1974 Christa Article

Click on this to read a surprisingly detailed article about Christa from nearly a year before the BROKE premiere. In fact, it sounds like this interview/audience was conducted after the shooting in Haiti but before Ron Walsh was brought in to finish the film in the US.The article not only namechecks Joe Namath (she got that a lot) but also Nicole, Gary and even Lennie. 

Broke in '73

Spotted this quintessential LET'S GO FOR BROKE image in THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR in August 0f 1973, a full 17 months before the film premiered in nearby Cincinnati and several months before it was even shot!

Lady J Trade Report-1975

From late July of 1975, 7 full months after LET'S GO FOR BROKE premiered in Cincinnati, came this trade mag report regarding the revised LADY J version of the film. The "above" mentioned were the other films in the previously posted Joseph Brenner and associates ad. So at this point, then, Brenner had not only clearly picked up the film for distribution but was apparently planning on it being their major release of the time period. What happened, then, that it remained unreleased and Duncan was still trying to sell it 2 years later after Christa's death? 

Note also the news that she had signed for a sequel. While it seems logical that Duncan would have kept an option on her for sequels if the initial release had gone well, why would she actually sign for a sequel to a movie that had not come out at all?

Always more questions.

Lady J in Variety

Here finally we have a larger version of that ad we ran some time back from VARIETY promoting the  re-edited version of LET'S GO FOR BROKE which was called LADY J. The ad makes it seem as though the film was in release but there remains no actual indication that it ever was shown to the public. The rest of the films here can be accounted for but not Christa's. This was nearly a year beyond the Cincinnati premiere of BROKE so presumably LADY J could also have incorporated the new scenes supposedly shot in Florida (not by director Walsh and without the participation of Chitra). Would have been interesting to see a rating here as Producer Stuart Duncan often said in interviews that BROKE was always intended to be PG and yet one can speculate that the new scenes might have been shot to make it an R for more exploitation release.

Christa With Michael Sarrazin

The 39th Anniversary

Today is the 39th anniversary of the unsolved murder of Christa Helm. Every year there are numerous reports of cold case crimes being solved so hope springs eternal. 

R.I.P. 

J. Herbert Kerr, Jr.

Ran across this 1973 article about J. Herbert Kerr, Jr's appearance in BROKE. In 1972, he had a breakout role in the controversial A PLACE CALLED TODAY in which he took the lead--a radical black presidential candidate. IMDB lists only one other film credit beyond Christa's movie and that was in '77. IBDB lists him back onstage in 1978 but then nothing beyond that. Does anyone know whatever became of Herb?