Petey Wheatstraw

Rudy Ray Moore as Petey Wheatstraw! The watermelon birth scene! The theme song! The outfit changes! The rhyming! The kung fu! Calling the devil himself! The funeral shoot out! but also: Scenes that go on for EVER That weird band playing only five notes on repeat for at least ten minutes This movie should be crazy fun but honestly it dragged a lot in the middle. Still worth checking out, though!

The special spin doesn't feel that special but sure they are laugh out loud moments like the birth sequence

Rudy Ray Moore stars in this odd comedy that is never very funny.

This is classic like. Coke

Moore's third film makes the mistake of playing for intentional laughs rather than the unintentional ones that make the rest of his movies so compelling. Some movies are so bad they're great and some are so bad they're unwatchable. This is of the latter variety and makes the Wayan's brothers look like comic geniuses. I do recommend checking out Moore's brilliant opening monologue which features classic lines like "I'm gonna take the Fourth of July 'n put it in June". Don't attempt to view any further though. I'm glad this wasn't the first of Moore's films I watched or I wouldn't have bothered with the others.

I've admitted many times my love for 70s blaxploitation films, often giving them pretty high marks, being very forgiving, and that sort of thing. However, with this one, I think I'm not as with the groove as I once was. Oh sure, I liked this, and it is watchable. but it's rather boring actually, and it amazed me to think how lenient I've been with these movies. Hmm. Maybe this one really does suck, or perhaps I've finally matured and am starting to see these movies for the the crap they are instead of insisting that they're unfairly maligned for one reason or another. Or maybe I'm just more of a fan of Dolemite, even though it's just as cheap, shoddy, and laughably terrible as this. Maybe it's because that one's so absurd is why I enjoy it. This one's absurd too, but it feels more forcably over the top, campy, and silly. However, exploding watermelon jokes will always be funny. Also, the opening irthing scene is admittedly so stupid it's brilliant. There is a plot here, and it is the old deal with the devil routine, and what the heck, it works I guess. I think I had a hard time with this one though mostly because I'm not a fan of the overtly slapsticky stuff (unless it's self aware parody like Black Dynamite). Maybe this is one of the first blaxploitation parodies? It could be, but I doubt it. Let's just end on a rather kind note and call Rudy Ray Moore the black Ed Wood (even though Moore didn't direct this or Dolemite, or his other films that I'm aware of), and call this one of his lesser works.

Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil's Son-In-Law might possibly be the least of the Rudy Ray Moore movies, but that certainly doesn't mean that it's altogether terrible. There are some great laugh out loud moments during the first half of the movie but the second half tends to get boring and yawn-inducing until the end. Even as blaxploitation movies go it's pretty much run-of-the-mill and not much sticks out to really talk about. Of course, watching Rudy Ray Moore being drawn from one end of a club to the other by a magic cane is hilarious itself. The scene with the wino was also a particular stand-out, but those are the only things that I remember laughing at the hardest. Rudy Ray Moore is hilarious anyways, so there's not much point in talking about that. If you like his other movies then I'd say see it, but don't expect the heights of hilarity that some of his other movies have. It can be fun, but in an inconsistent and meandering way.

REAL SILLY BUT GOOD TO ENJOY

SO wrong.... so, so, so.... wrong. :D

Petey Wheatstraw is a comedian who makes a deal with the devil in order to seek revenge on the thugs who killed him. The deal is, he has to marry the devil's hideously ugly daughter. However, Petey tries to double-cross the devil to get out of it. :) For those who haven't seen a Rudy Ray Moore film, basically, it's a combination of really Bad Kung-fu, and raunchy comedy. This film does not deviate at all from that formula. There are a few hilarious moments, a few funny moments, and a fair amount of boredom. The movie is just too long to entertain you throughout, and it leaves you looking at the clock waiting for it to end. Not horrible, but not something you'll be anxious to watch again.