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Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: 4/5/2011
Director: see review
Cast: see review
Year: see review
Purchase from Amazon
The Movie:
Get ready for fast cars, big explosions, violent smash-ups, cute chicks, and dumb sheriffs in this triple feature from the folks at Shout! Factory. They've been pumping out great Roger Corman stuff over the last year with their “Roger Corman's Cult Classics†label and this 2-disc release is a fun one.
The Great Texas Dynamite Chase (1977) directed by Michael Pressman; starring Claudia Jennings, Jocelyn Jones, Johnny Crawford; aspect ratio 16:9 anamorphic widescreen; running time 1 hr 29m
Escaped convict Candy (Claudia Jennings) robs a bank to help her family keep their property, establishing herself as a Robin Hood type crook. During the robbery, one of the tellers, Ellie-Jo (Jocelyn Jones), finds the robbery exciting and helps Candy get away. Later, the two have a chance meeting and Ellie-Jo convinces Candy that they should continue to work together and rob more banks. From there the two make their way across the state holding up banks with dynamite, eluding the dumb sheriffs, and using their feminine assets to get them the things they want to continue in their shenanigans.
Along their adventures they run into a cowboy named Slim (Johnny Crawford), who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets taken hostage by the two women in order for them to escape. Turns out he likes what they're doing and joins them in their dangerous game of bank heists and armed robbery. The cops are chasing them across the countryside and it's only a matter of time before the law catches up with them and justice is served. Or is it?
There's not a whole lot to this one, story-wise, but it has a number of things going for it: explosions, high speed chases, a Rolls Royce, boobs, gun play, and the late Claudia Jennings (Playboy model, star of Gatorbait). She looks pretty smoking in this one, although a little skinny, and does a fine job with her character. In fact all the main players do a good job. Jennings though is the stand out. Her presence demands attention.
One item of interest here is the parallels this film shares with Ridley Scott's Thelma and Louise: two ladies driving across the landscape committing armed robbery, they run into a cowboy (complete with the hat), you feel for them and want them to make it. The endings are quite different, and the means to the ends are different, but the movies share a very similar structure. Texas predates T & L by a good 15 years, but up until viewing the movie, this writer has never read nor heard the comparison made (although the information was never sought out). It's interesting to think about what if this movie came AFTER Scott's movie. Critics would say it was a rip-off of the big budget flick. But when Thelma came out, where was the criticism of it being a rip-off of Texas Dynamite? Oh well. It's not a rip-off, but it certainly borrows a lot from the Corman produced movie. At any rate, this movie has charm and keeps a good pace throughout. It's great drive-in fare.
Georgia Peaches (1980) directed by Daniel Haller; starring Dirk Benedict, Terri Nunn, Tanya Tucker, Sally Kirkland; aspect ratio 16:9 anamorphic widescreen; running time 1 hr, 27 m
Somewhere in between Battlestar Galactica and The A-Team, Dirk Benedict starred in this made-for-tv movie which also features Terri Nunn of the 80s group Berlin, and country singer Tanya Tucker. Dirk plays Dusty Tyree, a race car driver who's shacking up with his mechanic girlfriend Sue Lynn Peach (Nunn). Rich-bitch Vivian Stark (Sally Kirkland) wants to open up an automobile distributorship and just so happens to want the land Dusty and Sue Lynn own and where they work on cars. Sue Lynn makes it clear she wants no part of selling out and this of course leaves a bad taste in Ms. Stark's mouth. She'll figure out another way to get the property.
Meanwhile Sue Lynn's sister Lorette Peach (Tucker) is in town on a break from her singing career. Before you know it the police are hassling the fine folks at the garage and find stolen cars on the property. Of course they were set up by Stark and had nothing to do with stealing the cars. Off to jail they go, only to be mysteriously released soon thereafter. Turns out the a man from the U.S. Treasury sprung them, but will throw them right back in there unless they help the government bust up a chain of smokes smugglers. That is, people bringing in stolen cigarettes from other states, thus stealing tax revenue from Uncle Sam. They reluctantly agree to help, and uncover a lot more than just the illegal cigs. It's up to them to expose the rotten people and restore order to the realm of the redneck.
Of the three movies in the set, this one is easily ranks third. It was made for tv, so lacking is any of the drive-in elements that make us so happy: boobies, violence, boobies, foul language, boobies, and stuff you didn't see on tv back in the early 80s. The dialogue and story are pretty typical of television shows and tv movies (this was produced as a pilot that didn't get picked up by a network), and with all the restrictions on what they can say and show, it's kind of boring. That said there are some good smash 'em ups, a couple involving a giant hook that Dusty launches from the back of his car that grabs onto the vehicle behind him and rips of the rear axle. Terri Nunn is cute and helps the visual factor out too. Tanya Tucker was all right but they used her singing way too much (no less than three musical numbers), and if you are not a fan, it may be tiresome. The whole movie plays out like an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard and was probably trying to catch some viewers off that vibe. Not that it's a bad thing, but it wasn't as entertaining as those early episodes. Plus The Dukes of Hazzard had Daisy in her short shorts going for it, while this one shows off Dirk Benedict's moose knuckles way too often. One note of interest here is the fact that the movie title that pops up at the beginning is “Follow That Carâ€, which is the name it played under in a theatrical run it had on the international front. Genre fans will no doubt recognize the likes of second bananas in this one such as Noble Willingham (The Howling) Burton Gilliam (Blazing Saddles).
Smokey Bites the Dust (1981) directed by Charles B. Griffith; starring Jimmy McNichol, Janet Julian, Walter Barnes; aspect ratio 4:3 full screen; running time 1 hr, 28 m
Jimmy McNichol stars as the too-cool-for-school Roscoe, a fast driving teenager who steals the homecoming queen Peggy Sue (Janet Julian) and drives away. Peggy Sue just so happens to be the daughter of the local sheriff (Walter Barnes) who doesn't like the delinquent shithead and so gives chase along with her football player boyfriend (William Forsythe), Roscoe's friend Harold (John Blyth Barrymore, Drew's half-brother) and lots of other cops. The two youths have no real agenda, other than to drive fast and elude the authorities, and the plot is quite threadbare. But…the movie is pretty darn fun. It's a car chase for an hour and a half. How can that be anything except fun?
Getting past the mostly unfunny jokes, the awful sound track music, and the hokey and lousy music cues (added for comic effect, which fails) this intentionally humorous movie has a lot of unintentional laughs. First of all much of the car chase scenes use sped up film to make the action look faster, but it makes it seem more like Benny Hill than high speed driving. There are some spots of dialogue that may be intended as funny, but they're laughable because they're just so stupid. Things like “Adios, pig roast!†said to a cop. Or calling someone “a double-barreled jerkâ€. Or this one: “Stick to them like shit on a blanket!†At one point the sheriff yells “He's stealing my daughter!†and then shoots his gun at the car his daughter is in. There's a rubber snake that for some reason gets pulled across the road by an off screen crew person that looks horribly bad (and warranted a couple of rewinds), guys in pink tuxedos, and car that takes a jump and inexplicably explodes in mid-air.
Lots of recognizable faces are in this one. William Forsythe of course, Dick Miller, Nancy Parson (Motel Hell, Porky's), Angelo Rossitto (Freaks, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome). Mel Welles (The Little Shop of Horrors, Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy) shows up as a Arab oil sheik, and there's some stuff in those scenes that probably would seem pretty racist now. Character actor Walter Barnes (High Plains Drifter, Every Which Way But Loose) plays the sheriff as a goofy, inept sort with large inspiration from that of Jackie Gleason's best character Buford T. Justice. In fact, quite a bit is borrowed from the original Smokey and the Bandit movie, including the sheriff's car going under a tractor trailer and cutting off the roof. Also look for director Charles B. Griffith's adolescent daughter to make an appearance as a cigarette smoking wise-ass along with her fat little friend. There's a great scene where the fat kid starts hacking on the smokes (they were really smoking) and they cover it up with screeching tires. Oh and watch for a tip o' the hat to the Corman classic Piranha.
As said, most of the laughs in this one seem to be unintentional ones, but who cares? This movie was fun from start to finish and if taken at face value for what it is, an excuse to show cars speeding and crashing, it delivers the goods.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The aspect ratios are mentioned up top in the reviews. The transfers are undoubtedly as good as they can be, given the elements Shout had to work with. The Great Texas Dynamite Chase and Georgia Peaches both look pretty nice, both with a fair amount of grain and some specs of dirt now and then, but considering the age, probably the cheaper film they were shot on, they look very satisfying. Peaches looks a lot better than it needs to in fact. Colors all look correct and skin tones look proper. No major artifact problems were noticed. Smokey Bites the Dust is a bit dark in spots and certainly doesn't look as good as the other two, but really there's nothing to complain about. These movies will probably never look any better than they do in this set, and they look just fine to the everyday viewer's eyes.
The audio on all three is 2-channel Dolby Digital. The audio quality fluctuates from sounding just fine to sometimes muffled. For the most part it is consistently decent and the dialogue is never hard to understand. For the most part the balance seems right concerning the music/sounds versus the talking. All in all, the audio is on par with the video. More than serviceable, but nothing to help show off your audio/video set-up.
The extras…well there aren't any, other than a trailer for Dynamite and a trailer for Smokey. But really, you get three movies for the price of one. It's tough to shake a stick at that. The inside cover of has some poster art and a message from Roger Corman, which is a nice little extra for the collectors.
Overall:
It's an action-packed triple feature that is pretty darn entertaining (well, other than Georgia Peaches, which is marginal at best), a great value for the money, and should be a welcome addition for fans and collectors of B-movie craziness. Definitely worth picking up.
