Woodyanders Review of Ride in a Pink Car

Ride in a Pink Car (1974)

An excellent and unjustly overlooked 70's drive-in gem

[8/10 · 11 June 2007]

A surprisingly taut and involving 70's B picture sleeper which has undeservedly slipped through the cracks and into obscurity. Gid Barker (coolly played with firm inner resolve by Glenn Corbett), a fiercely self-reliant nonconformist loner Vietnam veteran, returns after a two year tour of duty to his jerkwater hometown of Benton, Florida to meet a decidedly chilly and unwelcoming committee that's more like a lynch mob. Back in the day Gid was a hell-raising womanizing troublemaker, so the guys in town are eager to put the thumbscrews to him. Gid winds up killing a man in self-defense when one dude picks a fight with him in a bar. Gid steals a souped-up pink Plymouth Fury and with his loyal, laid-back Native American pal Ray (affable Doug Van) and old flame Shirley (sweet Ivy Jones) in tow goes on the lam. The dead man's vengeful father (a stern, steely Morgan Woodard) forms a posse (the always welcome Bill Thurman as an odious racist deputy among 'em) to track Gid down. Gid in turn opens up a king-sized barrel of pure destruction on the seething, hateful little backwards hamlet. Skillfully directed by Robert J. Emery, this exciting and resolutely tough-minded winner packs an unexpectedly powerful punch, thanks to David Hall's compact, incisive script, a strikingly unflattering portrait of hicksville heartland America as a resentful hotbed of repressive toe-the-line conformity (Gid's refusal to go along in order to get along makes him a much despised and ridiculed pariah), Vic Caeser's jaunty country and western score, complexly drawn characters, thrilling outbursts of deftly staged action, Jack Richards' solid cinematography, across-the-board aces acting, and a painfully on-target "you can't go home" central message. A fine, gritty and shamefully neglected drive-in gem.