Le casse-cou

Evel was a great showman, and was incredibly popular in the 1970's. For those who missed that era, or chose to forget it, at least Evel had the skill to back up the hype. There are a few stunt scenes that bear this out, including a great two-person tour around and through a small stadium on Evel's bike.

But that's about it; the plot is pretty simple, and the criminals are as stereotyped as they come. Sit back, enjoy the stunts and flashback to the 70's for a while.

Viva Knievel has to be one of the worst movies ever made. But like like Plan 9 From Outer Space, it is so bad that it makes for a hilarious night. If you like bad movies, this is a must see. In the film Knievel is presented as some sort of cross between Elvis and Jesus. One scene at the front of the film even has Evel seeming to heal crippled children by presenting them with Evel Knievel model kits. He's shown as being a beacon of hope in a dark world, yet he's also shown nearly threatening the life of Red Button's character because Red hasn't paid him his money yet. By the way, how on Earth did people like Red Buttons, Gene Kelly, Lauren Hutton, and Leslie Nielson end up in this turkey?!? If you can't appreciate an incredibly bad movie, stay as far away as you can!

No one noticed the influence of Irwin Allen in this wretched production? The "Poseidon Alumni" of Red Buttons and Leslie Nielsen? The casting of Eric Olsen and Cameron Mitchell (two holdovers from Allen's poorly received "Swiss Family Robinson" series)? And the "Allen Tradmark" of casting over-the-hill has-beens -- in this case Gene Kelly -- in a 'throw away' role? Allen even threw in one of his old 'stand-bys', Albert Salmi (Captain Tucker, the space pirate from two episodes of "Lost In Space").

Almost the entire production crew is from the Irwin Allen camp including legendary special effects man L.B. Abbott (what for you ask -- I didn't see any 'special effects?). Even Allen's costume designer, Paul Zastupnevich, is along for the ride. Allen's wife played the Mother Superior in the famed scene where the orphan throws his crutches away at the sight of seeing Evel as he sneaks into the orphanage in the middle of the night(!).

The story behind this film is that producer Sherrill Corwin (who was the head of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences during the '70s), was a major financial contributor to Irwin Allen's "Poseidon Adventure" and "Towering inferno." Allen needed backing because the studios baulked at the high production costs. But, by the mid-70s Irwin was 'The Man' and now it was 'pay back time' for Corwin when he wanted to hype Knievel, who by that time was a superstar among the teen-set. True, Evel Knievel WAS bankable when it came to packing arenas, selling lunch boxes, action figures and toy motorcycles. Problem was that in the acting department Evel was as wooden as a tree trunk and this movie shows it.

Not helping matters was the horrendous screenplay by Norman Katkov and Antonio Santillian (whoever he is), and the ingredients for a GRADE A Turkey were assured. It is surprising that Katkov co-penned such a bad script since he was also responsible for the famous "Blood and Orchids" mini-series of the early '80s. But then again, he was also one of the primary contributors to the screenplay for another Irwin Allen travesty: "The Return of Captain Nemo" (aka "Amazing Captain Nemo"), a mini-series produced or should I say released the following year.

"Viva Knievel" is best enjoyed by those suffering from insomnia or otherwise get their kicks from bad-movie marathons.

Evel Knievel is the world's leading motorcycle jumper. When he is asked to accompany his friend Jessie (Marjoe Gartner), the second best motorcycle jumper, on a tour of Mexico he accepts. However Millard, the tour's organiser (Leslie Nielsen) plans to use Knievel to smuggle drugs back over the Mexican border, using Knievel's fame to escape detection.

This is very much a star vehicle of it's time - it screams 70's all the way through - from the clothes to the attitude, from the stars to the cheesy theme song it's all very dated. However we should allow this to put us off - although it is hard to see past the terrible flares and big collars. This is actually a reasonable plot - if a little far fetched - but the 70's definitely produced worse crime thrillers. This manages to be quite clever and have an exciting chase conclusion. That's not to say that it's brilliant - but for an Evel Knievel movie anything that is better than OK is good. There is a side plot involving Knievel's mechanic Will and his estranged son - but this doesn't really add any value to the plot.

The main weakness of this is that it is a Knievel vehicle (pardon the pun). Several times the film slows down and loses the main plot so that Knievel can be kind to kids, or lecture about the dangers of drugs etc. If the part had been played by a "normal" actor then it wouldn't have stolen as much of the focus as Knievel did. That said - there are times that this doesn't seem like a star vehicle. Knievel overall is played as a kind man who is good to kids etc, but quite often during the film he is an unpleasant man - arrogant, rude, selfish and, in one throwaway remark, racist. It just surprised me that he would let himself be portrayed in that way - unless of course he is like that and didn't see it in the finished film. For the most part though this is a star film that shows him as a moral, kid loving, God-fearing American.

The rest of the support is quite surprising, Gene Kelly plays Will quite well, but overdoes the emotions in his subplot. Leslie Nielsen is good as the bad guy, pre-spoof days, and plays it straight (read boring) and steady. Even Red Buttons pops up momentarily as Knievel's organiser. But most are sidelined as the story focuses on Knievel.

Overall a good 1970's crime movie, but both Knievel and the other subplots slow the plot and take away from the film. For what it is - it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Oh, what an incredible trashy bad movie from the '70's this is, starring none other than Evel Knievel himself and Hollywood celebs from the 'old' days Gene Kelly, Red Buttons and Leslie Nielsen as a villain.

The movie has a real shaky plot that doesn't make an awful lot of sense. I don't know it has something to do with an evil Leslie Nielsen wanting Knievel death so he can smuggle drugs with Knievel's death body as a cover. Meanwhile there are also several side-plots that makes you wonder why they are even in there. It makes the movie often disjointed to watch and halve of the time you don't know what is going on, also because there is often very little actually happening in the story.

The movie was an obvious attempt to launch Evel Knievel a movie career. He was known for his daring motorcycle jumps stunts but he is perhaps even better known because of his inability to land. He crashed- and broken more bones during his stunts than a regular race-car driver would in his entire career.

Evel Knievel is in this movie presented as an all American hero. He is loved everywhere, he gets the girl and also does charity. Meanwhile he also gives important life lesson's to kids. by telling them they will eventually blow up once they start using drugs. He gets a standing ovation as well from the crowd after this inspiring speech.

The only last month deceased Evel Knievel just wasn't much good as an actor. It also didn't really helped him that he had Hollywood-cannon's Gene Kelly and Red Buttons opposite him. He turns all the more pale in comparisons to them. It's true that Kelly's and Buttons' careers already had their best time and the same goes for Leslie Nielsen, who in this movie plays one of his last 'serious'. This is basically also the only reason why those three appear in this movie. It was a bit weird to see Kelly as an 'old' man, mainly of course since I'm used to seeing him in only just '40's and '50's movies.

I can name at least a dozen movies out of the top of my head that are way worse than this one. So perhaps this movie is not entirely deserving it's title of 'one of the worst movies ever made' but nevertheless, this is a great example of bad movie making, which at the same time also makes this movie some delicious bad trash from the '70's to watch. Viva Knievel!

3/10

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