Prime Cut

Prime Cut is a 1972 American action thriller crime film produced by Joe Wizan, directed by Michael Ritchie from a screenplay written by Robert Dillon, and starring Lee Marvin as Nick Devlin, a mob enforcer from the Chicago Irish Mob sent to Kansas to collect a debt from a meatpacker boss played by Gene Hackman. The picture co-stars Sissy Spacek in her first credited on-screen role as Poppy, a young orphan being sold into prostitution as well as Angel Tompkins and Eddie Egan. The film was considered highly risqué for its time based on its violence and the hint of a homosexual relationship between two brothers. Its graphic depiction of female slavery includes a scene depicting naked young women (including Sissy Spacek and Janit Baldwin) in pens being auctioned like cattle. It is also noted for its depiction of the beef slaughtering process and for a chase scene involving a combine harvester in an open field.