Drive-In

I had the privilege of viewing this comic gem in the summer of 1976 at a drive-in theater with my wife. We revisited our youth as we watched these small town Texas teens laugh it up. The town nice guy, Orville Hennigson, played by a very young Glenn Morshower in his movie debut, is so shy that it is ridiculous. That, of course, is all part of the fun. Our bad boy, Enoch(Billy Milliken), is trying to control the very sexy Glowie(Lisa LeMole), who has her eyes on someone more sincere. Meanwhile, Orville's younger brother Little Bit (Gary Cavagnaro) is trying to grow up all in one night. Would-be hold up man Will Henry (Gordon Hurst)steals the show with his hilarious bumbling. With two brothers, two love interests, two car crashes, two rival gangs, two fights,two goofball robbers, two hick cops, and two movies (the one you're watching, and a movie within the movie that is on the screen at the drive-in called "Disaster 76")this winner really gets the job done. I haven't laughed this hard since Jesse Jackson ran for President. The dialogue is simple yet clever. Lines like "he's busier than a man with his hat on fire" are uniquely Southern and perfectly suited to the feel of the film. Lets call it "American Graffiti" meets "The Dukes Of Hazzard". By the movie's end my comic belly was as full as a tick on a hound dog.

I caught this movie quite by accident on a cable system in 1976, and immediately fell in love with it! DRIVE-IN, featuring character actor Glenn Morshower in his movie debut, is an entertaining comedy about teens (and adults) gathering at a drive-in movie in a small Texas town in the mid 70's. Lisa Lemole is wonderful as the femme fatale who switches romantic partners mid-movie. DRIVE-IN features romance, gang violence, wonderful moments between two brothers, and enough slapstick comedy to satisfy almost anyone! And, let's not forget the movie-within-a-movie, "Disaster '76". which is the movie that's playing at the...DRIVE-IN! Highly recommend this one!

After a little more than three decades of only watching the last 30 or more minutes of this movie on the "ABC Friday Night Movie", I finally saw the whole thing on Google Video just now. Taking place on a day in a Texas town, Drive-In has an ensemble feel as we view many events like the opening of the drive-in theatre, a couple of men planning to rob it, a teenage girl breaking up with a gang leader, and a teenage boy and his little brother talking about the former's shyness around girls among other subplots. When we get to the scenes of the feature playing at the outdoor screen, it's filled with parodies of various popular disaster flicks like the Airport series, The Towering Inferno, The Poseiden Adventure, and Jaws (I loved when both TTI and Jaws got referenced). This was both a funny and touching take on the various characters' foibles especially that of the teen lead of Orville Hennigson who I just found out was played by actual teen of that time Glenn Morshower-the future Secret Service Agent Aaron Pierce on "24"! Another scene of that film-within-film I thought was hilarious was the way many people in the water was just calm when that shark's tail was moving around just nonchalantly! And how about that model plane crashing into a model building (post-9/11 irony notwithstanding)? So on that note, I highly recommend Drive-In.

There are some movies that just stick in your head. I saw Drive-In when it came out in the 70s and a couple of times on TV in the 80s, and I just recall it being very likable. I tend to think of it along with Smile, which I recall being a similar movie from around the same time, although one that got far more attention.

The movie is a loving tribute to what was then a dying industry, the drive-in. Taking place in a small town in Texas, the movie follows the fortunes of a variety of characters whose fates will take decisive turns - or not - by the end of the movie, including a couple of thieves, a bland teen boy and his annoyingly precocious younger brother, the girl who inexplicably likes the bland teen boy, her ex and his gang of troublemakers, the only black guy in town and a few others. It's essentially the structure of American Graffiti, only the soundtrack for this one is sprightly country western music.

Once they all reach the drive-in the action flits from character to character, pausing in between to show the movie itself, a send-up of disaster movies seen in amusing snippets.

Drive-In is not quite as good as I recall, but then, I was 17 when I saw it the first time and 54 when I saw it most recently and I don't always agree with my younger self. But even though the acting is hit and miss, some of the story threads are weak, and the movie-within-a-movie didn't make me laugh nearly as much this time as it did in the '70s, I still found this movie charming and likable, an ode to a bygone era that probably never really existed. It's one of those little B movies you're glad you've seen.

Once upon a time there were drive-in movies which provided double and even triple features.including cartoons,and endless intermission ads between the films,and snack bars which sold a coil shaped mosquito repellant called Pic.This film captures that time even though it features only one movie called Disaster 75 which beat airplane to the punch in parody of Airport and Posidion Adventure type movies.It does include one of those intermission ads {when it was shown on ABC-TV of course they took a commercial break}.The film includes as its characters a gang member,the good guy and the lady he defends,a pair of inept robbers,and many more who make this night in Texas a real fun night at the movies