By: Mordicai

 

If you’re like me, and have been held hostage in a New Mexican diner by a maniacal ex-vet, then this film will probably be nothing new to you. If not, then you just may enjoy this delightfully brutal film. It’s small town America and big city types held on trial by a psychopath, a drug-dealer with a penchant for exploiting his victims’ Achilles Heels. Based on the play by Mark Medoff, who also penned the screenplay, it shows, as the film seems a little theatrical.

It begins like every decent movie should: with a heapin’ handful of the gratuitous nudity that was the hallmark of 70’s drive-in fare. Candy Clark in all her tiny-nippled, unshaven glory lets you know what kind of film this is right from the beginning. 

Marjoe Gortner, the Jim Baker of 70’s cult cinema and 80’s TV cameos strides like a colossus of histrionics. Summoning a super-human ability to chew the scenery, and wearing a muscle shirt to show you that he actually uses his gym membership, he attacks the screen like a wrecking ball with a perm.

Mind you, this man has an Oscar for his eponymous Marjoe (1972) where he ripped back the curtain on the world of tent evangelism. Viewing suggestion: that film will make a perfect double bill with Red Ryder.

Whatever plot happens after the opening nudity and before the climactic diner explosion basically affirms that 1) this dude is crazy 2) his girlfriend suffers from a massive lack of self esteem 3) everyone who ends up in the diner is apparently driven there by fate as cumuppence for his or her own shortcomings.

The character development is acceptable, a scrapple of small town clichés: Red Ryder, a young greaser full of ambition and excuses; Angel, a doe-eyed chubby innocent looking to land a man and the sympathetic old cripple fella, played by Pat Hingle, the character actor's character actor who played Commissioner Gordon in the awful 90’s Batman movies.

And who’s that? Hal Linden, who requires no introduction as TV’s Barney Miller. His wife is played by the prolific milf-actress, Lee Grant – who has a shelf full of Emmys and an Oscar win for best supporting actress in Shampoo. So, if you’re keeping a count, we have two Academy Award winners in this little gem of a movie, not counting the various other nominations from this talented cast.

Look quick for Audra Lindley, aka Mrs. Roper of 'Three’s Company' fame, as Red’s floozy mother.  The casting is perfectly effective, talents from both ends of the scale. If you ever wanted to see Barney Miller in a sex scene, then this is the film for you.

When Teddy, an ex-Vietnam vet turned gun-toting drug dealer, rides into town in his VW microbus (he must have the same paint and body man as Captain America) an ominous wind of synthesizer notes disturbs the quiet personal dramas of the travelers and hometowners breakfasting in the local diner. The tension builds, and the film takes off once he orders a cup of coffee.

Teddy bludgeons each character with his or her own weaknesses, until, broken, they are helpless implements of this maniacal puppet-master. An auteur at manipulation, he dissects their own personas and recasts them in a play-within-a-play, a western harkening back to an era men were good, right and honorable, not weak and disaffected. The film builds tension well and comes to a grizzly climax at the White Sands National Monument. Do yourself a favor and skip the saccharine, tacked on conclusion. They should have let it end at the sand dunes.

VHS copies are hard to find, and the DVD I got from 5 Minutes to Live (not a plug) is a sorry VHS rip with Spanish subtitles.

High marks all around. Marjoe Gortner’s acting is the star of this gem; it’s interesting to see how Marjoe transformed his evangelical parlance into over-the top acting. Gortner himself produced the film; I suppose the topic attracted him since he had spent most of his life hustling and manipulating the gullible before becoming an actor. Emotional and insightful, this film will dwell in your thoughts minutes after watching it. Not perfect, but definitely well worth a look. This is fine drive-in fare.

 

 

See! Marjoe Gortner recieve a full cavity search!

 

See! Mexican drug dealers forced to remove their pants!

 

See! Hal Linden in a Speedo!

 

See! Oscar-winner Lee Grant bare all!

 

 

 

Rating: 5/5 Proctoscopes