Roadie *** (1980, Meat Loaf Kaki Hunter Art Carney) – Classic Movie Review 11,554

The 1980 American musical comedy film Roadie is an offbeat look at the rock industry from director Alan Rudolph starring heavyweight rocker Meat Loaf as beer-drinking Travis W Redfish, a truck driver who becomes a roadie for a travelling rock and roll show, who teams up with groupie Lola Bouillabaisse (Kaki Hunter) in a search for Alice Cooper.

Along the way we get songs from Debbie Harry and Blondie, Roy Orbison and Hank Williams Jnr, though oddly not from Mr Loaf himself. The tongue-in-cheek humour and strange perspectives give it an original and kooky appeal.

Also in the cast are Art Carney as Corpus C Redfish, Gailard Sartain as B.B. Muldoon, Don Cornelius as Mohammed Johnson, Rhonda Bates as Alice Poo, Joe Spano as Ace, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott as Himself, Alvin Crow and The Pleasant Valley Boys and Rick Crow and Asleep at the Wheel.

The screenplay by Big Boy Medlin and Michael Ventura is based on a story by Alan Rudolph, Zalman King, Big Boy Medlin and Michael Ventura.

Blondie perform ‘Ring of Fire’; Cooper performs segments of ‘Only Women Bleed’ and ‘Pain’.

Films directed by Alan Rudolph: Premonition (1972), Nightmare Circus (1974), Welcome to L A (1976), Remember My Name (1978), Roadie (1980), Endangered Species (1982), Return Engagement (1983), Songwriter (1984), Choose Me (1984), Trouble in Mind (1985), Made in Heaven (1987), The Moderns (1988), Love at Large (1990), Mortal Thoughts (1991), Equinox (1992), Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), Afterglow (1997), Breakfast of Champions (1999), Trixie (2000), Investigating Sex (2001), The Secret Lives of Dentists (2002) and Ray Meets Helen (2017).

Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,554

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