Cadillac Cor-de-Rosa

Pink Cadillac has Clint Eastwood playing a skip tracer who most assuredly is not Dirty Harry. But he's a guy who's good at his job and is most clever at arresting subjects, catching them off guard with all kinds of cons and disguises.

He also likes a challenge so he's not terribly thrilled with getting an assignment to track down Bernadette Peters who simply has the bad misfortune to be married to a real loser in Timothy Carhart. He's done some jail time and made some real friends with the birth righters, a white supremacist neo Nazi gang who work on the outside as well.

And what they're into is counterfeiting and when Peters walks out on Carhart taking their baby and the Neo Nazi loot with both real and bogus bills, she's got them after her as well.

This film which will please die-hard Clint Eastwood fans didn't rise to any occasion for me. I just could not quite accept the neo-Nazis as even comic villains. And the film seemed to be a one note joke about the Pink Cadillac that hovered over the film. That no one would expect Clint Eastwood to be driving in such a conspicuous and flamingly effeminate ride. Even if it is Peters' car which they have to use out of necessity.

Clint and Bernadette never quite connected either. Funny thing that with a different leading lady and a more serious treatment this might have been an Eastwood classic.

But they would have to get rid of the Pink Cadillac as well.

Like most people I guess, I'd never heard of this movie (it not getting a theatrical release in the UK). But I like Clint so when it came around on late-night TV...

The leads are excellent, the script is witty, but the direction plods. The first third is so slow it almost had me reaching for the off switch. (A Pink Cadillac that runs on Valium, is no fun ride, me thinks.) Still I hung on in there and am not disappointed that I did.

Eastwood's attempt at playing "characters" was vaguely cringe-worthy. Let's face it, his best role is playing Clint Eastwood. Even so, he still has enough charm to get away with trying. Bernadette Peters adds subtlety, humor and integrity to her role. The film is well made. It hangs together. It was just never worth a special trip to the cinema. But fine on DVD or video with wine and a pizza.

Someone who, as the result of long military deployment at the end of the Cold War, saw nearly every theatrical release of the time is familiar with the Eastwood Mayoral Late Bubblegum Period. Scholars define this as Clint's tenure as mayor of Carmel, between the Marine anthem "Heartbreak Ridge" in 1986 and Clint's Western opus "Unforgiven" in 1992. In 1988 he put a belated end to Dirty Harry in the "Dead Pool," in 1990 he had a PG-13 bondage scene with Sonia Braga in "The Rookie," and in between there was this streetwise chase caper that was, to our loss, his only work with Bernadette. Bounty hunter Tommy (euphemistically a "skip tracer" since he's chasing a girl) captures bail jumper Lou Ann in Las Vegas and becomes caught up in the chase for a cash stash hidden in her pink '59 Caddy convertible by her drug-addict husband & his white supremacist, counterfeiting friends. Clint is at his most likable in these average-Joe tough-guy roles, men who survive only by their wits in seedy jobs (bounty hunter, bank robber, detective, street boxer) & take their lumps when they fall for lost causes or damsels in distress. Peters is fantastic in a humdrum role, going from sullen to sassy to sexy to sensitive without letting us down for an instant. The film is pure fun for its first two thirds, featuring little besides the two stars (Clint mimicking Bernadette's unique soprano is not to be missed). Geoffrey Lewis, an essential in all Eastwood movies like this, is entertaining as ever, this time as an addled hippie forger. The story follows the formula of several movies of this period, the best of which was "Midnight Run" (Cop/bounty hunter finds initial quarry, who's a patsy holding the key to bringing down a really nasty criminal/terrorist outfit). Unfortunately, the bad guys are too psycho-nasty for the light-hearted script, which also features Lou Ann's baby as a hostage. The pre-"Sopranos" mob bad guys of "Midnight Run" brought just the right amount of humor to distill their menace, but if you can find anything funny about neo-Nazi redneck drug addict survivalist militiamen who kidnap babies, please seek therapy. Clint actually gives it a shot near the end, so never let it be said he's not up for a dramatic challenge. "Pink Cadillac" isn't worthy as the only vehicle for the Broadway star and the greatest tough guy of his day, but it was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours at sea. Compliments to "Speed Channel's" Lost Drive-in for bringing this & other forgotten car movies back to the small screen.

Pink Cadillac is directed by Buddy Van Horn, written by John Eskow and stars Clint Eastwood, Bernadette Peters & Timothy Carhart. Story sees Peters as Lou Ann McGuinn , who finally has enough of her no good husband Roy (Carhart) and flees off with their baby in his treasured pink Cadillac. Unbeknown to her the car contains a lot of money garnered from illegal means by the white supremacist group that Roy was hanging around with. Bounty hunter Tommy Novak (Eastwood) is then brought in to capture her since she has skipped bail. Once locating her an unusual friendship begins to form as both of them get deeper and deeper into trouble as the gang close in.

Pink Cadillac was a flop on release, and now it's almost forgotten by not only the casual film fan, but also by many of Eastwood's loyal fan club. Yet it's hardly the disaster some have painted it out to be. Yes the plot is a thin one and has been done brilliantly before; notably Midnight Run a year previously. While there's not enough action and comedy to sustain the 2 hour running time. It's also not unfair to say that the villains here-an array of dunderhead white supremacists-are weak and in the case of Carhart ; badly acted. But Pink Cadillac does have its moments and in Eastwood & Peters we have a most engaging, unpredictable odd couple act that is easy to warm too. Peters turns in a fine comedy performance, both psychically and verbally. Her ability to blend cute and needy with spunky feistiness works well off of Eastwood's more rugged charms. It seems that finally having a co-star of some worth is loosening the big man up, for here he enjoys playing comedy with his series of caricature disguises that he uses to catch the bail jumpers that form part of the story.

Perhaps it's a little unsettling to some fans to see Eastwood not being overtly macho, but this does make for a nice change of pace for Eastwood. A return to his days with the Orangutan; which incidentally up to Pink Cadillac's release were his biggest hit movies. But breaking it down it's a neat character that Eastwood has taken on with Tommy Novak. Almost anti-macho yet able to single handedly protect Lou Ann and her baby. You feel that this was a personal and deliberate choice for Eastwwood in a decade that for him mostly consists of diminishing sequels and poorly scripted misfires. Pink Cadillac has been lumped in with the worst of his career, but viewing it now it holds up much better than nearly all of his 80s output. File it along side Bronco Billy as one of his most underrated performances.

Not breaking any rules of the genre, or showing technical prowess and sharp scripting, Pink Cadillac is still the kind of inoffensive fun that knows its limits. Boosted by a relaxed Eastwood and a perky Miss Peters it's just waiting to be reappraised by a new audience. 7/10

This was supposed to be a comedy, a bridge between the "Clyde" movies and his later, more serious movies. Here, Clint is beginning to show his age. HE just cant be as rough and tumble as he was in the 60's & 70's. Ms. Peters wasn't a very good actress in this movie, Its painful to watch the baby bomb scene. She's better suited to Broadway.

Here, Clint played down his character. This was more of a parody of his "Gauntlet" role, just as the last Dirty Harry movie was a parody of the entire Dirty Harry series. The Caddy gets ruined much like the bus. The Brotherhood gang isn't as scary as the Black Widows, but they are as goofy, and they serve the same purpose: just a group of outlaws to give Clint someone to contend with. Clint had better adversaries in his Spaghetti Westerns.

The scenery is nice though. I graduated high school not long after this movie came out and it was an encouraging factor in all the road trips I took all over the American Southwest. I still haven't made it to the Sierras though.

The lesson learned here is, its better to make fun of yourself and have fun doing it before someone else does and possibly does it with venom.