SLASHED DREAMS aka SUNBURST (1975)

After Satan's Mistress, I wanted to watch other films of James Polakof. 

This one had Rudy Vallee who was only in his 70's at the time. He appears briefly as a shopkeep who warns the couple not to go in the woods. He thoughtfully hands them a knife to defend themselves but then wants $15 for it ($75 in today's money). Back then, you could probably buy a pretty good gun for that.

Vallee was a huge star at one time. My father didn't like him because he asked him for an autograph when he was eight and Vallee ignored him. 

Vallee was a crooner. Crooning is where you sing in an evenly modulated voice, with no feeling or emotion. But you couldn't really do it without a microphone, so it was a new thing in the 1920's. Before that, singers had to bellow out their songs to be heard over the band. Crooning created a false sense of intimacy with the audience.

Vallee croons for his customers who smile and applaud enthusiastically as if they had any clue who he was. He was apparently playing himself since he tells them he was the first major star on radio.

The couple ignores Vallee's sensible advice and goes into the woods. A couple of mountain men menace them while they're swimming naked. Later, the men come back and rape the poor girl and knock out her boyfriend. The next day, they're comforted by Robert Englund, their hippie pacifist friend who now lives in the woods.

They enjoy limited vengeance.

The movie is available on more than one streaming channel. I watched it on Pub-D-Hub. You can probably fast forward to the halfway mark and not miss anything. (Well. You'd miss Rudy Vallee.)

They drive a Volkwagen Thing, Volkswagen's updated version of their Nazi Kübelwagen.