Duel **** (1971, Dennis Weaver) – Classic Movie Review 2608

A masterpiece of fear and tension, Steven Spielberg’s third TV film is so powerful that it won a cinema release in 1971 and gave him his break in the movies. It aired as a hit on American TV before Spielberg expanded it by 15 minutes into a cinema feature, which was released in Europe.

It couldn’t be a simpler idea for a thriller, about a travelling salesman (Dennis Weaver) being menaced on California’s backroads by a huge, sinister smoke-spewing petrol lorry. But Richard Matheson’s script sustains the pseudo-monster movie story brilliantly without feeling the need to spell out the reasons behind the threat. And it’s directed in virtuoso style by young Spielberg (just 24), who turns it into a suspense classic, shooting it in just 16 days.

While travelling through the desert for an appointment with a client, David Mann passes a slow old tanker truck, but the psychotic truck driver is offended and chases David along the empty highway, trying to kill him. Weaver is stupendous as he’s becomes increasingly scared to bits and unhinged.

The 89-minute cinema version runs 15 minutes longer than the TV print and contains unnecessary extra characters and some padding that make it just a tiny bit less effective. Universal called Spielberg back to shoot additional scenes: the railroad crossing, the school bus, when David phones his wife and the opening where the car backs out of the garage and drives through the city.

Carey Loftin, playing the truck driver, asked Spielberg what his motivation was for tormenting the driver. Spielberg told him: ‘You’re a dirty, rotten, no-good son of a bitch.’ Loftin replied: ‘Kid, you hired the right man.’

Matheson wrote the original short story after an encounter with a tailgating truck driver on November 22 1963, the day that John F Kennedy was assassinated. Spielberg’s secretary suggested the story to him after reading it in Playboy magazine.

Mann’s car is a 1970 red Plymouth Valiant with California licence plate 149 PCE.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2608

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