Il ragazzo e il poliziotto

I first saw this in '85. Instead of having Burt Reynold's in the driver's seat, we have Jimmy McNicol, driving the local town cop (Barnes) insane, giving him daily chases and taunting him on his installed c.b. This time he's gone too far, where he runs off with Daddy's (Barnes's) little girl, and he's none too happy about. And it's prom night too. All this is a car chase movie, where forget plot or logic. We even see two ten plus kids smoke, the boy looking very much like that silent chubby kid, Peter in The Cosby Show. But unlike Cosby this isn't funny, just a sheer excuse to spend 86 minutes. We have impressive pile ups, crazy chases, a snake slithering across the road, near it's start, if to maintain further interest. Some known actors star in this, an early price to pay, for future stardom. We too have an imprisoned guy making moonshine, and a younger William Forsythe, a jock, who's girl is riding with Smokey (McNichol) though of course this is not the real character's name. What left me in puzzlement was it's enigmatic R rating. May'be it was the reference to watching two kids smoke. I don't know what else it could be, as this film doesn't deserve to go beyond a PG. May'be the censors were on a mental vacation, like the makers of this movie, and when the writer's surname is named after a piece of fruit, you know you got problems.

Smokey Bits The Dust got inflicted on the movie going public in 1981. And after two viewings of it I can't even tell you what the plot is of this mess.

Jimmy McNichol plays the local bad boy in this neck of the Ozark woods who just likes to race cars and wreck as many as he can because it's good clean fun. He's got the hots for the sheriff's daughter, Janet Julian, and on Homecoming Day he kidnaps her.

After this the whole film is one mindless 80 minute or so car chase in which law from other jurisdictions including some Arabs get involved. To be honest I actually tried figuring out what the plot was and couldn't.

Roger Corman produced this mess and shame on him.

Producer Roger Corman had decided to recycle car chase footage from previous films he was involved in and edited them together in this romp from the latter days of New World Pictures. Jimmy McNichol and Janet Julian are likable enough as the cute young couple on the run from bumbling, but no-nonsense sheriff (Walter Barnes) and a slew of other characters. Even Dick Miller shows up as the angry owner of a car that the two steal right in front of him and spends the rest of his screen time chasing after them in a helicopter. The rest of the plot is rather flimsy, including three so-called Sheiks who try to trick a local moonshiner and various cars speeding, chasing, and crashing.

My childhood days of THE DUKES OF HAZZARD are long gone, which means it's time to dig up what was once grand: car chase movies. This one is special because it's another rip-off of SMOKEY & THE BANDIT, and also another with the name "Smokey" in the title (how many were there???). Every so often, a movie would thrill us living around 1980 over its display of automotive carnage, but haven't we seen enough? It's no better than GRAND THEFT AUTO, another Roger Corman production about high-speed pursuits. Not sounding politically correct in these modern times, kids would've probably liked this cartoonish flick that's been easy to please, as it shows off some over-the-top goofiness and kooky characters, including a "sheik" (!!!). The car crashes are fun to watch for 8-year olds, though. And, yes, no movie is complete without Dick Miller as comedy relief. Likewise, if you've seen one movie, you've seen it all. Diehard fans won't go wrong, but the movie offers absolutely nothing that's new and improved.

This movies' thin excuse for a story: shameless car thief / speed demon / obnoxious punk Roscoe Wilton (Jimmy McNichol, "Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker") kidnaps homecoming queen Peggy Sue Turner (Janet Julian, "Humongous") and spends the majority of the movie outwitting and out-driving her flustered sheriff father (Walter Barnes, "The Big Gundown"). Naturally, many others get involved in the chase, too.

The price paid for the success of "Smokey and the Bandit" was indeed a steep one, as we once again get a cartoon with frenetic over-acting and mostly lame comedy. (That said, there is an occasional inspired gag.) The action is definitely preferable to the comedy, although, even so, a lot of the highlights are actually *lifted* from earlier Roger Corman productions "Eat My Dust!", "Grand Theft Auto", "Thunder and Lightning", and "Moving Violation".

The movie is passable overall; if you're not too judgmental and just want to put your brain in neutral for an hour and a half, you may be adequately entertained. Certainly this is a lively affair, with a breakneck pace and a cheerful "everything but the kitchen sink" approach; this leads to an admittedly amusing finale with a donnybrook involving multiple parties.

Other familiar faces you'll see include the always welcome Dick Miller ("Gremlins"), Kedric Wolfe and Charles Howerton from the directors' previous monster movie "Up from the Depths", William Forsythe ("The Devils' Rejects"), in one of his earliest feature film appearances, Kari Lizer ("Private School"), Mel Welles ("The Little Shop of Horrors"), Michael Greene ("To Live and Die in L. A."), Beach Dickerson ("Creature from the Haunted Sea"), Rance Howard ("Chinatown"), Nancy Parsons ("Motel Hell"), Angelo Rossitto ("Freaks"), and Tony Cox ("Bad Santa"). Director Charles B. Griffith appears on screen as the "mellow rabbi".

This may play like a "greatest hits" package of New World vehicular mayhem, but doubtless that some viewers will have few complaints. At least it's all relatively harmless.

Gale Anne Hurd was the co-producer.

Five out of 10.