Some names are synonymous with the word "director" (as in film director). Look at a list of today's winners and nominees for the coveted Oscar, and almost all of them got their start in directing low budget films that may not even be known today except to the fans of those directors.  And, there were several of them who owe their start because a guy named Roger Corman saw something in their talent and gave them their big break.

The list of these directors, therefore, owes a debt to the "drive-in" genre of films, because Corman was the undisputed king of the B-movie drive-in film. Now, to be fair, some of those directors who got their start under Corman are still not familiar to the general public because they spent most of their lives churning out the kind of schlock that was the bread and butter of the drive-in. But at least a few of them went on to greater fame as box-office draws and even those coveted Oscars.

Some names with which most of you will be familiar: Peter Bogdanovich, whose first movie, Targets, had a Roger Corman hand in it. Francis Ford Coppola, who early on got a hand up by being given the helm for Dementia 13. Joe Dante and James Cameron both had a connection with Corman, Dante directing a movie called Piranha and Cameron getting the gig to direct the sequel to that movie, Piranha II: The Spawning.

Two more names that almost anyone is familiar with, Ron Howard and Martin Scorcese, also got a start directing low budget films under Corman and the American International Pictures banner.  Ron Howard's first chance at directing was for Grand Theft Auto (not to be confused with the video game by the same name), and Martin Scorcese's second film, Boxcar Bertha, were both a part of the heyday of drive-in movies.

Both of these movies would have fit in well with the Hit the Road Blogathon, a blogathon I am hosting later this month. Grand Theft Auto, obviously, makes extensive use of cars, and Boxcar Bertha and her crew get around mostly by trains. (And as of this writing, neither has been chosen by other entrants in the blogathon.) 

Both involve characters who are on the wrong side of the law, from a legal standpoint, but who are basically on the verge of being cultural heroes in the way they are presented.  Bertha (Barbara Hershey) and Sam (Ron Howard) are people you can cheer for, mainly because they are not really all that bad.

 

 

 

Grand Theft Auto (1977):

If you are looking for a mindless movie to while away about an hour and a half, I would say you can't go wrong with Grand Theft Auto. This movie is basically The Blues Brothers, without all those songs to get in the way. Not that I don't like The Blues Brothers soundtrack... It has some damn good music.  But basically the plot of The Blues Brothers  is just an excuse to smash up cars and have some general good old fashioned mayhem in a comedic form.

Grand Theft Auto does have a plot... of sorts. Paula Powers (Nancy Morgan) is the daughter of a well-to-do family (Barry Cahill and Elizabeth Rogers). Dad and Mom want their daughter to marry into more money, in the form of Collins Hedgeworth (Paul Linke). But Paula has other ideas.

See Paula is madly in love with Sam Freeman (Ron Howard). and she is adamantly opposed to marrying that dweeb Collins. (I mean really, who would want to marry a guy whose first name is "Collins" anyway?) Paula says she and Sam are going to elope and go marry in Las Vegas, but Daddy has other ideas.  He takes away her car keys. 

It;s Paula's car, bought with her own money (although, probably Daddy gave her the money anyway, so technically it is HIS not hers...) But Paula is determined if nothing else.  She hot wires Daddy's Rolls Royce and makes a run for it with Sam. Daddy tries to give chase in her sports car, but she sabotaged it before she left (and thus begins the unending demolition of cars that is at the heart of the movie.)

 

 

But Daddy is nothing if not resourceful.  He has intentions of running for governor and wants nothing to smear his campaign, so he hires a private eye named Ned Slinker (Rance Howard, the director's father) to track them down and bring them back without any publicity (and there's a private eye name if there ever was one... Ned Slinker...)

In the meantime Collins has found out about Paula's plans and decides to give chase himself. He wrecks his car in the process, but manages to steal another car. And, probably not with Daddy Powers' approval, Collins calls the local radio station where he tells the DJ, Curly Q ( Don Steele), that he is offering a $25,000 reward to whomever can stop and detain the two elopers.

 

 

(One of the best parts of this movie is when Steele is on screen. Don Steele was a real life DJ, who spun records under the moniker of "The Real Don Steele". He had a very brief run as an actor, most often playing a variation of himself, a radio DJ. Check him out as Junior Bruce in Death Race 2000, or as Screamin' Steve Stevens in Rock 'n' Roll High School.)

With the announcement that there is big money to be had, there are many who try to get in on the deal. Including a street preacher (Hoke Howell) who deserts his revival congregation to join the hunt, as well as couple of mechanics, Sparky (Peter Isacksen) and Ace (Clint Howard, the director's brother, and, boy! talk about nepotism...).  Also in the mix is Collins' mother, Vivian (Marion Ross), who has thrown in another $25,000 for the safe return of her son.

 

 

 

Throughout the film there are at least a hundred destroyed cars (I am including a rather unnecessary, but still hilarious scene where Paula and Sam and the Rolls end up in a demolition derby.) And nearly every time one of the characters gets their car smashed up, they steal another one, because everyone seems to get out of their cars and leave the keys in the ignition.  Thus the "Grand Theft Auto" part of the film is the other characters and their greed inspired attempts to catch Paula and Sam. Those two manage to make it almost to the end of the movie in the same Rolls Royce.

 

 

(BTW, as a side note, I am not entirely convinced that actually is a Rolls. They way those two put that thing through the wringer, including trying to drive it cross country (and mean literally cross country), I don't think a Rolls would have held up to the battering. It does have a Rolls body, however...) 

If you do like car smashups and pointless mayhem in your movies, this one is a hoot. As I said, before not much of a plot, but then nobody is coming to a movie called Grand Theft Auto  for a fascinating story line and well-crafted dramatic roles, are they?

I don't have the ambition to look at each movie individually to find out, but I'd pretty much bet that this is the most expensive movie Roger Corman ever produced, at $602,000. Fortunately for Corman that high price tag didn't break his record of making another box office winner By that I mean it made money, not that it was a resounding success. It cleared about $15 mil. 

Howard's involvement in this movie was the result of a deal he made with Corman. Corman wanted Howard to star in a film he was making, Eat My Dust!, and Howard and Corman came to an agreement; if Howard would agree to be the star of Eat My Dust!, Corman would back Howard in his transition from acting to directing.  (Note: I had originally planned to do the two as a double feature because I bought a DVD of the two, but I decided to do this instead. Hopefully Eat My Dust! will appear at The Midnite Drive-In soon, however...)

 

As far as it's reception, Grand Theft Auto got mostly negative reviews. But I like Roger Ebert's comment (who gave the movie 2 stars) that Howard and Morgan, the stars of the film, were "...the Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello of this generation, perfect for what the trade calls drive-in pictures..."

 

 

 

Boxcar Bertha (1972): 

Boxcar Bertha was based on a book by Ben Reitman, Sister of the Road: The Autobiography of Boxcar Bertha. The reality of the story behind the book is that "Boxcar Bertha" never truly existed. She was a fiction made up by Reitman as a composite of several real female outlaws from the 30's. Given that Reitman himself was an anarchist as well as a lover of Emma Goldman, one of the premier radicals of the late 1800's and early 1900's, it should be no surprise that Boxcar Bertha has at it's core a radical, and somewhat anarchist, political viewpoint.

At the center of this drama is Bertha Thompson (Barbara Hershey), a young girl who is apparently orphaned after her father, a crop duster, is killed in an airplane accident.  It is the Depression era, so her prospects are somewhat limited. She begins her journey by riding the hobo trail aboard boxcars. Eventually she ends up in a town where she meets a former friend, Big Bill Shelly (David Carradine).

 

Bill is a rabble rouse, anarchist and a pro union speaker, trying to raise a revolution amongst the railway workers in a rail yard.  After inciting a riot between them and the anti-union strike breakers and police present at the event, Bill and Bertha escape by boarding another train. Bill is marked because he is a prominent organizer and eventually gets arrested leaving Bertha to fend for herself.

She winds up rescuing a petty gambler named Rake Brown (Barry Primus) from a would-be shooting.  Seems he was trying to cheat his opponents and one of them didn't take to kindly to it. She and Rake become small time grifters until Bertha finally meets up with Bill who has escaped prison. Along with a black man who used to work for Bertha's father, Von (Bernie Casey), the four begin a systematic series of train robberies.

 

Although Bertha and Rake and Von are only in it to get money to survive, it quickly becomes apparent that Bill has a different objective; he wants to bring the railroads to their knees.  Often Bill is maligned as being a Bolshevik, a common derogatory term for anyone who tried to buck the system of the rich being the elite and the rest of the population just being expected to go along with it. Sure there is some similarities between bill's political agenda and that of the hated Communists of the era, but Bill is not a Marxist or a "Bolshevik".

One of the minor characters, and the person to whom Bill directs most of his animosity, is H. Buckram Sartoris (played by David's father, John Carradine). Sartoris has no love for Bill, and in fact has as much told his hired hands that given the "dead or alive" capture of Bill. (He has a bigger preference for "dead".)

 

Over the course of the film, Bill often gets arrested, and Bertha, sometimes with help from Rake and Von, and sometimes on her own, has to get him out. At one point, however, Rake is killed and the rest of  her cohorts end up in jail. Bertha is forced to take the only job available for women all alone in the Depression... prostitution. But one day she encounters Von in a bar and he tells her that Bill escaped and is living in hiding. Bertha loves Bill (maybe not on the same level as Bill loves her, but it is love) and goes to him.

 

The ending of this movie is pretty stark (and what else would you expect from Scorcese...?) I won't give away the ending any more than that, but as far as Scorcese pictures go, I would say it is well worth watching. This despite the fact that Rotten Tomatoes ranks it #34 out of 34. I wouldn't put it in the top 10, maybe not even in the top 20, but I would say it's better than several of those that rank higher on the list. 

 

Well folks, time to get the old Plymouth to make that trip home. Drive safely.

Quiggy

 

 

 

I gotta say, I am NOT a NASCAR fan.  Next to tennis I find car racing the most boring thing to watch in sports.  I mean, it's just a bunch of guys making left turns... sure, left turns at well over 150 mph, but still... Which makes me probably the only man in the south that changes the channel when NASCAR comes on the TV. So, Stroker Ace, should be something I would avoid... right?

Well, without Burt in the lead role, that might be true.  I still have never watched Days of Thunder or Talladega Nights (of course, the fact that I don't like Tom Cruise or Will Farrell movies is a factor there..) But that also means I have never watched any number of movies that centered on NASCAR as it's basis, including the ones that came out eulogizing Dale Earnhardt.

Stroker Ace has a lot going for it besides the racing however.  I mean... Burt... what can I say?

Despite Reynolds' popularity, especially among those of us who like he-man type heroes with a healthy dose of humor, I have to admit his movies have never been Oscar material. Of course, he did get a nomination for his role in Boogie Nights, but that wasn't a Burt Reynolds movie.

Stroker Ace came along in the early days of the Razzies awards.  If it had been around in the 70's I have no doubt that Burt Reynolds movies would have been in contention for the award.  I am enough of a realist to admit that they aren't exactly the best movies of the year.  But they did often manage to make money, and that is one of the main points for movies in the first place, isn't it?

As far as the Razzies, Stroker Ace got 5 nominations for the award: Worst Picture, Worst Director (Hal Needham), Worst Actress (Loni Anderson), Worst Supporting Actor (Jim Nabors) and Worst New Star (Loni again). It won only one of those (Jim Nabors), and somehow Burt missed out on getting nominated for Worst Actor... I guess John Wilson et. al. doesn't hate Reynolds as much as they hate Sylvester Stallone (who somehow gets on the Worst Actor list every year he puts out a movie,,,)

Besides the headlining stars of the movie, Reynolds along with Loni Anderson, Jim Nabors and Ned Beatty, there is a plethora of cameos by real NASCAR drivers (circa 1983) that you might recognize if you are a NASCAR fan from the time, or you might at least recognize their cars. Even me, as an avowed non-fan recognized Harry Gant's Skoal Bandit car (I did watch sports coverage on the news, after all, even if I never watched a race...)

Among those famous drivers who appear are Dale Earnhardt, Terry Labonte and Kyle and Richard Petty. And those are just the ones I could recognize.  There are quite a few others, including Benny Parsons, Tim Richmond and Ricky Rudd, all playing themselves. In addition there are a few well known announcers who guest cameo as themselves.

Stroker Ace (1985):

Some background is given at the beginning of the film. We see a young Stroker (Cary Guffey) and his childhood buddy, Doc (Hunter Bruce), coming back from play where Stroker has pretty much wrecked a bicycle trying to some stunts with it that one probably shouldn't do with a bicycle. The boys are picked up by Doc's dad, (Frank O. Hill), who is a moonshine runner.  Dad is chased by Feds and thus inspires Stroker to develop a love for racing.

Fast forward to present day. Stroker (Burt Reynolds) is racing to make the start time at a race (in a car with only three wheels...), with his mechanic, Lugs (Jim Nabors). Stroker is a free spirit who doesn't like following the rules, which puts him at odds with his current sponsor, Catty (Warren Stevens).  He ends up crashing early in the race and Catty, tired of Stroker's irrepressible attitude, fires him.

Stroker needs a sponsor to finance his racing, so he ends up taking on a sponsor who is pretty much as irresponsible as he is: Clyde Torkle (Ned Beatty), the owner of a fried chicken chain. the Chicken Pit. Signing a huge contract, without even reading it (it's big enough to give War and Peace a run for it's money in length),Stroker now has his sponsor.

But the contract requires Stoker to do a lot of stuff that he isn't entirely willing to do, including having his car decked out with the slogan  "Fastest Chicken in the South" and making commercials where he has to dress up as a giant chicken. 

Needless to say, Stroker is not entirely happy with his situation, but his contract is iron-clad and he has no legal out for the deal.

Stroker has one nemesis that rivals even his animosity towards his new boss: Aubrey James (Parker Stevenson). Often the race comes down to either Stroker or Aubrey winning a race. (And this despite the fact that there are some real-life NASCAR racers in the race...)

Aubrey drives the #10 car, and one of the best lines in the movie, for me,  is when Stroker is being interviewed by a sportscaster. When asked to sum up NASCAR in a few words, Stroker says:

"Go down to the end of the straightaway and turn left.  Unless you're #10. Then you turn right."

(Needless to say, Aubrey was not amused...)

But Stroker, if anything, is not one to just give up and go along with the flow. He starts doing things that are designed to embarrass Torkle enough to fire him. But Torkle is also not one to give up, and he takes everything that Stroker dishes out, because, after all, Stroker is his meal ticket to the big time; I.e. a nationwide status instead of just a regional chain.

Pembrook Feeny (Loni Anderson) is Torkle's marketing assistant and she tells Stroker he basically has to follow the rules.  Initially she is just interested in Stroker as a client.  She is a goody-goody, doesn't drink and is a virgin Sunday School teacher. so at the outset, Stroker, a ladies man, is at a loss as to how to get her to be another conquest in his side interest: that of bedding the next beautiful girl.

Stroker continues to race for Torkle while trying to figure out how to get out of his contract. Enter Doc (John Byner) who shows up with dad. Doc is now a wannabe actor. Thus Stroker and Doc and dad come up with a plan. Doc poses as an executive for Miller Brewing and makes an offer to buy out the Chicken Pit franchise, but with the stipulation that the deal will only go through if Torkle fires Stroker.

Torkle falls for the ruse hook, line and sinker.  But he tells Stroker that he will back out of the deal if Stroker becomes this year's NASCAR champion.  Stroker, whose ego is bigger than the national debt, has to make a choice: either win and be committed to stay with Torkle for the rest of the contract, or throw the race and lose.

There is only one problem with losing... if he loses it is likely that Aubrey will win. So the only way that he can win and still get out of the contract is if, somehow, he can get Torkle to officially fire him before the end of the race...

Hey, if you don't like Reynolds' typical character in comedies (and let's face, to be honest, his comedic roles were virtually the same), then this one is not going to be a top 10 movie.  Even Reynolds fans, for the most part, couldn't get on board.  It currently holds a 4.9 rating on IMDb, and if you know IMDb you know the fans can skew those ratings much higher than would normally be accorded it.  They certainly didn't come out in droves for it.  It only grossed a little les than $12 million on a $14 million budget... ouch.

The movie, needless to say was not a hit with the critics. It currently stands at 19% on the Tomato-meter, which to the uninitiated, only 19% of the reviews were favorable.  Roger Ebert, who may be one of the least likely people to like this kind of movie has one of the more humorous takes: "To call the movie a lightweight, bubble-headed summer entertainment is not criticism, but simply description".  Phhht, Roger!

I would not rank it in the top 20 of Reynolds movies, and I would probably go with Smokey and the Bandit or The Longest Yard before I would watch it, given the choice.  As far as racing movies, either Cannonball Run or Cannonball Run II are miles ahead of it.  But it is miles ahead of that corker Cop and a Half. And it's a bit better than City Heat (another target of Roger's snarky reviews..) 

This is one of those many movies I saw at a drive-in as opposed to in a walk-in theater, and, personally, when it comes to movies involving cars or motorcycles, I think a drive-in is the best venue. 

Well, folks, the old Plymouth is nowhere near in shape enough to compete in NASCAR.  Hell, it would probably break down if I even tried to get it up to 80, much less 180... But it is time to head home.  Drive safely. (Meaning don't try to pretend you are in a NASCAR race).

Quiggy

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen King has always been one of my favorite authors.  (For an in depth discussion of King and his influence on me, see my article on him here.)

 

King has often been vocal about adaptations of his work, and not shy about expressing his displeasure in the way Hollywood has made a butchery of some of his stories.  In 1986 he decided that the best way to get a true adaptation was for him to take the reins himself.  He not only was the screenwriter for the adaptation of his short story "Trucks' but he even went so far as to be the director of the film (so far his only endeavor in that role,)

The movie preview is a study in cheese in it's own right.  King himself guarantees that he is "going to scare the hell out of you" and it ends with probably the most laughable tag line "Maximum terror.  Maximum King.  Dino de Laurentis presents Stephen King's 'Maximum Overdrive'".  (OK it may not be laughable in print, but to hear the voice of the classic movie trailer narrator, I think it might be Don La Fontaine who did a lot of these types of movies, it sounds kind of hilarious.)

 

The movie itself does not live up to King's prediction, I have to admit.  At least I wasn't scared.  But it is a pretty good movie nonetheless.  Possessed semis have it hands down over most of the possessed cars movies out there (not including Christine, another Stephen King entry which was one bad bitch) {Could've sworn I reviewed that one but it's not in my archives}.

 

 

 Maximum Overdrive (1986)

The essence of Maximum Overdrive is the appearance of a comet that, after it passes by Earth, leaves a tail in it's wake (green and funky, much like that nasty orb Loc-nar from Heavy Metal.)   The upshot of this lingering comet wake (which the prologue states will be with the Earth for 8 days) is that everything electrical and mechanical goes haywire.  (A scene, early in the movie, with Stephen King giving a nod to Alfred Hitchcock with a cameo, has an unsuspecting person being called an "asshole" by an ATM machine.

The scene shifts to the Dixie Boy Truck Stop where our main action takes place.  Here, obnoxious lowlife owner Bubba Hendershot (Pat Hingle) runs the operation with an iron fist (and a less than reputable hand).  He tell employee Bill (Emilio Estevez) that he wants him to work 9 hours a day, but only clock-in for 8.  As an incentive he holds up a time card with a star that indicates that Bill is on probation from the law, intimating that if he doesn't comply, Hendershot will turn him in to his parole officer.

Meanwhile, the comet's tail starts to do it's dirty work on the diner.  All the trucks gain a life of their own.  The ringleader of the gang of mechanical monstrosities is a truck carrying "Happy Toyz" with a front end decked out with the face of the Green Goblin (to home in the fact that these trucks are the epitome of evil.

The diner eventually garners a crew of people who straggle in from the onslaught of these new rulers of the earth, including a drifter, Brett (Laura Harrington) and the sleazy tavelling Bible salesman who picked her up, Camp (Christopher Murney).  Also a newlywed couple (Yeardley Smith and John Short) and a kid (Holter Graham) who has spent most of the movie biking across the country trying to avoid getting nailed by these trucks.  (The kid, it turns out, is the son of one of the truck stop employees

 

A battle occurs between the refugees in the truck stop and the trucks  that surround them.  This is helped by the fact that Hendershot has an entire armory stored in his basement.  (A survivalist, maybe, expecting the end of the world?)  But the trucks have their own arsenal, including a bulldozer and a portable rolling machine gun cart.

About the only hint of anything totally ridiculous (if the concept of possessed machines isn't already making you question that), is the hint, late in the movie (in dialogue) and in the final closing credits that the comet may have been the product of an alien invasion to try to get rid of the humans so the aliens could take over the planet.  Really?  Please, Steve, I give you much better credit than that.  (But then again, King says he was "coked out of his mind" during the production so maybe his mind was a bit warped by drugs...)

The reviews on this movie at the time were pretty much all bad.  It only has a 15% Fresh rating on the  Rotten Tomatoes website.  According to a website a looked at Variety said this is the kind of movie that makes people want to talk back to the screen.  (Remember the Seinfeld episode where the gang were on  their way to watch Plan 9 from Outer Space just so they could talk back to the screen?  Or for those of you of that bent, every episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000?)  To add insult to injury the movie garnered two Raspberry nominations One for Emilio Estevez for worst actor and one to Stephen King for worst director (both of which ended up going to Prince for Under the Cherry Moon.

But the movie is not as bad as the film critics would lead us to believe.  It does get a bit ridiculous in places and is not nearly as scary as, say, Carrie  or The Shining, but it is fun. Plus it has a killer soundtrack by AC/DC which includes the made for this movie song "Who Made Who?".

Well folks, time to head for the home font.  Drive safely.

Quiggy

On October 11, 1975, a group of performers gathered together to foist upon the public what is one of the longest running TV shows in history, Saturday Night Live.  It has only a few rivals for that  distinction (all of which are either soap operas or news shows).  Three months into the show's first season, on Jan. 17, 1976, during the 10th episode, cast members John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd dressed in bee costumes, touted as "The Killer Bees" and performed a Slim Harpo song "I'm a King Bee".  This was the first incarnation of what would eventually morph into "the Blues Brothers".

Initially, the genesis stemmed from Ackroyd and Belushi's affinity for old blues records.  It did take a while for the Blues Brothers to emerge.  They performed as the bees characters 11 times during the first season.  But Belushi notably was quoted as saying he hated the bees.  Not long afterwards they reincarnated as the "Blues Brothers".

Ackroyd and Belushi pulled together a monster list of well known studio musicians from the blues world.  These included Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Tom "Bones" Malone, "Blue" Lou Marini, Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Willie "Too Big" Hall, Murphy "Murph" Dunne and Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin.

They performed together for a notable concert, released as an album, Briefcase Full of Blues, in 1978, with Belushi and Ackroyd taking on the personas of "Joliet" Jake and Elwood Blues respectively.  This was parlayed into a movie contract.  Belushi and Ackroyd played the titular Blues brothers while the rest of the band basically appeared as themselves.




The Blues Brothers (1980):

"Joiliet" Jake Blues(John Belushi) is just being released from prison for serving time for committing armed robbery.  He is picked up by his brother, Elwood (Dan Ackroyd).  To Jake's consternation, Elwood picks him up in a police car.  It seems that during the time that Jake was in prison, his brother had parlayed the original "Bluesmobile" in a trade for a microphone, and had since gotten the used police car at an auction.  Jake is upset, but Elwood convinces him that it is a good new "Bluesmobile" after engaging in a car chase with the police which manages to destroy a mall.





Jake and Elwood have to go see "The Penguin" (Kathleen Freeman), their name for the Mother Superiior at a Catholic school where they had schooled in their younger days.  The Penguin breaks the bad news to the boys that the Catholic Church intends to shut down the school because the property taxes on the building are too high and the church wants to sell the old building outright.





Spurred on by the janitor, Curtis (Cab Calloway), who had spun old blues records for them when they were kids, Jake and Elwood try to devise a way to raise the money to pay the taxes.  Ultimately they decide to reunite their old band.  The problem is most of them have moved on to real jobs and are unlikely to be willing to join up.





For one thing, Mr. Fabulous is now head maitre' d at a fancy French restaurant.  Matt Murphy has gotten himself hitched and works with his wife (Aretha Franklin) at a chicken jointin downtown Chicago.  Murphy Dunne and some of the others have a gig in a hotel bar playing cheesy music for the patrons.  Most of them are somewhat initially reluctant to reunite, but Elwood and Jake shame them into reuniting in various ways.








Together the band load up the equipment and go out to a gig that Jake has lined up for them.  Except Jake really has no gig.  His first act is to convince a local redneck bar that they are the scheduled headliners "The Good Old Boys" a country band.  How they manage to pull that off is a sight to see.  But when the real band shows up, and the Blues Brothers attempt to skip out on their bar tab with the redneck bar owner, a chase is on.




Over the course of the movie, the Blues Brothers manage to wangle themselves into a serious altercation with a neo Nazi group, the aforementioned redneck band and bar owner and of course the entire police forces of the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois.  The whole movie, from a plot aspect, is just one long car chase with lots of cars getting destroyed (all except the Bluesmobile, which manages to escape any damage until the final reel).

But what really makes the movie are the guest stars, a who's who of blues music.  You get Aretha Franklin performing her classic song "Think".  You get Ray Charles performing "Shake a Tail Feather".  You get the band performing "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love' and my absolute favorite version of my absolute favorite blues song "Sweet Home Chicago".  And to top it off you get James Brown as a revivalist preacher doing a bang up job of an old gospel song "The Old Landmark".  Plus Cab Calloway sizzles in one scene doing a warmup for the concert the Blues Brothers are scheduled to perform by doing his classic "Minnie the Moocher".

The plot of The Blues Brothers is good enough for one or two viewings by itself, but the music is sure to keep you coming back time and again.

The same could be said about the sequel Blues Brothers 2000.  In this case the plot is pretty much crap, however.  But damn, the songs on it are well worth sitting through the rest of the movie.  Unfortunately by the time they got around to this sequel, Belushi, Calloway and John Candy from the original movie were dead, but John Goodman does a halfway decent job taking over on the music side.   Plus, at the end of the movie you get a battle of the bands with the Blues Brothers on one side and an all-star cast of blues musicians called The Louisiana Gator Boys, with B. B. King leading them on the other side.  (Way too many to list here, but among them is Eric Clapton).  I highly recommend sitting through the claptrap plot just to see the musical interludes.



Well folks, time to fire up the old Plymouth and head home.  Watch out for the rednecks... and the Nazis... and especially the cops.

Quiggy

This is my entry in the Fondathon hosted by Sat in Your Lap.





Drive-in movies have certain themes that appeal to me.  Car chases, shoot-em-ups, and a healthy dose of action make up some of the better ones.






















Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974):

This movie is probably misnamed if you ask me.  Larry isn't all that crazy and Mary isn't all that dirty.  It probably should've been titled Crazy Mary, Dirty Larry, because Larry is a little bit dirtier and Mary is definitely better described as "crazy".  Be that as it may, it doesn't deter from being a great movie in the drive-in movie genre.

Larry (Peter Fonda) and his friend , Deke (Adam Roarke) have a plan to hijack the supermarket payroll from a local supermarket.  ($150,000, which given that this takes place in the mid 70's, either suggests that the supermarket must pay one hell of a good wage or the supermarket just doesn't trust banks).  The plan involves Deke holding the supermarket manager's wife and kid hostage while Larry takes on the manager (Played in an uncredited role by Roddy McDowell).

Upon success of this robbery, Larry and Deke plan to take the money to finance their entry into NASCAR, and become professional racers. (Hey, no one ever said drive-in movies had to make sense).  But the fly in the ointment is a crazy girl named Mary (Susan George).  (George's essaying of a southern tramp may not be all that impressive until you realize the actress is British. I think it comes off a lot better considering that).  Mary had a one night stand with Larry, but she is adamant about wanting more.





When Mary discovers that the two have just committed robbery, she deals herself into the adventure, although she claims she doesn't want a share of the loot.  She just wants adventure.  Which she is going to get in spades.

Capt. Franklin (Vic Morrow), a renegade police officer (a somewhat milder form of Dirty Harry) initiates the search for the car identified as the getaway car and commandeers an all-out search for it.





 Meanwhile, in the car, Deke harasses Larry about the unwanted passenger.  Larry tries to ditch her on several occasions, but Mary seems to have a line on them.  At one point they ditch her at a pharmacy only to find their escape map is gone, and realize that Mary has stolen it, so they have to go back and get her.

This is a class in Car Chase 101. It has elements of Smokey and the Bandit as well as hundreds of other low-budget outlaws vs. the lawmen.  And both Fonda and George pull off the tumultuous relationship between man and woman rather well.  Morrow is entertaining too.   Hard to believe this one has escaped my notice for so long.





Race with the Devil (1975):

When you Race with the Devil, you'd better be faster than Hell! (from the movie trailer).


A fun road trip can often turn into a nightmare, especially in the movies.  Roger (Peter Fonda) and Frank (Warren Oates) decide to take their wives on a skiing trip.  The two own a motorcycle dealership in San Antonio, and decide to go to Aspen, Colorado for two weeks of fun, travelling in a decked out RV.




Frank's wife, Alice (Loretta Swit) and Roger's wife, Kelly (Lara Parker) go along for the trip.




They travel well on the first day and pull off the road near a river to camp out the first night.  But they have chosen the wrong place.  Directly across the river that night, Roger and Frank observe a bizarre ritual in which a band of witches or Satanists (its not exactly clear) sacrifice a woman.





This in itself is a bad thing.  But to make matters worse, the cultists see the intruders and give chase.  The four make it to the nearby town where they try to report it to the sheriff (R.G. Armstrong).  Initially the sheriff investigates, but he dismisses it as just some fakery being done by stoned hippies, and that the sacrifice may not have really been a woman, but was a pig instead.  What makes Roger and Frank suspicious however is the fact that the sheriff and his deputies take the men out tothe site where it happened, but never ask for directions to the site.

 Thinking that the sheriff may not be entirely on the level, Roger surreptitiously gets a sample of the blood which he intends to take to higher authorities in Amarillo.  What begins as a trip to report the event turns into one of the most intense dramas in their lives.  Not only are they chased across Texas by the cultists, but it seems that just about everyone they meet along the way has some connection to the cult.

The adamant insistence by their wives to just turn around and go home does not deter the two.  Nor does the attack on the road by nearly every vehicle they encounter.  (This cult must be pretty widespread indeed.  One could get the hint that it must include just about every citizen in southwest Texas).  This movie is sometimes credited as a horror movie, but don't be fooled.  Except for the one scene in which the sacrifice occurs there is very little in the movie to appeal to a hooror fan.  However, if car chases and action are up your alley, this is one hell (excuse the pun) of a ride.

 Time to load up the Plymouth and head home.  And you can be sure I'll spend the night safely in my own bed.  No midnight skullduggery for me.  Drive safely, folks.

Quiggy