Ride in a Pink Car

When Gid Barker (Glenn Corbett) returns from Army service in Vietnam to his home town of Benton, Florida, he is met by a less than civil welcome from many of his former friends. Gid is generally believed to have been killed in military action, but in reality is A.W.O.L. His former girlfriend Sheryl (Ivy Jones) is married to Gid's brother, his last employer will not rehire him because he was too greatly admired by female co-workers, all while numerous others in Benton would seemingly have much preferred that he actually had died in combat. Nevertheless, Gid perseveres in carrying out a plan to regain his former standing in the town. Unfortunately, he by accident kills the son of one of Benton's leading citizens, and the majority of the film is taken up with Gid's attempts to flee from a contingent of the townsfolk who are intent upon lynching him. The film lacks focus despite this bleakly propitious foundation, largely as a result of numerous subsidiary characters, too many of whom vanish following an initial strongly scripted appearance. Jones as Sheryl, although she refuses to believe that Gib is actually guilty of anything at all, displays few of those merits, physical or otherwise, that would attract a womanizing non-conformist such as is Gib. The title's pink vehicle is a brand new Plymouth Satellite Sebring, stolen by Gib from a moronic tourist and then virtually, and to no point, demolished by a stunt driver during several inane scenes. The work was shot entirely in Rubonia, Florida, close to Tampa, seemingly during a particularly hot spell, as the cast is drenched with perspiration, as is their clothing. Most of the cast and crew are residents of Florida, a clear benefit to what plainly is a small-budgeted production. Corbett, who co-starred with Martin Milner on the popular 1960s television series "Route 66", tries manfully to make sense of his role here, but this is a poor vehicle for him, since very little occurs to capture a viewer's sympathy, and the ending of the film is baffling, at best. The acting laurels go to Morgan Woodward, veteran Western film character actor, for maintaining his scenario established character throughout, despite tepid direction, and also erratic editing that prevents formation of a much needed sense of reality. Director of photography Jack Richards earns a viewer's approval, in this poorly staged affair, by some creative camera-work. The film is not available in DVD format, while a hard-to-find Genesis VHS release displays upon its box completely absurd photographic cover art: a snarling evildoer has a stranglehold upon a woman's neck with one hand while pointing a revolver to her skull with the other. Neither of these models appears in the movie; nor does the convertible auto that the woman is ostensibly driving; but, after all, a good deal of the entire production makes little sense at all.

The plot is old but serviceable: a man returns to his hometown after years of absence to find that things have changed for the worse. However, for this plot to work, we need to know something about what the town was originally like and how the man fitted into it at that time. We also need to know something about why and how the town changed over the years.

The script to "Pink Car" doesn't give us enough of this background information and the result is a dreary, pointless, and not very interesting movie. It also suffers from a surfeit of villains and from a decidedly unattractive cast.

Glenn Corbett, who showed promise back in the late 1950s, had lost his youthful appeal by this point in his career and seems at least ten years too old for the part he's asked too play. Leading lady Ivy Jones is drab in a part that calls for style. The "Pink Car" of the title turns out to have little to do with the plot.