Prime Cut

Nick Devlin, a hardened enforcer for the Chicago mob, is sent to collect a large debt from Mary Ann, a Kansas City slaughterhouse owner who has kept money that is not his. Mary Ann runs a criminal operation behind the meat business, and the man Chicago sent before Devlin was returned in a very different form. The assignment draws Devlin into a confrontation with Mary Ann and his associates, and into the lives of several young women caught up in the operation, among them Poppy, with whom he forms a connection. The film is an action crime drama set largely in rural Kansas.

Prime Cut was released in 1972 and runs 88 minutes. It was directed by Michael Ritchie, the third of the fifteen features he directed, following The Candidate the same year and preceding The Bad News Bears in 1976. Robert Dillon wrote the screenplay, and Joe Wizan produced for Cinema Center Films and Wizan Productions. Lee Marvin plays Nick Devlin, Gene Hackman plays Mary Ann, and the cast includes Angel Tompkins, Gregory Walcott, Sissy Spacek and Janit Baldwin, with 23 credited cast members and 48 credited crew.

The film took about 2 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.7 out of 10 from roughly 6,800 votes; on TMDB it has 6.5 out of 10 from around 138 votes.