Vol à la tire

A young woman with a long rap sheet who steals cars for a living is befriended by a public defender who tries to steer her straight. But her goal is to steal and subsequently sell enough cars (sometimes the same car more than once) to buy a new Ferrari.

Just like everyone else, I had never heard of this film until it was shown on Turner Classic Movies. And I can understand why it faded away. There is little that stands out about it, and the two stars are not anywhere near A-list (with all due respect). So it makes sense that this would be buried.

But it is not a bad movie by any means, and a fun film. Since it was apparently made by MGM, I would suspect the rights to distribute it are fairly cheap right now (2017) and it might be the kind of title that a specialty Blu-ray label would pick up.

Vurrla Kowsky (Stockard Channing) has an eye for a new Ferrari Dino. She's a car thief and gets pulled over. Her public defender Philip Le Clerq (Sam Waterston) assumes that she's a victim of circumstances and tries to reform her. In reality, she gave a false identity and constantly lies to him. She has many aliases and is an unrepentant thief. Philip follows her back to her rundown boarded up place. Only her car radio stealing best friend Edmund knows her real name. Sweet Revenge is her car's name. Philip tries to help her despite continuously being lied to.

This little-seen Stockard Channing indie is a nice showcase for her. The film works best when she's paired with Waterston. It really should be a film about the two of them. The film stagnates without them together even when she does some crazy stuff. Their back and forth injects a fun chemistry into the movie.

Looking for a copy of the movie to see if my wife was actually in the movie or a second. Sweet Revenge was filmed at our houseboat and I was a little irate because I couldn't get home from work. Stockard Channing used our bathroom to freshen up and signed her name in lipstick on the mirror; which I thought was a little presumptuous. My wife was watching the production with her hair in curlers which the director liked and wanted to keep her in the film, but since we were going out that night she skipped the last couple of takes. We always wondered if she was in the print or not. We couldn't really tell from the showing. I would sure like to see it one more time. I thought the funniest scene was transposition of the police siren with the ice cream loudspeaker. Otherwise, I agree the plot was a little thin.

Haven't seen Sweet Revenge since the early 80s. I remember finding it very entertaining, and was really drawn into the two lead characters: The thief and the investigator. Perhaps the premise is thin, all the effort just for a car, but surely many people have obsessions with cars. I know people who seem to love their car more than their spouse.

Stockard Channing was amazing, as was Sam Waterston. I'd love to see it again.

Sadly this movie is not available on VHS/DVD nor on cable. Any interest in reviving it for a discount renter have probably gotten thwarted by the fact there are 6 other movies by this exact name listed on IMDb, so just knowing which Sweet Revenge one is talking about is tough. The 1984 movie of the same name plays on cable all the time, but never this 1977 title. Like other movies from the slightly pre-VCR-boom era that I'd like to see again, including 'A Man, a Woman, and a Bank' and 'The Manitou' (which was bad/silly but worth a rewatch), it may not pass this way again.

If you should actually come across it, it's worth checking out. (And then let me know where the heck you found it!)

If you're looking for a movie with meaning, this isn't it. But, if you're looking for about 2 hours of car-stealing fun, this is the movie for you. The plot is easy to follow (she steals cars to buy her dream car) and the acting is wonderful. I'm surprised at how much chemistry Stockard Channing and Sam Waterston have together (of course, you could put Stockard Channing opposite a hot dog and she would have find a way to make the scene work.) I'd never heard of this movie before and didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by it. I wonder why this film wasn't considered good when it came out. It really isn't a bad little film. If you need only one reason to see this movie, watch it to see the development of Stockard Channing's acting technique. This woman should have a mantle full of Academy Awards. She slips into Vurrla and her different aliases so easily that you wonder (at least I did) if she has some type of personality disorder. I don't mean that in a cruel way, but her transformation into the character is so complete that you forget you're watching Stockard Channing playing a character and feel as if you're peeping in on Vurrla. When you're so engrossed in a movie that you forget that you're watching a movie, that is the hallmark of a great acting (think Olivier in "Othello" or Davis in "The Little Foxes).