Was Peter Fonda in any movies in the 60’s or 70’s where he doesn’t spend a great deal of screen time driving a car or riding on a motorcycle? Off the top of my head, there’s Easy Rider and Race with the Devil. Then there’s 1974’s Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, where he drives a getaway car.
He is the Crazy Larry of the title. His kind of crazy is he drives incredibly fast and without regard for the safety of other drivers. He’s a former race car driver, so he is able do some amazing maneuvers. What is irritating is he is always doing such stunt driving, even when he should be trying to not draw the attention of authorities.
You see, he and Adam Roarke have just robbed a supermarket safe. Fonda is the one who did the legwork, forcing the store manager (an uncredited Roddy McDowall) to open the safe. Roarke, in the meantime, is holding the manager’s wife and daughter hostage in their home. As if it isn’t creepy enough that Roarke committed a home invasion, he chose to walk in on the mother while she was in the shower. While he’s ogling her, the camera lingers over her naked body through the glass shower door. And here I thought the opening credits in Comic Sans would be the low point of tastefulness in this film. Also, this is a PG film, and I continue to marvel at what was acceptable for that rating back then.
Also along for the getaway ride is Susan George, looking like nothing other than an Aardman character to me. She is the “Dirty Mary” of the title, though I’m not sure what warrants the name. Perhaps it is because she had spent the night with Fonda in a motel room the night before, so there’s dirt by association, presumably.
I wonder what their night of ecstasy was like, given how nasty Fonda is to her. He says the weirdest threats to, or concerning, her. Things like: “If you try another stunt like that, I’m gonna braid your tits,” which makes as little sense in the context of the film. Or consider this bon mot: “Every bone in her crotch. That’s what I’m going to break.” If lines like this were scripted, the screenwriter should be fired. If Fonda ad-libbed these lines, he should be horsewhipped.
Aside from this witty repartee, we’re left with the chase footage, of which there is a great deal. At least this is exciting, and often filmed using car-mounted cameras that are low to the ground. And yet, after a while, it becomes rather mundane. I think the problem is there isn’t much variety to what happens. The only moment that was truly spectacular is when a car jumps a bascule bridge that is raising. Also, I didn’t know what a bascule bridge was until I looked it up, and bet you’ll need to do the same now.
Organizing the pursuit of the trio is Vic Morrow as a sheriff who can’t be bothered with any rules or regulations. He even refuses to wear the standard uniform or get his hair cut. He spends a great deal of the film in a helicopter he’s commandeered, demanded the pilot do some rather reckless things. I’m afraid I couldn’t help but think about how the actor met his untimely end on the shoot of Twilight Zone: The Movie.
The fugitives would likely be less easy to find if Fonda would just drive the speed limit or not run other cars off the road. I thought it was interesting how little regard any of the three have about the great many lives they jeopardize until, suddenly, two of them start caring. Also, I was shocked they swap vehicles at one point, to something even more conspicuous: a lime green muscle car. I’m sure they blended in perfectly on those rural backroads. *cough*
I didn’t much care for Dirty Mary Crazy Larry. If there’s one moment that will likely stick in my memory, it is when a police cruiser flies through a billboard reading “There’s a name for people who don’t use seat belts: STUPID!” I think it would be fair to say that same word applies to the people who made this movie.
Dir: John Hough
Starring Peter Fonda, Susan George, Adam Roarke, Vic Morrow
Watched on Shout Factory blu-ray