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Released by: MGM Limited Edition Collection
Released on: September 22, 2011
Director: Chris Christenberry
Cast: Angel Tompkins, Billy Curtis, Jerry Maren, Frank Delfino, Emory Souza, Felix Silla
Year: 1973
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The Movie:
Directed by Chris Christenberry, AIP's 1973 production Little Cigars begins when Cleo (hottie Playboy model Angel Tompkins) the foxy girlfriend of a mob boss has enough of his attitude and splits - but her ex is none too happy about this and so he sends a pair of goons after her. She's no fool, however, and she plays it cool and lays low in a small town for a while working as a waitress. Things change for her one day when a pair of midgets come into the diner and invite her to their show on the other side of town that night. A few hours later, she obliges and can't help but notice that while some of the midgets are on stage, a couple more are stealing things out of their audiences' cars.
She calls them on this, much to the dismay of their leader, Slick (Billy Curtis of The Wizard Of Oz!), who accuses her of whoring it up with the little people. Eventually cooler heads prevail and Billy and Cleo start to take a liking to one another. Soon enough, she's accompanying them around from state to state and working on various con jobs with them - amazingly the cops take their sweet ass time figuring out that the midgets are behind all of this, you'd think they would stand out more than they do.
Fairly plot-less, Little Cigars coasts by almost entirely on novelty casting. While it's nice to see the lovely Sharon Kelly show up as a showgirl in one scene (read our interview with her here!), it's fun to see WKRP In Cincinnati star Frank Bonner pop up and it's cool to see Michael Pataki here, this picture's strengths lie in the scenes where midgets are either fighting regular sized people or fighting one another. There's enough of that crammed in here for the movie to work, and the scenes of sexual tension between Cleo and Slick are weird enough to help things a bit, but you get the impression that this could and should have dealt in stronger stuff than it does. The violence here, and there is a bit, doesn't have much impact despite a surprisingly bloody scene involving some minor but impressive squib work, and if the filmmakers had pushed the envelope just a little bit more than they do here (there's no nudity despite the racy animated intro sequence and the violence is fairly tame) the film probably would have been a bigger hit at the drive-in's that it likely played at than it turned out to be.
Angel Tompkins is decent as the female lead here. She's got a bit of a scowl to her that makes her a good casting choice for a tough chick. It's puzzling as to what she'd see in Slick and rather impossible to take their 'romance' seriously as he's actually a bit of a jerk to her for the most part and probably at least thrice her age on top of that, but she treats the material seriously enough. Curtis, likewise, is good in his part and check out the instantly recognizable Felix Silla as one of his fellow midget mobsters in a cool supporting part.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Little Cigars looks okay in 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio even if the image does show minor print damage on a pretty regular basis. There's plenty of minor grain evident throughout and some minor color fading here and there in addition to specks those small bits of print damage but none of it is really all that big of a deal - it just furthers the movie's seventies look and feel. Detail isn't bad and there are no problems with compression artifacts, edge enhancement or aliasing to complain about. Colors look just a little bit faded but fare well enough. The image is nothing to write home about, but it's certainly perfectly watchable.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono audio track on the disc is well balanced and features clean, clear dialogue. The score also sounds quite good, as do the various sound effects used throughout the movie. Some hiss is present as is the occasional pop, but it's nothing too serious.
There are no extras outside of a static menu.
The Final Word:
What should have been an instant cult classic instead turns out to be a fairly tepid exercise in midgetspoiltation. All the elements were definitely there, but the film plays it safe with a PG rating and is none the better for it. With that said, it's still entertaining enough and the film itself worth tracking down for fans of cinematic curios such as this - just be forewarned, it's not as outrageous as it would have you believe.
That's exactly how I felt watching it. It could have, and should have, been so much more. Sharon Kelly looks so nice in that screen cap. And I forgot about the animated opening credits, which I actually liked. I was hoping the lady cigar was to be Miss Kelly, but nope.