The Sugarland Express **** (1974, Goldie Hawn, Ben Johnson, Michael Sacks, William Atherton) – Classic Movie Review 2607

Goldie Hawn and William Atherton star as Lou Jean and Clovis Michael Poplin in director Steven Spielberg’s excellent 1974 comedy drama about two fugitives from the law. Director Spielberg was just 27 and still a young whiz-kid taking advantage of his first big break (with the originally made-for-TV thriller Duel) when he directed his cinema feature film debut here.

Lou Jean plans to reunite her family by helping her husband to escape from jail and together kidnapping their baby son (producer Richard Zanuck’s son Harrison) from his foster parents. But they are forced to take a policeman Officer Maxwell Slide (Michael Sacks) hostage on the road and are pursued through to Texas by the highway patrol police, led by Captain Harlan Tanner (Ben Johnson).

The Sugarland Express is a movie just bustling with life, dazzling car chases and funny moments, and it is all led with a quicksilver performance by Hawn. The fine screenplay by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins, which won the award for Best Screenplay at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, is based on true-story fact.

Lou Jean and Clovis Michael Poplin are based on the lives of Ila Fae Holiday and Robert Dent. The character Patrolman Slide is based on Trooper J Kenneth Crone, who plays a small role as a deputy sheriff. In reality, Dent was released from prison two weeks before the slow-motion car chase began, so the prison break is fictional.

Also in the cast are Steve Kanaly, Louise Latham, Gregory Walcott, A L Camp, Jessie Lee Fulton, Dean Smith, Ted Grossman, Bill Thurman, Kenneth Hudgins, Buster Danials, Jim Harrell and Frank Stegall.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2607

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