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WHAT ALICE FOUND Send This Review to a Friend
A strange little movie, director-writer A. Dean Bell's "What Alice Found" deals with the adventures of a young woman on the run who falls in with a couple who offer to take her along in their trailer but have something in mind that she doesn't expect. They are running a whorehouse on wheels with the wife taking on men at stops along the way. The young hitchhiker can be useful as an added attraction and the atmosphere grows ominous.
On the plus side Judith Ivey plays Sandra, the wife, and she makes the most of a character who is flamboyant but sad, forceful but defeated. Ivey is colorful in the part, to which she applies her considerable skills. Bill Raymond is Bill, her husband, a loser who goes along with the mode of operation and solicits men for Sandra, who doesn't have much respect for him--or for men in general.
Emily Grace, in a feature debut, plays Alice, who has been in trouble and is trying to get to Florida to join a girlfriend. She's in way over her head with this couple, and she allows herself to be manipulated into the prostitution that takes place en route before she gets the courage to break away. The trouble is that Grace doesn't show a lot of appeal as an actress in the film, and one tires of the performance. It is hard to worry about what will or won't happen to her. Alice is sort of intrigued by the prospect of having sex with men and trying to follow the rules of how to handle them as cynically explained by Sandra.
The film needs a much stronger actress as Alice. This is mainly Ivey's show, and apart from that, "What Alice Foiund" emerges as not much more than an oddity that seems to last longer than it should. A Highland Entertainment release.
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