I got to see this on the big screen at "Poppapalooza", local legend Will Viharo presenting a couple movies starring his dad Robert Viharo, who appears in this one as a sheriff driven to insanity by two anarchic drifters (Nick Nolte and Don Johnson) and a schizo girl (Robin Mattson) who beat him up and tear their way through Wisconsin in a fire yellow Chevy.
Best thing about the movie is the music. The movie's set in the mid/late 50s and you get to hear a lot of the great tunes of that time from people like Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Ricky Nelson, Gene Vincent. My friend even recognized that they were using the great pop song from the movie "Circus of Horrors." The car is pretty cool, although the chases aren't nearly as thrilling as those in "Eat My Dust" or "Gone in 60 Seconds" or some of the other drive-in movies I've seen from the period. The movie that this one most reminded me of was "Two-Lane Blacktop", although the style is very different because this movie is less realistic and gritty. But the essential plot seems to have been lifted from "Two-Lane" (SPOILERS rest of paragraph) -- the two drifters, one of whom is clearly the driver and the other the mechanic, picking up this girl who ends up not coming between them but causing lots of trouble anyway and ends up leaving them abruptly by hitching a ride with another guy. The car is a similar model as well, and the scene with Johnson taunting the other guy into a race is very similar. But this is a much more conventional, action and thrill oriented film despite the plot similarities. With the 50s rock and roll music and the bright yellow sports car look, it's kind of a mash of "Two Lane" and "American Graffiti", both of which were produced by Gary Kurtz, who like the director of this film Richard Compton started out in Roger Corman's New World organization in the late 60s.
It's a very well-cast movie -- Johnson and Nolte were very little known at the time but they were both obviously up and comers who did a lot for their careers by holding down this film. Robin Mattson is very cute and seems period appropriate in the same kind of way that Cindy Williams was in "Graffiti" and Corman's "Gas!". Viharo is convincingly tough and nutso.
I'd probably rewatch it with a six-pack and have just as much fun with it the second time around.
Best thing about the movie is the music. The movie's set in the mid/late 50s and you get to hear a lot of the great tunes of that time from people like Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Ricky Nelson, Gene Vincent. My friend even recognized that they were using the great pop song from the movie "Circus of Horrors." The car is pretty cool, although the chases aren't nearly as thrilling as those in "Eat My Dust" or "Gone in 60 Seconds" or some of the other drive-in movies I've seen from the period. The movie that this one most reminded me of was "Two-Lane Blacktop", although the style is very different because this movie is less realistic and gritty. But the essential plot seems to have been lifted from "Two-Lane" (SPOILERS rest of paragraph) -- the two drifters, one of whom is clearly the driver and the other the mechanic, picking up this girl who ends up not coming between them but causing lots of trouble anyway and ends up leaving them abruptly by hitching a ride with another guy. The car is a similar model as well, and the scene with Johnson taunting the other guy into a race is very similar. But this is a much more conventional, action and thrill oriented film despite the plot similarities. With the 50s rock and roll music and the bright yellow sports car look, it's kind of a mash of "Two Lane" and "American Graffiti", both of which were produced by Gary Kurtz, who like the director of this film Richard Compton started out in Roger Corman's New World organization in the late 60s.
It's a very well-cast movie -- Johnson and Nolte were very little known at the time but they were both obviously up and comers who did a lot for their careers by holding down this film. Robin Mattson is very cute and seems period appropriate in the same kind of way that Cindy Williams was in "Graffiti" and Corman's "Gas!". Viharo is convincingly tough and nutso.
I'd probably rewatch it with a six-pack and have just as much fun with it the second time around.