Moving Violation (1976)

Eddie Moore (Stephen McHattie) is an amiable drifter passing through the town of Rockfield. Predictably, he gets harassed by the snake-mean local sheriff, a man named Rankin (Lonny Chapman). His day is brightened, however, when he meets lovely young Dairy Queen employee Cam Johnson (Ms. Lenz). They hit it off and go sneaking onto the estate of the local bigwig (Will Geer) after whom the town is named. From their vantage point they are able to see the sheriff - who, naturally, is also flat out corrupt - shoot and badly wound a greedy deputy (Dennis Redfield) who wanted in on the action. So Eddie and Cam have to spend the balance of the movie on the lam, dodging bullets fired by the sheriff and his cronies, while trying to find a sympathetic pair of ears.As one can see, this is very much formula-driven drive-in car chase and car crash fare. The characters are for the most part clichés, especially the one-dimensional villainous sheriff. Fortunately, the good thing that can often be said for exploitation entertainment of this variety is its unpretentious nature. It *does*, ultimately, show its viewers a reasonably good time, with plenty of pedal to the metal action and enough explosions to keep a persons' attention from wandering too much. McHattie and especially Lenz are watchable as the hero and heroine, and Chapman is just right as their persistent, nasty nemesis. Geer is too briefly seen, and under-utilized, but does a fine job nonetheless. The supporting cast includes such familiar faces as Jack Murdock, the ubiquitous and always welcome Dick Miller, and Paul Linke, but the movie really belongs to the excellent Eddie Albert, playing attorney Alex Warren, who decides to take the kids' case.Executive produced by Roger Corman, and produced by his wife Julie, this features a flavourful bluegrass score by Don Peake and a catchy ditty titled "Detroit Man" sung by Phil Everly. It's pretty much average for its genre, but still proves to be engaging enough to watch.Six out of 10.

My aunt used to paint these oils of things like Maine lighthouses. The canvas boards came with the outlines of all the objects already on it. Each space was filled with a number. If a given space on the canvas, say the sky, was labeled "9", she'd fill in the space with a color from the little tube labeled "9. Blue." She was very precise. No golden, end-of-summer wheat field ever shimmered indistinctly against the hazy horizon. The Number 6 paint ended sharply and the Number 7 paint began.Aunt Olga could have directed this movie. There may not be a single convention or cliché neglected. McHattie and Lenz are falsely accused by Lonnie Chapman, as Sheriff Rankin, of murdering a deputy in a small California town. The town and its boss, Will Geer, make a federal case out of it, as if the two fugitives were mass murderers. They even draw in a "gang of terrorists" and "commies".The movie is almost entirely one long car chase. Bullets fly. Lenz grits her teeth behind the wheel. McHattie, in the shotgun seat, purses his lips and looks bemused, as well he might. Eddie Albert is in here but doesn't appear until the movie is half over -- and don't blink.Every car chase is undercranked, meaning the cars are filmed in accelerated motion. They zip around curves, plow through stop signs, have their tops surgically removed by the eighteen-wheelers under which they slide. This convention dates back to the Keystone Cops but was almost uniformly observed in car chases. The first time I realized that a car could roll off the road at an ordinary speed was when the Volkswagon tips over in "Wild Strawberries." But when there is a motor accident of any kind, the film toggles into slow motion so the viewer can enjoy the spectacle of a cop car tumbling into a ditch, snapping off the open door of a parked vehicle, or smashing into a brick wall.I don't see much reason to get into the plot or many of its elements, such as the rollicking smith-kicker banjo and fiddle tune that goes with the action. If it's not Number 9 Blue, it's Number 2 Earth Brown. You've seen all the hues before.Stephen McHattie is an actor of slight talent. Kay Lenz, ditto, but Lenz has something going for her -- an odd beauty, a big grin set in a wide jaw that inspires admiration and a little trepidation. (Those teeth.) She has a fine figure too, sassy where it ought to be, and it reassures me that I'm not a woman trapped in a man's body, only a perfectly normal human being. Huck. Huck. Excuse me. HACK. Whew! That was a fur ball from hell.Don't miss it if you can.

I had my doubts about this movie because it was a Roger Corman production. This usually means very low production values. I was surprised as to how good it was. What helped was that it was on a preminum channel with no cuts, edits or commercials. The only thing that I did not like was the car chases because they were speeded up way too much. I was almost like the Keystone Cops. I don't mind chases that are slightly speeded up but these were like a cartoon. The performances by Steven McHattie, Kay Lenz, Lonny Chapman and Eddie Albert were all first rate. I recommned it as a Sat. afternoon movie.

Moving Violation is about a man named Eddie Moore(Stephen McHattie) who is a drifter from the motor city who meets a small town waitress(Kay Lenz) who saw Sheriff Rankin(Lonny Chapman) killing his Deputy(Dennis Redfield) at the Rockfield mansion that Mr. Rockfield(Will Geer) saw and Sheriff Rankin chases them , and Eddie Moore was shot in the arm during one of the chases.Then the next day, they call a lawyer named Alex Warren(Eddie Albert) who helps them and dislikes Rankin. until following day when they supposed to go to the courthouse and there was a shooting outside the courthouse and Alex was shot and killed. Then Eddie shoots and blowing up the patrol cars and shoots Rankin. At the end Eddie and Cam talk and Cam climb the fience.It was a good movie.I give it ***1/2.