For the Love of It

It's late 70's made-for-TV movie humor. Lots of actors you'll say "Hey, that's ____________" Yeah, the humor is a bit old and silly, but think of it as a "period piece."

I'm a fan of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway, and this movie has a few scenes shot in the stations and on the trains: 16th St Station entrance, a few minutes on the train (old upholstery and maps), and leaving at Glen Park--if you're a BART fan, this is worth it.

The movie also includes great shots of San Francisco and the coast all the way down to San Diego. I'm quite familiar with SF, and the shots don't seem sanitized--they are fairly realistic. This is one of the things I look for in older movies: a chance to look back at what an area used to look like.

This slapdash comedy, loosely directed by Hal Kanter, concerns an effort by three U.S. government agencies, Army Intelligence, the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. to regain a stolen microchip that would allow the Soviet Union, if it obtained the item, to control Middle Eastern oil supplies, but the chip is unmindfully in the possession of a young woman played by Deborah Raffin who must subsequently evade not only Federal agents but an amorous young man as well, accompanied by his two friends; obviously created solely for light entertainment, the silly film has slipshod production values, but all involved seem to be enjoying themselves, which is worth something, some witty lines are scattered amid foolish slapstick, and Raffin is appealing as the pursued.

I seem to be in the minority of liking this picture. I saw it when I was 11 in 1980 when it was on TV. I recalled it thirty years later and decided to buy it on VHS on Ebay. I was figuring it would be embarrassing. I really liked it. It's a bit over the top like Airplane. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but has a lot of energy and momentum. Some of the dialogue suits my quirky sense of humour. Don Rickles was great as the toy company owner. I laughed out loud several times. There are a lot of people in this picture you've seen before from Happy Days, Laugh In, Batman, The Karate Kid, Grease, Welcome Back Kotter, TJ Hooker. None of the picture really seamed real. As in, nobody was typical. In a way, it all seemed so far fetched as to be true to life, or more real for the idiosyncratic details. Nowadays people write characters that seem the same from show to show. Everybody in this TV movie's a little quirky. Not for everybody, but I'm glad I own a copy.