Larry (Peter Fonda) and Deke (Adam Roarke) rob a supermarket and make their getaway accompanied by the not entirely welcome Mary (Susan George), with the police in hot pursuit...
This, written by Leigh Chapman and Antonio Santean, is one of the more serious ones. So what if the "naturalistic" dialogue sounds pretty phoney now? The car chase sequences are excellent, with all the right elements: flash manoeuvres, the open road, loud engines, lots of dust, property being destroyed and police cars frequently run off the road.
Roarke is great as the mechanic (Fonda treats the chase as a race), as is Vic Morrow as the sheriff, although he spends too much time in a helicopter. And then there's that famous ending, which comes across as less like Vanishing Point type of existential meaninglessness, and more a giant slap in the face for the characters. Well, how would you have ended it? Watch for: Roddy McDowall, unbilled as the supermarket manager. Listen for: the lack of incidental music.
British director who began work as a director for 60s TV show The Avengers. Directed a wide variety of mostly genre movies over the last 30 years, the most notable being Hammer’s Twins of Evil, The Legend of Hell House, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Incubus and Biggles. Also turned in Disney pictures Escape to Witch Mountain and The Watcher in the Woods, plus straight-to-video turkey Howling IV.
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