kgraovac
This 1979-TV movie dealing with a string of hooker murders in seedy Hollywood is like 1984's "Angel" without the sex, violence, and profanity. It also lacks the colorful characters that made "Angel" such a trash classic.While "The Eleventh Victim" a.k.a "The Lakeside Killer" is not a superior film by any means, anyone who's a fan of Bess Armstrong or Max Gail won't be disappointed.Bess plays a local news anchorwoman in Iowa, who finds out on-air that her little sister is the latest victim of a serial killer offing prostitutes in Hollywood.She flies to Tinseltown to uncover the reason for her sister's death, and is aided by vice cop Max Gail (and to a lesser degree, Gail's partner, Harold Gould), and eventually the teenage prostitute who was best friends with the dead sister.The made-for-TV restrictions prevent this movie from being as gritty as it could have been and the ambiguous ending leaves the viewer feeling a little cheated.It does however, have a few good points in that it features former Animals' lead singer Eric Burdon as a telephone pimp; it boasts an oh-so-70s funky "Bad Girls"-type disco soundtrack, great location shots of the seedy Hollywood Boulevard circa 1979 and a couple of notable, suspenseful scenes.There's a great scene where Bess tries to infiltrate the call-girl operation by passing herself off as a "working girl" but the woman interviewing her becomes increasingly suspicious.Also noteworthy is when Bess gets tarted up to meet porn star "Red Brady" at a nightclub. Check out those stilettos, hot pants and halter top! The cops eventually use Bess as bait to trap the killer but like I said, it just leads to a very unsatisfying ending.The violence and sex are basically non-existent. You've seen more on a random episode of "Charlie's Angels".Despite the flaws in the script, the acting is decent and if you are a fan of Max Gail or Bess Armstrong, or kitschy TV-movies from the disco era, check this out.
