Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor
Garrow, Lori Bailey’s 2019 movie about Adirondack 1970s murderer/rapist Robert Garrow, will be shown at the Glen Drive-In on Thursday, Sept. 10.
The 77-minute movie will be shown on its own rather than as a double feature, owner Brent Gardner tells The Chronicle.
It’s the story of Robert F. Garrow, including his troubled Adirondack upbringing in Mineville, his 1973 backwoods crime spree that terrorized the region, and the 1978 prison escape that triggered a second manhunt ending in his being shot to death.
Ms. Bailey said she based the movie on interviews with Garrow family members, court transcripts and other research — as well as her own family history. Her father grew up in Mineville — where she has also since settled — and he was a classmate of Garrow’s, Ms. Bailey told The Chronicle when her movie first came out.
In February 2019, the movie was shown at the Charles Wood Theater and sold out two screenings and was brought back for an additional weekend.
Garrow has also been screened at the Strand in Plattsburgh and The Egg in Albany, and drawn crowds from the Adirondack Park and in the Capital Region.
It reignited local memories shared by moviegoers in post-screening conversations with cast and crew.
“Hard to believe it’s still showing,” Ms. Bailey said Monday, when contacted by The Chronicle. She promises “a few surprises for the night.”
What’s she working on now? “We just wrapped production on the movie ASTEROID. I am the producer on that one.
“The Journey Home movie was half complete when Covid shut down production. We will complete that one when the snow returns.
“Currently on the slate is the story of Eva Coo,” who was executed by electric chair at Sing Sing in 1935. “That one is of intense interest to so many,” Ms. Bailey said.
Chronicle editor Mark Frost wrote, in reviewing the movie last year:
“Credit to native Adirondacker Ms. Bailey for pulling off this ambitious feat. Jay Alan Christianson is scary good depicting the disturbed and disturbing 1970s Adirondack serial killer Robert Garrow.
“Credit to Ms. Bailey, too, for managing to convey the ghastly crimes that Garrow perpetrated without trashing our sensibilities and making the film unwatchable…
“Some of the acting gets wooden. A scene when a would-be Garrow victim escapes and runs into a seemingly disinterested diner doesn’t work. Similar problems arise with the dialogue and people of law enforcement. That said, Ms. Bailey has made a movie about our world. I appreciate it. She merits doing another.
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