The Endangered List (Case File #27)

DEAD END DOLLS (1972)

Not to be confused with THE DIRTY DOLLS, this obscurity was produced and directed by cinematographer William de Diego, who shot HITCHHIKE TO HELL, MALIBU HIGH, DON'T GO NEAR THE PARK and other low-budgeters. Leading lady Alice Raley is most likely the same Alice Raley who later was the assistant director and assistant editor of THE MOVIE HOUSE MASSACRE (1984). Marc Desmond is apparently not the same Marc Desmond who appeared in THE NAME OF THE GAME IS KILL and several Robert Wagner TV projects, but a different Marc Desmond who turned up in sexploitation movies like SEXCAPADE IN MEXICO (which was shot by William de Diego). Not sure if the Shirley Washington "introduced" here is the same Shirley Washington who was the first Miss Black America winner (1969) and co-starred in WONDER WOMEN, BAMBOO GODS AND IRON MEN, DARKTOWN STRUTTERS and other drive-in flicks during the '70s. DEAD END DOLLS was released by Producers Distributing Co. (PDC), a then-new exchange that covered the Des Moines, Omaha and Minneapolis territories and operated out of the Paramount Building in Des Moines. In the Kansas City and St. Louis territories DEAD END DOLLS was released by Mercury Film Company, usually on a double bill with DRAFT DODGER (a.k.a. OUTSIDE IN and RED, WHITE AND BUSTED), another PDC release.