User reviews

The ads for this 1976 comedy described the film as "'MASH' on wheels" and that is the perfect description. It follows the exploits of paramedics in Los Angeles and the trouble they get into with the police, rival ambulance services, and each other. The film is very funny at times and deadly serious as traces of black comedy seep thru.

Bill Cosby heads the cast as Mother and gives, I believe, his best performance on the big screen. He's hip and funny. By no means is this film a classic but it is worth watching, especially if you're in a goofy mood. And Raquel Welch ain't bad to look at either.

Black comedy, about a ragtag ambulance company out of Los Angeles battling their competitors while picking up an eclectic group of needy passengers, could best be described as schizophrenic (quirky bordering on outrageous). It manages to match its silly, yet surprisingly catchy, title with a well-written script and an excellent cast. Bill Cosby, Raquel Welch and Harvey Keitel make up an easy starring trio (another surprise), and Welch in particular seems extremely comfortable in the chaotic surroundings. Supporting players Allen Garfield, Valerie Curtin and Dick Butkis as the Texan are all fun, though there's perhaps too much of live-wire Larry Hagman (having a permanent meltdown). Peter Yates directed, and while he's quick on his feet he's not always adept at managing the viewer's responses through the morass; these entangled vignettes needed a bit more subtlety and class. Still, there are big laughs in the picture, a few tender moments, not to mention Los Angeles looking bright-and-shiny. I saw this in the theater in 1976, and the audience--probably having expected a full-on slapstick comedy--filed out looking bewildered. The movie wasn't ahead of its time ("MASH" prepared us for this messy mix of dark laughs), but it seems to play better today than it did upon its release. Remade as a TV-movie in 1978 (with an extra 'g' in Jugs). **1/2 from ****

This is a very funny, interesting and worth-watching movie from the 70s. It ought to be seen as a product of the early American indie that helped kick-start the anti-Hollywood boom that mirrored the social and cultural changes happening in the 70s. I liked it and I recommend it to anyone who wants to experience something with a rebellious flair. This film has an edge, not unlike Mean Streets or even Repo Man, and it addresses social issues while maintaining a satirical tack. I love movies from the 60s and 70s because they were made before the whole PG-13 watering down of American Cinema, before political correctness took hold of Hollywood, and before we all thought that we already knew everything there was to know.

'Mother' chronicles the adventures of a group of privatized ambulance drivers (in 1976?) working for the Fishbine Ambulance company. You get the usual assortment of stiffs for the mid-70s; the new guy, Speed (Harvey Keitel), the hot chick, Jugs (Raquel Welch), the lecherous loser, Murdoch (Larry Hagman), the overbearing boss, Fishbine (Allen Garfield), the nerdy effete guy, Bliss (Allan Warnick), and your resident smart-ass, Mother (Bill Cosby). Now, these days, you don't think of Bill Cosby when you think of smart-ass, but this was almost thirty years ago. Things were different.

'Mother' is a product of its time, very 70s, with a rant about inflation and how bad the economy is; Mother's partner Leroy (a very young Bruce Davison) gets high all the time, and there's a flap later on when Jugs earns her EMT certificate and wants to ride in the ambulance with the guys. Such a thing wouldn't even bat an eye now, but was an issue back then. But 'Mother' is also amusing. Some of the comedy is obvious – one extremely obese black woman is too heavy to carry and her gurney slips from their grip, taking a joyride down a hilly street. But a lot of it is surprisingly sharp, thanks mostly to Cosby's excellent timing and deadpan delivery. Mother has a one-liner for every situation, and, surprise, most of them are really funny.

While the rest of the cast is fine – Keitel portrays a slightly nicer version of the cool, collected guy he often plays, Welch is pleasant but her character isn't particularly deep, and Garfield is good as a sort of proto-Louie DePalma – the movie is really Cosby's show. From bribing the cops to drinking beer on the job, from ‘buzzing' the nuns with his siren to eating his hamburgers with peanut butter, onions, and mayonnaise on them, Mother is a real character in every good sense of the word. While the film does not always excel and in some places falls sort of flat, Cosby is always spot on here, and it's worth sitting through some of the slower stretches for him alone.

I was thinking as I was watching this film that it would be prime fodder for a remake. Bernie Mac would ace the Cosby role, you could find any number of women to play Jugs (I suggest Heather Graham), and it would be almost painfully easy to update the 70s-isms into modern day slang/events. You could even be topical and switch Bliss from metrosexual to full-out gay (which is implied but never said in the film anyway). In looking up this film on the IMDB, however, I discovered someone already did try to make this into a TV show, so apparently I wasn't the first one who thought this had potential (though TV is the wrong venue; much of the film's humor is ribald, and you sure as hell couldn't call any woman on TV ‘Jugs'). 'Mother' is an enjoyable film, not much more than your average summer filler, but still able to elicit several good chuckles almost thirty years later. It's certainly worth it to see Cosby play the bad boy with aplomb.

"Mother, Jugs & Speed" is one of the more interesting films of the 1970s that this viewer has seen, and it deserves to be seen by a larger audience. It's mostly a dark comedy (with some moments that are very, very serious) about private ambulance services engaging in cutthroat competition, and the quirky characters that work for the financially strapped F & B Ambulance Company, run by cranky crook Harry Fishbine (Allen Garfield). Bill Cosby plays ace driver "Mother" Tucker, Harvey Keitel is Tony / "Speed", an ex-cop and new employee who'd been accused of selling drugs, and Raquel Welch is the spirited Jennifer a.k.a. "Jugs" who's determined to prove herself capable of being more than a secretary. This is a lot of fun for a while, with some choice lines of dialogue and energetic performances. The Cos walks away with all of his scenes, but he does receive some hilarious competition in the form of Larry Hagman as sleazy, horny employee Murdoch. The guy can't help himself but get together with an attractive patient in the back of an ambulance! Also appearing are people as diverse as L.Q. Jones, Bruce Davison, Dick Butkus, Severn Darden, Bill Henderson, Toni Basil, and an uncredited Tim Reid. Ultimately the movie can't quite maintain the same momentum all the way through, and those sobering dramatic moments may throw some people for a bit of a loop. Still, the premise makes for some great humour, with one example being the instance in which two of the attendants have a hard time transporting a heavyset woman. "Mother" also figures in a priceless running gag where he threatens to mow down nuns who are crossing a street. It's fun to see the lengths to which these companies will go for the sake of reaching patients first and therefore getting the contract for their services. The movie does do a nice job of capturing the nature of the people in the profession and the nature of their business, and is never less than entertaining. It's easy to want to follow the adventures of our main characters, superbly played by The Cos, as the seasoned veteran and wise guy, the ever lovely Welch as the impassioned woman whose efforts to break through barriers is all too believable, and whose education in the harsh reality of life is poignant, and the nicely low key Keitel as the newcomer learning the ropes. They make viewing "Mother, Jugs & Speed" quite the experience; this film definitely comes recommended. Seven out of 10.

I remember hating this on release in '76, but seeing it again made me realize it had some serious things going on. First off, Bill Cosby was actually interesting for a change (although he was great in I SPY - TV and HICKEY AND BOGGS with R. Cup) and was not selling stupidity or jello. Harvey Keitel as the naive good new guy was as compelling as ever, Raquel Welch was THE BABE (she was good in KANSAS CITY BOMBER), and Allen Garfield as owner of the quirky ambulance outfit is always perfectly cast.

A 5 out of 10. Bruce Davison (who started his career as a lead actor) is believably human and there is a rhythm to this flick that defies genre-casting (dramady)? Anyway, not worth buying, but check it out on cable and you'll catch some subliminal surprises of the most normal kind!

This had been, years ago, one of my favorites, but I hadn't had a chance to see it for many years until it cropped up on one of the cable movie channels recently. As a comedy, it certainly is never going to rank up there with Philadelphia Story or Young Frankenstein, but it is still worth seeing. It is definitely, as has been mentioned in this space, a product of its day, providing a very cynical commentary on civic institutions. It often appears a tad dated. However, as has been pointed out, it is probably the best movie that Bill Cosby ("Mother") - with his uncanny ability to pick lousy scripts - ever made, and he shines in it. It is one of Harvey Keitel's ("Speed") earliest movies, and we see here that his choice of making slightly off-the-wall movies was in evidence early. The fine character actor Allen Garfield puts in a fine performance as Harvey Fishbine, and it's great to see the late Larry Hagman in a well-played black sheep role. I wish I could say that we can see some sign of talent from Raquel Welch ("Jugs", natch), but honesty prevents me. As others have noted, the movie is indeed episodic, but a lot of those episodes are wonderfully done, my favorite being the attempt to bring the obscenely obese woman down the stairs on the gurney.

Bill Cosby's best ever. I am aware of much of the criticism around this movie, claiming it is awful and not worth seeing. To all those who have said these things, I just have to ask: What movie were you watching? With style, charm, and humor to spare, this film was among the top echelon of movies from its era. I laughed and was moved and all of that good stuff. At the end of the day, it's a fun, entertaining film. The best way that I can describe the overall tone is a cross between an episode of the TV show ER and one of the Police Academy movies. I will say it again: a movie's function is to entertain. And I am always entertained when watching this one.

Anyone who tries to critique this movie 30 years later is completely misguided. I saw this at a drive-in in 1976 which I was very, very young. I remember thinking it was stupid then, and seeing it again all these years later leaves me the same way.

Good if you wanna see how people really looked, talked and acted in 1976 or if you're a Keitel/Cosby/Welch completist (if so, my sincere sympathies), otherwise, um...there has to be something better on. Really. Look around a little.

This is a highly underrated piece of Cosby's work. Although, now, the concept of a private ambulance service that is primarily interested in money seems rather, quaint, it was almost the norm in the mid-seventies when this movie was made. Although most people don't realize it, the largest ambulance provider in the US is still privately operated, for profit, so, maybe not all that has changed.

Cosby is brilliant as "Mother", a sort of archetype character that melds together all the clichés of what "ambulance drivers" were in an era when many ambulance services were still run by funeral homes - I recall pushing a 1970 "Miller Meteor" Cadillace ambulance, which was basically, a converted hearse, up and down hills at 35 MPH, it's 500 cubic inch engine floored, straining and just barely able to make it up the hill. This is not "EMS," it is "you call, we haul." Cosby brings out the nitty gritty of a profession that was mostly populated by caring people who ran up against the ethos of profit in medicine and owners who were just out to make a buck. You start out really caring, but run head on into the reality that aiding the sick and injured is not the end, just the means to the end. You learn this working very long hours, under horrible conditions, for very little money.

Rachel Welch portrayed the emerging role of women in emergency services very well. The hoops she had to jump through just to get on a rig were exaggerations of what really was happening in the industry at the time. Similarly, Welch's reaction when faced with the reality of emergency medicine is right on point. There is a great deal of difference between what you learn in textbooks and real life. And real life isn't always that pleasant. But, as Mother says, Jugs has the "dedication of a jungle missionary." She would have to, just to get where she was and stay there.

Harvey Kietel was just starting out when he played "Speed" and his performance in the role foreshadowed the brilliant career that followed. I thought the "Speed" reference was a little cryptic. I thought, for a long time, it referred his desire to drive fast. However, the "Speed" character gives a different point of view - that of an outsider - to the hijinks of the staff of F&B Ambulance Service. He shows us how absurd some of things that happen are.

The rest of the characters seemed to all be lifted directly from the real world. Harry and Naomi Fishbine seemed to be modeled after a husband and wife team that ran a not too different private ambulance company that I worked for on the west coast in the seventies - right down to the lecture about how much each patient was worth. Larry Hagman's character portrayed a type of worker in the industry that was always on the margins - you weren't sure why he is doing what he was doing, but you couldn't see him doing anything else.

The events portrayed in the movie where very similar to the "urban legends" about what supposedly happened at private ambulance companies in the sixties and seventies. As most legends are, some of them are based on loose interpretations of fact. I have, in fact, had difficulty taking very obese patients down flights of stairs. Some of the places we went to on calls had rodents large enough to cause grave concern. There were always rumors of people who smoked pot or drank on the job. During my entire career, whenever there were two private ambulance companies in competition "jumping calls" and competing for patients did happen - sometimes on a daily basis. The owners of one of the ambulances services I worked for in the eighties ordered their employees to attend city government meetings when the company was being discussed, (this was long after the everyone who worked in the industry had becomes "professionals). And, yes, I have been the victim of layoffs from private ambulance companies when they lost their government contracts. I have, also, been held up at gunpoint for drugs, stabbed and shot at. The reality of the movie made it all that much funny and more real.

Mother, Jugs and Speed is an interesting and amusing look back at a time when EMS was just starting to become a reality. The acting was top notch. The events portrayed were close enough to real, (or to urban legends), as to make them seem likely. The writing could have been better - some of the dialog was very marginal. Overall, as a lay person and a retired EMS professional who worked in the ambulance industry at the time this film was made, I found the movie to be very enjoyable and suggest others watch it - with tongue firmly in cheek, of course.

Mother, Jugs & Speed concerns a rivalry between two ambulance companies and their cutthroat efforts to muscle the other out of business. Allen Garfield's company the F&B Ambulance Corporation seems to be losing out. Then again with some of the help he's got do we wonder why.

For those who are used to seeing Bill Cosby as lovable Cliff Huxtable you're in for quite a change. Cosby is almost stepping into Richard Pryor territory as the cynical and flippant Mother, a nickname no doubt abbreviated from something else.

No doubt who Jugs is. Raquel Welch plays Garfield's secretary who wants to go out in the field as a paramedic. Garfield being the chauvinist that he is just won't go for it. Later on however Raquel proves her worth and her being a female paramedic helps Garfield in a crisis moment.

Speed is a young Harvey Keitel who is a policeman facing pending charges. He needs an income and police training gives him a leg up in the hiring department.

Let's just say that Garfield's company cuts a lot of corners, doesn't follow a lot of rules. They've even got a working agreement with an ambulance chasing shyster played by Severn Darden. This man is literally chasing the ambulances for clients. Biggest rule breaker is Cosby. You can't conceive of Cliff Huxtable doing what he does.

If your sense of humor tends to black comedy Mother, Jugs & Speed is your kind of film. It could use a remake, I could see this as a Brangelina project myself.

I just watched "Mother, Jugs & Speed" for the first time since seeing it on TV almost 30 years ago. The screenplay is very episodic, with no plot to speak of, but the vignettes as written do have the ring of truth to them. The original screenwriter was either an ex-EMT driver or did some heavy research. The direction by Peter "Bullit" Yates, however, is leaden and dull. I guess the producers picked him to direct because of the many high speed chases. But his handling of the potentially comedic dialog is slowly paced and strictly TV-Sitcom. The only person that could have even possibly made this work was Robert Altman--MJ&S just begs for the fast pace, quick overlapping dialog and throwaway improvs that Altman was known for in the early Seventies.

And while I'm complaining--why in god's name does Raquel Welch go bra-less only during the credits sequence?

The film is more of a drama/slice of life mixed in with some black comedy. It's a strange mish-mash of different things and the tone doesn't match the bombastic disco song "dance" with which the film opens. I'm glad I finally had a chance to watch it (it was a film advertised during a youtube clip of old kbhk channel footage). Anyhow...worth a watch. I would try to avoid reading the primary review (well-written as it is) up top as it kind of summarizes all the main character plot beats and would make it less interesting to see.

i thought this film was very good to watch, i caught it late one night on bbc 1 and i was very pleased to have seen it. i thought bill cosby was great as mother, he seamed to have a darker side to him which i thought was really good. I think the film boasted a wonderful supporting cast. Good movie i'd give it 8 out of 10.

There were a few laughs but precious few. Welch is a flimsy actress at best and when her material stinks like a garbage can she can only come off like a Jewish waiter at a Nazi war rally. Cosby? Wasn't a bit better. Loser film all the way.

TITLE: MOTHER, JUGS & SPEED was release in theaters in the United States on May 26 1976 and the time it takes to watch this movie is 95 Minutes. Mother, Jugs & Speed is a 1976 comedy film directed by Peter Yates. It stars Bill Cosby (Mother), Raquel Welch (Jugs) and Harvey Keitel (Speed) as employees of an independent ambulance service trying to survive in Los Angeles. Allen Garfield plays the role of Harry Fishbine, the owner of the company. Larry Hagman appears in the movie as a driver obsessed with sex.

SUMMARY: In this frantic black comedy, Harry Fishbine (Allen Garfield) is the proprietor of the F&B Ambulance Service, a low-budget free-lance rescue service which is struggling to keep up with the bigger and better funded competition after a law in Los Angeles decrees that the first ambulance to arrive at the scene of a distress call gets the job. F&B's best driver is Mother (Bill Cosby), a freewheeling ambulance jockey who likes to drink beer and play dance music while he makes his rounds. Mother's new assistant is Speed (Harvey Keitel), a former cop who left the force after allegations of drug use; Speed is looking for a new career and a chance to prove himself. In addition, Jugs is the accurate-if-sexist nickname for Jennifer (Raquel Welch), the company secretary who wants to get out from behind the desk and prove her skills as a paramedic. As F&B's driver's race through the streets of Hollywood, their adventures veer between the hilarious and the tragic. Mother, Jugs, and Speed also features Larry Hagman, Dick Butkus, Bruce Davison, and L.Q. Jones.

MY THOUGHTS: I guess the reason I don't like this film as much as the rest is because I'm used to seeing Raquel in bath suits and shorts not in over hauls. Despite Welch clothing I still would give this movie 7 weasel stars.

I AM APPALLED AT THE LANGUAGE IN THIS 70'S MOVIE. I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS ALLOWED THEN AND Bill Cosby??Mr. goody 2 shoes??..Hmmm Fox movies are mostly all filled with X rated language and some nudity in daytime too. They are not HBO.. How do they get by with it?.I don't have enough lines for my statement I am told so ..I love the movies. I love the Old movies where Clark Gable said no more than DAMN--he started it all. I am not stupid..I get the message in words other than 4 letter ones. I couldn't take youth to most of the movies today and NO children. I don't care for cartoon or animated movies for full feature movies. I do appreciate good FAMILY comedy's. Gin

In a domestic, peacetime context, and it's partially successful. The same existential, near-nihilistic ethos (competency is pretty much the only acknowledged value) as that in "M*A*S*H" pervades here. Bill Cosby is basically a black Hawkeye Pierce. Despite several nods to 70's feminism, the "Jugs" character is basically another Lt. Dish. And Larry Hagman's character is a straight knock-off of Frank Burns, with male chauvinism substituted for religious fundamentalism. Nevertheless, many of the gags and much of the dialogue are (usually darkly) hilarious. The film does convey the tragi-comic atmosphere of the inner city, much like Scorcese's "Bringing Out the Dead." The acting is generally superb.

**SPOILERS** Getting $42,50 per client and .50 per mile it take to get him, or her, to the nearest hospital is the life's-blood of the H&B Ambalance Company and the more bodies it hauls the more cash rolls into to it's coffers.

Mother, Bill Cosby, is the wise old man of H&B who's seen just about everything there is to see in the ambulance business and doesn't mind seeing some more. As good as an ambulance driver Mother is he still has some hang ups, like we all do, in life. Mother carries on his rig a loaded .357 Magnum and a case of ice cold beer that he constantly sips as he drives wildly through the streets of L.A. Mother also has a very bad habit of buzzing the local nuns, scaring the hell out of them as they cross the streets outside their chapel.

Jugs, Raquel Welch, is the pretty and busty, like her name suggests, dispatcher of the H&B Ambalance Company who has a dream of becoming an ambulance driver herself. Which is taking a toll on her social life by studying nights to get a diploma and license to be behind the wheel; and roll up and down the city streets at 60 to 100 MPH without worrying about red lights or being pulled over by police squad cars.

Speed, Harvey Keitel, is a cop on suspension and awaiting trial for selling uppers and coke, not the bottled kind, to high school students on his beat which later proves that he didn't. Speed also has a way with the ladies in his sensitive way of sweet talking to them that has the almost unapproachable and untouchable Jugs falling for the cute and cuddly ex-cop as fast as it takes her to dispatch a rig to pick up a stiff off the street.

Hilarious 1976 black comedy that has it's share of real drama and tragedy in it as well.There's Mother's partner Leroy, Bruce Davidson,gets shot to death a by a junkie, Toni Basil, because he didn't have the drugs that she so desperately craved. There was also a very graphic delivery scene of a baby on a H&B ambulance that was trying to get to a county hospital. This happened when the two ambulance drivers, Speed & Jugs, were told a snotty doctor at a local hospital emergency ward that they don't take obstetrics there. The baby was successfully delivered, by Jugs, but the mother died in childbirth. There's a very wild and bloody shootout at the end of the film when two of the H&B drivers Murdouc & Walker(Larry Hagman & Michael McManus) both drunk and doped up took over the company's office and held the boss' wife Peaches Fishbine, Valerie Curtin, hostage. The shoot-out ending with one of the drivers, Murdoc, getting shot to death by the police and the other badly burned.

Allen Garfied was an added treat in the movie as H&B's owner Harry Fishbine who acted as if he were a general and that his workers were an advanced infantry unit about to storm the Normandy beaches on D-Day.