Our tale of southern, deep-fat fried vengeance begins with the gang at the Starlight Lounge as they prepare to open for the evening. While Ron Lewis (Joe Don Baker), the owner of the establishment, goes over the books, his girlfriend and headliner, Susan (Conny Van Dyke), warbles a new tune from the stage. Lewis, a gambler by trade, receives a phone call saying there’s a big poker game on -- and some "turkeys from New York" are coming in, so the pickings will be easy. Susan doesn’t want him to go; but he's a gambler, and this is what gamblers do.

A few days later, when Lewis returns to the club, he puts up a false front that he crapped out but he really cleaned house; the satchel he carries is stuffed full of cash. And that’s only the half of it. He’s bought stock in a new Las Vegas casino and his new partners want him to move out there to run things.

Later that night, while driving home on Talbot Road, Lewis comes upon two cars blocking the way: a Chevy and a Plymouth (and believe me, this is relevant). He gets out to investigate, only to be shot at. The unknown assailant roars off in the Chevy. Only wanting to mind his own business, Lewis decides to just head on home; but one of the shots hit his tire, so he has to put on the spare. (Way to be a concerned citizen, there, Joe Don. What would Buford Pusser think?) One spare tire later, Lewis makes it home without further incident. But he’s barely out of the car before a Sheriff’s Deputy approaches, who then places Lewis under arrest, and demands to know exactly what he saw out on Talbot Road. Lewis wants to know what’s going on. (So do we.) The Deputy answers, telling him he’s "going to the morgue."

Knowing he's in deep doo-doo, Lewis resists. A massive struggle ensues and his garage is destroyed during the fight. Both combatants are severely bloodied but Lewis manages to kill his attacker by poking his thumb through the Deputy’s right eye. More cops and paramedics arrive on scene and Lewis is hauled off to the hospital. Sheriff Morello (Warren Kimmerling) takes possession of Lewis’ gambling money, and he and Chief Deputy Bundy (John Larch) head outside. The Sheriff claims that the money is a result of gambling -- and since gambling is illegal, the money doesn’t exist. He then deposits the satchel in his trunk and both men exchange evil smirks. (This is our first real hint that dirty work is afoot.)

Lewis awakens in the hospital with Susan by his side. Ney (Josh Bryant), his lawyer, is also there, and it doesn’t look too good for Lewis. No one can verify his story about the shootings on Talbot Road. More damning is the Sheriff’s dispatch log where the dead Deputy called in a reckless driver matching Lewis’s description before their lethal wrestling match. Ney thinks they can strike a deal with D.A. but Lewis swears he’s innocent. He tells Susan to hire some private investigators to do their own investigation. (There has to be footprints and shell casings right?) But little do they know, the room is bugged and Morello is listening in. And when Susan returns home, she finds Morello’s goons waiting for her. They threaten to kill her if she tries to help Lewis. (They also "use" her. If you know what we mean and we think you do. Ugh.)

Later, at the hospital, Ney reports that his investigators turned up nothing. When Lewis asks if the P.I.s found anything, the lawyer is confused. No P.I.s were hired, and Susan hasn’t been heard from for days. Angered by Susan’s assumed betrayal, Lewis asks Ney to look into it. Ney says he will, then leaves. Outside in the hallway, Morello and Bundy are waiting for him and they all exchange more evil smirks. (Jeezus, the lawyer’s in on this too!)

As a gambler, Lewis knows "when he’s up against a stacked deck" and decides to take the deal. After copping the plea, he heads off to jail for a crime that was legally self-defense. Branded a cop-killer, the guards aren’t real friendly. They give him his prison uniform and then force him to strip and shower. (Off screen. Thank you lord.) One guard accosts him in the shower but Lewis gets the better of him. The guard gets his revenge, though, as they tear gas, mace and beat the crap out of the hapless prisoner.

Luckily, for his health, Lewis has drawn the attention of Sal Vicarronne (John Marley). Serving time for a petty bribery charge, Sal is a "made man" and owns most of the guards. He sends Vince (Gabriel Dell) to invite Lewis to join his prison bookmaking and gambling operation. (Sal claims he has enough money to buy the prison and sell it back to the state.) Lewis accepts and more time passes. Susan tries to visit, but he thinks she ran out on him just when he needed her most; so he refuses to see her.

One day, while taking bets, Lewis spies an assassination attempt on Sal and takes a shiv in the back for the mobster. It’s a debt that Sal won’t soon forget. More time passes and Vince is released. (He’s served his time.) Lewis gets into it with the guards again and is put in solitary confinement. There he meets a new friend, a cockroach, and he feeds the bug and asks it for advice. (And the scary thing is, he listened to it.) Eventually, he’s released back into general population and three more years pass. Now Sal’s sentence is up, but before going, he tells Lewis that he’s fixed his parole hearing -- so Lewis, too, will soon be out of jail. The old mobster gives Lewis his number and says if he ever needs any help to call him. Lewis is thankful; but warns that the game he’s about to play, Sal doesn’t want any part of.

Lewis does get out and takes the bus home. Susan is waiting for him but he ignores her. Deputy Sam Perry (Brock Peter) is also there to greet him, and reminds Lewis that as a parolee, he has to register with the local authorities. Lewis promises he will. He also has a change of heart and gets together with Susan. When he asks why she abandoned him, she tells him about the goons -- and what they did to her. (This only fuels his fire for vengeance.) She also says a lot of things have changed during his four years in prison. Morello is now the Mayor, Bundy is the Sheriff, and Ney is the District Attorney. This shift in power is too big of a coincidence for Lewis, so he knows they’re all in cahoots. Swearing that he’ll get all of them, Susan wants him to just let it go; but Lewis is obsessed with making them all pay.

Later, at the club, Perry tracks Lewis down. Perry is one of the good guys and doesn’t like what Morello has done. (He thinks they can do each other some good.) He tells Lewis that the night of the incident on Talbot Road, there was no record of a reckless driver in the dispatch log. Two days later, however, one mysteriously appeared. And it gets better: one of the cars he described belonged to the son of Senator Tatum, and it has disappeared without a trace. Lewis asks Perry to check on the other car and they split up. Lewis returns home but he isn’t alone as a shadowy figure points a gun at him. Luckily, it’s just Vince. Turns out Vince is a "mechanic", and he's been hired by a certain party to kill Lewis. But since they’re old friends, he wanted to warn him first. Calling in his favor to Vicarronne, Vince no longer has to kill him. But the old mobster warns that there are other hitmen converging on him. Lewis asks if he has any information on Senator Tatum. Sal says he’ll look into it and Vince decides to stick around and help.

Lewis heads over to Susan’s place where he finds Perry, already there, and two of those hitmen Sal was talking about. They manage to take the killers out and find Susan tied up inside. They release her and decide to treat it as a burglary. (Since it’s obvious who sent the hitmen and they don't want to tip their hand.)

Things really start to fall into place when Perry tells Lewis that a known drug dealer used to drive a Plymouth like he saw. And both the dealer and the car disappeared about the same time Lewis killed the cop. Later, Sal calls back and says Tatum’s only son died of a drug overdose two days before the same incident. So all the puzzle pieces finally fit. Vince leaves to check on Morello’s fortress while Lewis heads to talk to Senator Tatum. He’s hijacked along the way by the same men who attacked and raped Susan waaaay back at the beginning of the film. Using a moving train as speed bump, Lewis manages to escape leaving the others spread out all over the rails. (Of course they bragged about what they did to his woman right before they get smeared.)

With things rapidly falling apart, Morello puts out the order to shoot Lewis on site. Outside his perimeter fence, Vince carefully cases the joint, taking special notice of the patrolling Dobermans. Meanwhile, Lewis abducts Tatum (Walter Brooke) right off the Capitol steps and takes him to a secluded spot where he beats a confession out of him. It was Tatum who shot at him that night on Talbot Road. The Senator drove his son’s car to meet the drug dealer who Tatum felt was responsible for his son’s death, and shot him (and then Lewis just happened upon the wrong place at the wrong time.) In a panic, he called Morello and gave him Lewis’s description. Morello promised to take care of everything in return of some favors from the Senator.

Still needing proof of all the corruption, Lewis and Vince prepare to assault Morello’s home to get it. Susan pleads with them not to go but Lewis says he has to finish it. He had everything he ever wanted, and they took it all away. As they leave, she warns that she might not be here when they get back.

Lewis and Vince break into the estate grounds and kill one of the guard dogs. Finding Ney and Morello inside, they convince Morello, at gunpoint, to open his safe. In it, they find his records of payoffs and a large sum of cash. One of Morello’s guards stumbles in and mayhem ensues. Vince and the guard manage to shoot each other dead. Lewis knocks Morello through a big window, and when he lands outside, the other guard dog savages him to death. Ney wants to strike another deal, but Lewis just pistol-whips the lawyer. A lot. He then gathers up the documents and the money, and then leaves.

And can I ask just one stupid thing? Why do these corrupt officials always keep records that can incriminate them? Didn’t Watergate teach us anything? You’re supposed to destroy all the evidence and then deny everything.

After they hide the money.

Baker basically played the same character in each film. He’s always a jerk -- and a cranky one at that. They all wear the same crappy leisure suits. Each one had a tendency to get beat up, a lot, and they all had women who would have absolutely nothing to do with him in real life. (Although I really don’t have any room to talk on this subject.)

The plots are also the same. In each film his character is wronged in some way. Then he swears bloody revenge. Then he gets beat up a few more times. (Or did I mention that already.) Then there’s a really bad car chase. And then things wrap up real fast and neat after Joe Don kills everybody.

Don’t get me wrong, now, I don’t hate Joe Don Baker. In fact, I’ve kinda got a soft spot for the guy. It’s just that if you’ve seen one of his films, you’ve seen them all. (Speed Trap, Mitchell, Final Justice etc.)

Framed is no different. (Only this time, he does take a shower.) Here, Baker teams back up with director Phil Karlson and the writing and producing tandem of Mort and Joel Briskin. Two years prior they all collaborated on the ultimate southern-fried vengeance drama, Walking Tall. Their second film sets up a decent mystery but then it seems complacent to just idle along until some pertinent information shows up at the beginning of the last reel. (I hate it when that happens.) Lewis wants to find out who set him up, and is hell bent on revenge, but then does nothing, really, as all the info finds it’s way to him.

I've only seen the edited for TV version of Framed and I feel I'm missing a few scenes. I've only seen the MST3k version of Mitchell and I know I've missed something there. There's a picture of a dune buggy chase emblazoned on the poster of the film tacked up on my wall that explains John Saxon's mysterious disappearance in that film.

If, however, you like that kind of thing, then feel free to check it out.

Posted: 01/20/01. Copy and paste at your own legal risk.

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