported that Columbia Pictures had somehow lost the master print
and the only available copies were the old consumer tapes that were sold by
secondary retailers.In 2019 Sony
Pictures finally did locate the master elements and a restoration was completed
the next year.
Apparently
Sony was not interested in releasing this new edition of Buster and Billie so
it fell to an independent company, Zephina Media, to do the honors.The result is a beautiful transfer in the
original 1.85 aspect ratio that is free from any pops, scratches or other
imperfections.The mono sound is clear
and the dialogue is very easy to hear.
This
film appears to have a considerable fan base as this Blu-ray is the result of
their many requests made to Sony.The
disc does not contain any extras and, in fact, has no menu page.Some collectors may be upset by this
omission, but my opinion has always been we should be happy someone finally
released Buster and Billie in a high quality format.