Headless Body in a Topless Bar

• Director: James Bruce
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Crime
• Movie Type: Black Comedy, Crime Comedy
• Themes: Hostage Situations
• Release Year: 1995
• Country: US
• Run Time: 101 minutes

Plot

The lurid title of this black comedy comes from a New York Post headline for the story on which this film is based. It begins in a seedy bar late at night where a small crowd of customers disinterestedly eye the listless gyrations of Candy, a topless dancer. Among the customers are a corporate lawyer, two obnoxious young men, and a wheelchair-bound man. Suddenly a gunman, an ex-con, enters to rob the joint. The bartender resists and is immediately shot in the head. The gunman, alternately charming and totally insane, holds the rest hostage making them do his bidding as he tries to decide whether or not to kill them. The story is shot in real-time, and the minutes tick agonizingly by. At one point he makes them all dance, and at another forces them to play "Truth or Dare" in which they must reveal their dirtiest little secrets. The situation really intensifies when fellow dancer and lover of Candy, Letitia, comes in, and the gunman decides he must extract the damning bullet from the bartender's head. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Cast

Raymond J. Barry - Man; Rustam Branaman - Vic; Taylor Nichols - Creamface; David Selby - Lumkin; Biff Yeager - Joe; April Grace - Letitia; Jennifer MacDonald - Candy; Paul Williams - Carl

Credit

Joseph Middleton - Casting, Peter Koper - Co-producer, Natasha Landau - Costume Designer, James Bruce - Director, Robert Barrere - Editor, Charles P. Barnett - Composer (Music Score), Eric Enroth - Musical Direction/Supervision, Kevin Morrisey - Cinematographer, Rustam Branaman - Producer, Tom Breznahan - Producer, Steve Falick - Producer, Charles Weinberger - Producer, Boyd Willat - Producer, Peter Koper - Screenwriter