Recovering from “mild” cases of Covid, the dearly beloved and I watched this silly movie last night. We’re doing a lot better, mostly coughing up an occasional lung and sleepy. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, though.
Plot:
The film opens with a reworked “Dies Irae,” “Day of Wrath” perhaps by Thomas of Celano, according to IMDB. There is also a quote by Church of Satan founder, Anton Lavey, “Oh great brothers of the night who rideth upon the hot winds of hell, who dwelleth in the Devil’s lair; move and appear.”
Other than sounding spooky, the quote has nearly nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Is the car driven by one of the great brothers of the night, riding on the hot winds of hell? It spooks around hallowed ground. Someone ought to have filled the local car washes will holy water. Maybe dropped a Eucharist into the radiator fluid. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Two innocent, wholesome young people (Joshua Davis and Melody Thomas Scott) ride bikes in the desert outside Santa Ynez. Out of nowhere, a sinister-looking black car, resembling a Lincoln Continental chases them, toying with them and terrorizing them before killing them.
Later, a hitchhiker (John Rubinstein) plays Grieg’s “Morning” on his French horn, much to the annoyance of homeowner Amos Clements (R.G. Armstrong) who is in the middle of thumping on his hapless wife, Bertha (Doris Dowling) and throwing her out of the house. A truck marked “Chekhov’s Gun”—I mean, “Explosives”—is parked in their driveway.
The French horn player protests the woman’s treatment but doesn’t get far. The couple goes back into the house. In the meantime, a wind kicks up, and the sinister black car comes barreling down the road. Thinking he has a ride, the hitchhiker sticks out his thumb. After the car drives by, he sticks out a different finger and hurls verbal abuse.
The car stops. It backs up—into and over the hapless hitchhiker several times.
Amos the wifebeater sees the goings-on and calls the police, like a good citizen.
In yet another part of town, police officer Wade Parent (James Brolin) is rising and saying goodbye to his girlfriend, school teacher Lauren Humphries (Kathleen Lloyd) before his two daughter Lynn Marie (Kim Richards) and Debbie (Kyle Richards ) get up. Little does he know, they’re both standing outside his door, listening to them.
On his way to the office, he’s summoned to the scene at the house of Amos, the wifebeater. Amos swears he saw the whole thing, but all he can tell them about the car is that it’s black.
Thoughts:
It’s hard for one who spent Saturday mornings watching cartoons back in the days of yore to watch a rising trail of dust on a desert road and not hear BEEP BEEP or see a humiliated coyote falling off a cliff edge holding up a sign that says MOTHER.
Duel obviously influenced this movie. There is never any reason for this car to be out killing people. (It’s evil, and that’s what evil cars do? Yeah, that makes sense.) The one exception is a person who taunted it, calling it, among other things, “chicken shit” and revealing its one weakness. This person pissed it off.
The taunting is one of the best scenes in the movie.
But the bicyclists? The hitchhiker? Nah, they were just there and vulnerable.
The viewer sees the car’s worldview when the screen is tinted orange.
The credits roll over a hint at a sequel. Or the need to fear the evil car out there hunting us all down.
This was silly. There was some intended comic relief. A fellow teacher shows Lauren a nude picture one of her students drew of her. She discusses the student’s perspective.
Not an awful movie, but not something I’d watch again soon.
This movie can be watched for free here:
Title: The Car (1977)
Directed by
Elliot Silverstein
Writing Credits
Dennis Shryack…(screenplay) &
Michael Butler…(screenplay) and
Lane Slate…(screenplay)
Dennis Shryack…(story) &
Michael Butler…(story)
Cast (in credits order)
James Brolin…Wade Parent
Kathleen Lloyd…Lauren Humphries
John Marley…Everett Peck
R.G. Armstrong…Amos Clements (as R. G. Armstrong)
John Rubinstein…John Morris
Released: 1977
Length: 1 hour, 36 minutes
Rated: PG
Reviews of Old and New Stories. Mostly Old 
That film scared me as a kid. I really enjoy that film. 😁
If I’d seen it as a kid, it would have scared the bejesus out of me.