Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry Anchor Bay Entertainment
DVD, 93 minutes
US$19.98
An outlaw America emerged as the Age of Aquarius collapsed. Maybe you remember it. Long hair, bell bottoms, doobies, trailer parks, foosball, eight-track tapes, CB radio –- and musclecars. Boss Mustangs, Hemi Cudas, SS Camaros. Gas was twenty-five cents a gallon and the asphalt went on forever.
It wouldn’t last, it couldn’t last. The world was closing in. Vietnam, Watergate, the Oil Embargo, pollution, inflation, overpopulation. We were living on borrowed time, and we knew it. But if you drove fast enough and long enough into the Heartland, you might find somewhere safe to hide.
That is, if the Man didn’t catch you first.
This premise describes a slew of car-chase films produced during the early 1970s. Among gearheads, they constitute a cult canon of speed and escape: Two-Lane Blacktop, Vanishing Point, White Lightning, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Gone in 60 Seconds, and one particularly perfect classic called Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry.
Released in 1974, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry remains the ultimate expression of the car-chase genre. It checked all the boxes: outrageous machines, hot chicks, extreme stunts, relentless cops, dark humor, no plot and no regrets.
Get ready to renew your license. A collector’s DVD of Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry released last month, appropriately packaged as the "Supercharger Edition." It’s a worthy tribute, including commentary by director John Hough, a new documentary on the making of the film, interviews with stars Peter Fonda and Susan George, and extras like trailers, television and radio spots, even a 1969 Dodge Charger commercial.
The widescreen print is crisp and clear, restoring the film’s lime-green Charger 440 R/T to all its big-block glory. Peter Fonda plays Larry, a NASCAR washout who’s turned from racing to kidnapping and stick-ups. His mechanic, Deke (Adam Roarke), provides the brains. His squeeze, Mary (Susan George), provides the eye-candy. They’re remorseless white-trash rednecks, and they spend most of the movie running from an obsessive trooper played by Vic Morrow. Roddy McDowell even makes an appearance as a supermarket manager. The cast, and the acting, are first-rate.
Admittedly, there’s not much of a story. Larry and Deke knock over a store, steal a Charger, and burn rubber; Mary comes along for the ride. There’s no way to describe more of the action without giving away the ending.
Of course, plot isn’t where these movies make their point. And yes, there is a message lurking beyond all the mindless hell-raising. Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry presents a nihilist commentary on the failure of Peace and Love, when pragmatism replaced idealism. America is adrift, sifting through the debris of the 1960s. Nobody knows where they’re running. All they know is that they're in a hurry.
That means stunts, and lots of them. Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry contains some truly spectacular sequences. Leaps, crashes, and near-misses follow in a steady stream, one after the other. Memorable are a jump across an open drawbridge, and a shrub-shredding, low-level helicopter pursuit. Be prepared: you’ll never, ever forget the stunt that ends this movie.
It’s all the more impressive when you remember that these scenes were filmed in real time, at actual speeds, without benefit of computer graphics or online postproduction techniques. Fonda did much of the driving himself. Rumor is he wasn’t entirely sober. Riding shotgun, George wasn’t always acting when she pulled a petrified expression -- she truly was terrified.
Dialogue manages to be raunchy without resorting to Deadwood-grade F-bombs. Regardless, the tension between Fonda and George isn’t remotely romantic, and the innuendo isn’t anything close to subtle. Nor is the film’s disrespect for authority. Alfred Hitchcock didn’t flip this many birds.
Critics dismissed the film as drive-in fare. Audiences didn’t listen. Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry grossed $30 million in 1974, more than The Poseidon Adventure, more than even Easy Rider in its first release. It was one of the year’s biggest hits.
Tweeners, those of us who came of age between the Baby Boom and Generation X, were too young to see most of these films in their theatrical releases. For us, car-chase movies were clandestine revelations discovered on late-night television.
Too old for ten-speeds and too young to drive, we were stuck in adolescent immobility, just like an America mired between Flower Power and the Me Generation. Bad hair, bad clothes, bad television, and bad music. Things were so bad, the word became slang for good. That was the joke. Everybody knew the good times were gone, and the future was nothing but Pintos, Vegas, and Gremlins.
Let’s be honest: it sucked to be a teenager in the mid-1970s. Car-chase movies expressed exactly what we felt like doing about it.
If you were there, this is a DVD you won’t want to miss.
Gaming the Film The last computer game that even approached the 1970s car-chase genre was Interstate 76. The current fast-and-furious crop of driving games just doesn’t measure up. Grand Theft Auto and its ilk completely miss the point with their hip-hop, gangsta dystopia. Car-chase movies are about rebellion, not crime.
Oddly enough, Papyrus’ NASCAR 2003 probably comes nearest the feeling, at least in spirit. EA’s much-maligned NASCAR Sim Racing 2005 comes close as well, particularly in career mode. NSR does allow the player to modify his car and accumulate cash. You can swap paint and redline the tach all day long, but you still can’t leave the track.
There’s a gap here that game companies could exploit.
Call it a 1970s version of Need for Speed. All you need are a selection of vintage musclecars, miles of two-lane blacktop, some state troopers, plenty of foxy chicks wearing halters and cutoffs, and maybe a couple of helicopters. Throw in a few gigs to score bread for tricking-out your wheels, endless opportunities for stunts and jumps, and you’re ready to boogie.
)