Aloha Bobby and Rose *** (1975, Paul LeMat, Dianne Hull, Tim McIntire) – Classic Movie Review 12,399

Paul Le Mat and Dianne Hull please as the young couple on the run from the cops in Floyd Mutrux’s involving and popular 1975 American road drama film Aloha Bobby and Rose.

Paul Le Mat and Dianne Hull please as the young couple on the run from the cops in Floyd Mutrux’s interesting and popular if unsurprising 1975 American road drama film Aloha Bobby and Rose, reprising a popular theme from the Seventies when lots of movie characters seemed to be trying to escape.

Bobby is a young garage mechanic hand and Rose is his first date girl, a divorced single mother fast food hostess, and they are both innocents mixed up in a fake gun store holdup robbery prank and accidental killing of a store clerk that makes them head off for Mexico on the run from the law.

Bobby meets Rose when he returns her Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolet after its service at his garage. They go on a date, but while stopping for wine at a convenience store, Bobby pulls a prank with a fake gun on the teenage store clerk by pretending he is a robber. But the shop owner comes out of the back room pointing a shotgun at Bobby. When Rose hits the shop owner on the head with a bottle, his gun fires, accidentally killing the young clerk.

Aloha Bobby and Rose is carefully written, pleasantly made and nicely performed, with Le Mat and Dianne Hull fresh and appealing, but it hasn’t quite got the oomph to make it another Sugarland Express. However, it is involving, and it was a nice surprise as a very successful low budget hit.

Also in the cast are Tim McIntire, Leigh French, Noble Willingham, Robert Carradine, Edward James Olmos and Martine Bartlett.

The film was made by Cine Artists International on a low budget of $600,000 and released by Columbia Pictures on 23 April 1975, though production began on 22 October 1973. It topped the American box office and grossed $35 million.

It is Edward James Olmos’s first speaking role. Floyd Mutrux picked him from the extras in a pool hall scene to say a single line and he is billed as Eddie Olmos.

The cast are Paul Le Mat as Bobby, Dianne Hull as Rose, Tim McIntire as Buford, Leigh French as Donna Sue, Martine Bartlett as Rose’s Mother, Noble Willingham as Uncle Charlie, Robert Carradine as Moxey, Erick Hines as Erick, Mario Gallo as Benny, Tony Gardenas as Rafael, Edward James Olmos [Eddie Olmos] as Chicano #1, Tip Fredell as Chicano #2, William Dooley as Sam Gold, Cliff Emmich as Bird Brain, David Bond as Grocer, and Dorothy Love as Motel Clerk.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,399

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com