Rasende Gewalt

A wildly uneven but watchable combination of violent melodrama and car-chase comedy, about an unassuming young couple who stumble onto a murder and end up on the run, framed by the redneck sheriff who actually committed the crime. This is a 1970's drive-in picture, made to order. The comedy and violence tend to clash and cancel each other out, but the performances are good and the action well-staged for such a low budget film. Worth a peek on a slow night, but nothing to stay up for.

This drive-in/exploitation movie from the almighty producer Roger Corman was filmed during the mid-seventies and takes place in a small town in the deep south. You know what that means, right? It means plenty of wild car chase action, crashes, lone heroes and dumb coppers, gratuitous violence and – of course – a lot of banjo music! But please don't expect another brainless comedy like "Smokey and the Bandit" or a carsploitation classic like "Death Race 2000" or "Cannonball". "Moving Violation" actually has a story to tell and the tone & atmosphere are often quite grim and disturbing. The best contemporary film to compare it with is probably the 1973 flick "White Lightning" starring Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty. Both titles theoretically qualify as straightforward and undemanding 70's hillbilly car-chasing movies, but there are sober sub plots and characters with depth and background. The cops here might have big sweaty bald heads and clichéd names like Bubba, but they are vicious psychopaths instead of dim-witted losers and don't hesitate to cruelly execute innocent people. The charismatic drifter Eddie and his brand new ice-cream selling girlfriend Camille find themselves in a world of trouble when they accidentally witness how the corrupt Sheriff Rankin kills off one of his deputies because he wasn't satisfied with his share of palm oil. The nasty Sheriff naturally accuses the young couple of the cowardly murder and mobilizes his entire precinct to hunt them down. The virulent chase quickly leads to other counties, but the authorities there are also eager to stop them because they are signaled as cop killers. "Moving Violation" feels very familiar, what with its superficially stereotypical characters and predictable plot, but the scenario holds several surprises in store and manages to remain suspenseful. The chase sequences, which pretty much cover 75% of the running time, are extremely spectacular and adrenalin-rushing. You'll witness the total demolition of approximately 25 vehicles and plenty of other scenery like billboards, gas stations and even entire farmhouses! I have tremendous respect for the very bleak finale that is very atypical for such a movie and that I personally never would have predicted. "Moving Violation" features good roles of Stephen McHattie (still at the beginning of his career), Eddie Albert and the astonishingly beautiful Kay Lenz, but the most memorable roles are for the bad coppers Lonny Chapman and Jack Murdock. B-movie favorite and Roger Corman regular Dick Miller has a brief but remarkable supportive role as the over-enthusiast bounty hunter Mack. Highly recommended for fans of the seventies in general, but particularly drive-in fanatics and Roger Corman admirers.

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.

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.

A typical Corman exploitation picture (with cameo appearances ranging from Will Geer as Mr.Big to - inevitably - Dick Miller as a gormless henchman) that anticipates 'The Dukes of Hazzard' in its wholesale destruction of police patrol cars.

It paints a very unflattering picture of law enforcement in Dixie and right up to its conclusion is ambiguous about the chances of those law-abiding citizens who cross their path of surviving.