Movie Ad of the Week: THE LADY IN RED (1979) and so on

A New World Pictures release from the same creative team that would make ALLIGATOR the following year (screenwriter John Sayles and director Lewis Teague), THE LADY IN RED tells the story of bank robber John Dillinger's final girlfriend, Polly Franklin, starring Pamela Sue Martin as Franklin, Robert Conrad as Dillinger, Louise Fletcher as Anna Sage (a.k.a. The Lady in Red), and Alan Vint as Melvin Purvis. The ad above is from its Tucson, AZ opening on August 10th, 1979.

The film was not a success, so Roger Corman tried a different poster design and changed the title to GUNS, SIN, AND BATHTUB GIN (The original tag line had been "She's made of bullets, sin & bathtub gin"). Tallahassee, Florida got it as such on February 29th, 1980.

For some reason, when the film played Chicago -- where Dillinger was set up by Sage and killed outside the Biograph Theater on July 22nd, 1934 -- New World changed the title to TOUCH ME AND DIE and erased all references to Dillinger and the period setting. Even worse, the film was relegated to second feature status under ESCAPE FROM DEATH ROW (a shady re-release of MEAN FRANK AND CRAZY TONY) during its week-long run beginning on July 24th, 1981.