LET'S GO FOR BROKE - GONE FOR GOOD?
dir. Ron Walsh 1974

I love a lost movie. It's a dubious habit, but tell me a film is missing and I'll be more interested in it.

Massive chunks of cinema history from the last 100+ years have gone walkabout - misplaced movies, neglected, destroyed, or turned to dust. For every sought after Rogue Song or Convention City, an inestimable number of forgotten films have also vanished into thin air. Take for example...

Fellow blogger Booksteve regularly delves into Movies That Fell Through the Cracks, and over the last few weeks he's carried out an investigation into Let's Go For Broke, a long gone example of mid-70s femsploitation.

Produced by a US crew in Haiti during the glorious days of Grindhouse cinema, it headlined blonde bombshell Christa Helm as crusading reporter Jackie Broke - hot on the trail of international crime and random nastiness. It looks pretty similar to a whole slew of femaction movies, like Ginger, Stacey, and the classic Coffy - all dumb fun in their own exploitative way.

Helm, one-time Playboy Bunny, saw this as her ticket to the big time, but just three years (and a couple of minor roles) later Let's Go For Broke remained unreleased - and it's star brutally murdered in still unsolved circumstances. Her one and only lead role seems to have well and truly gone for good - it hasn't been seen since a 1974 premiere in Cincinnati, Ohio.


The trifling matter of it’s complete and utter disappearance hasn't stopped Booksteve rummaging around for more startling information, and you can get up to speed by reading the following reports: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

Will it ever turn up? Well, stranger things have happened, although it's surprising this didn't sneak out during the early 80s Video boom when virtually anything and everything spewed forth onto Rental Shelves. Chances are a print is awaiting discovery, albeit happily decaying in some corner of the world as you read this...