Johnny Cash is the criminal holding a banker's wife to ransom in this extraordinarily low-budget 1961 B-flick. Originally christened Door-To-Door Maniac, Cash is only too convincing as its eponymous gun-waving psycho, a-leerin' and a-sneerin' and even a-singin' the title tune. Look out, too, for an absurdly young Ron Happy Days Howard as the irksome brat who saves the day.
Yes, on tuesday, June 13, 1978, voodoo rockabilly avatars The Cramps (in their greatest line-up, Lux Interior and Poison Ivy backed by Nick Knox and Byron Gregory) rolled into the recreation room of California's Napa State Mental Hospital, to play for the residents. Don't ask how this was ever allowed.
Back with a vengeance, the second of Tarantino's Uma-in-yellow action epics gives good dialogue—excerpts included here. The music's deliberately eclectic, built around a spine of appropriated Morricone. Johnny Cash rumbles through "Satisfied Mind", Charlie Feathers chirrups old-time rock'n'roll, and there's a hidden track from Wu-Tang Clan, "Black Mamba". Malcolm McLaren—presumably Quentin admires his media scams—gives us the sultry samples of "About Her".
