Electra Glide in Blue **** (1973, Robert Blake, Billy Green Bush, Mitchell Ryan, Jeannine Riley, Elisha Cook Jnr, Royal Dano) – Classic Movie Review 3233

The 1973 cult movie Electra Glide in Blue stars Robert Blake as the Arizona motorbike patrol cop John Wintergreen, who can outsmart all the bad guys he meets on the highway.

First-time director James William Guercio’s 1973 cult movie Electra Glide in Blue stars Robert Blake as the experienced if pint-sized Arizona motorbike patrol cop John Wintergreen and Billy Green Bush as his partner Zipper. Wintergreen can outsmart all the bad guys he meets on the highway and is looking to be transferred to homicide.

Elisha Cook Jnr plays Crazy Willie who tells him about an apparent suicide via shotgun, but Wintergreen thinks is really a murder. Mitchell Ryan plays Detective Harve Poole, who agrees with him after a .22 bullet is found in the man’s skull during the autopsy and $5,000 is missing from the man’s home. Wintergreen gets his transfer to homicide.

In keeping with the sensibilities of its early Seventies era, this is a fast-paced, tough, macho action movie. Blake’s bravado, Conrad L Hall and Guercio’s snazzy cinematography and the thrillingly choreographed action bring distinction to Guercio’s riposte to Easy Rider, which sees the hippies from the law’s viewpoint.

The story by Robert Boris and Rupert Hitzig and screenplay by Robert Boris still have a fresh gloss and well-observed characters but also a very Seventies climax that now disappoints slightly.

It co-stars Jeannine Riley as Jolene and Royal Dano as the coroner. Also in the cast are Joe Samsil, Jason Clark, Michael Butler, Susan Forristal, Lucy Angle Guercio, Melissa Green, Jim Gilmore and Beb Zemko. Nick Nolte appears uncredited as a hippie.

Guercio co-produces and wrote the score.

The title comes from the Harley-Davidson Electra Glide motorcycle issued to traffic police.

The movie was filmed in Monument Valley and Fountain Hills, Arizona. Most of it was shot without permits because the Arizona Highway Patrol would not cooperate with the production.

Guercio was the producer of the rock band Chicago, who are on the soundtrack and appear in the film in minor roles, including Peter Cetera, Terry Kath, Lee Loughnane and Walter Parazaider, plus Hawk Wolinski from the Guercio-produced band Madura.

Guercio took a dollar salary so they could afford to hire Conrad L Hall, but they disagreed how the film should look until a compromise was reached where Guercio would shoot the exterior scenes in a manner reminiscent of John Ford’s films while Hall could shoot the film’s interior scenes as he wanted.

In 2005, Robert Blake was tried and acquitted of the 2001 murder of his second wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley. But on November 18, 2005, he was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death. Lost Highway (1997) is his last acting role.

American actor Robert Blake (born Michael James Vijencio Gubitosi; September 18, 1933 – March 9, 2023) was known for the 1967 film In Cold Blood, the 1969 anti-Western Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, and the 1970s US TV series Baretta

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3233

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