The Movies:

The Movies:

A Peter Fonda double feature? That's right! Shout! Factory did it on DVD and now they're doing it on Blu-ray too. Throw in some Warren Oates, dirt bikes, Satanists, Susan George, a giant RV and some muscle cars and you're in for what Shout! Factory aptly describes as an Action-Packed Double Feature! Here's how and why…

Dirty Mary Crazy Larry:

Peter Fonda (of Easy Rider) plays a race car driver named Larry who has seen better days. His career isn't what it used to be and maybe it's time he started looking at other options to pay the bills from here on out. Larry and his buddy/mechanic Deke (Adam Rourke of The Stuntman) decide that the best way to get rich quick and move on to greener pastures is to rob a grocery store and out run the police through California to financial freedom in Mexico! Unfortunately, Larry decides to sleep with a woman named Mary (Susan George of Straw Dogs and Enter The Ninja) the night before the robbery is to go off, and she decides for the two boys that she's going to be coming along on their adventure.

When the time comes for the old snatch and grab, the three of them pull of the plan reasonably easy, robbing the store (managed by Roddy McDowell of Planet Of The Apes!) by holding his family at gun point until he hands over the goods. They hit the road in their Dodge Charger, putting the pedal to the floor and gunning it south. What they don't take into account is that the cops who gives them chase, lead by Everett Franklin (Vic Morrow of Humanoids From The Deep), while use every trick in the book to stop them cold. Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry are going to have to drive fast and furiously through the back roads of Southern California to make it out, and they're also going to have to learn to survive life with one another along the way.

Plot wise and character wise, this film leaves a lot to be desired. The story isn't too far off from Sam Peckinpah's The Getaway (at least the initial premise) and neither Larry nor Mary are really all that memorable as people. The romantic subplot panders to the audience and doesn't add much value to the film, and the humorous moments spread throughout the film are neither funny nor interesting.

So why bother?

The car chases, baby, the car chases. Made in the days before CGI ruined big screen stunt driving, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry is chock full of fantastic chase scenes and car stunts that are sure to appease anyone into muscle cars and what they can do. Not only that, but the film also features a lot of great footage of the terrain where the entire thing goes down and plenty of action throughout. Yeah, Peter Fonda kind of sleep walks through it all and Susan George isn't any better than 'just okay' in her role but the sheer volume of high speed chases and jumps and stunts more than make up for it. The pacing is tight, the cinematography is handled very well, and there's a gratuitous 'Vic Morrow as the heavy' factor that can't be disputed.

It wouldn't be tough to argue that the film is hung on a very skeletal plot, but there's enough car chase action, explosions, and fantastic stunt work to make it easy to overlook the fact that we've seen this all before. None of this is original, none of this is high art, but all of this is entertaining. Turn off your brain and enjoy this one. It sure beats the pants of more modern fare like The Fast And The Furious or Italian Connection remakes.

Race With The Devil:

Jack Starrett's 1975 horror/action/thriller hybrid shows the director's roots - he got his start on 1969 biker film Run, Angel, Run and would hone his skills on such seventies fare as the Starsky & Hutch television series and blaxploitation fare like Cleopatra Jones and Slaughter. In Race With The Devil he'd combine all those elements that make for a great drive-in movie with some fun performances from two popular leading men of the era, Warren Oates (Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia) and Peter Fonda (Easy Rider).

Written by trash master Lee Frost (director of notorious nasties like The Climax Of Blue Power and Love Camp 7) and Wes Bishop (who worked with Frost on other projects such as The Black Gestapo), the film follows two pals who run a motorbike shop together - Roger March (Fonda) and Frank Stewart (Oates). Along with their wives, Kelly (Lara Parker of Dark Shadows) and Alice (Loretta Swit of M.A.S.H.), they all pile into Frank's new $36,000 motor-home and head on out of Dallas to get some much needed rest and relaxation in Colorado, where they intend to do some skiing.

On the first night of their trip, they decide to pull off the main highway and crash for the night in a secluded area of the Texas desert. After the girls have gone to bed for the night, Frank and Roger notice a bonfire across the river. When they pull out their binoculars to check it out, they witness a Satanic cult who sacrifice a woman to their dark master. When Alice turns on the lights to call the boys in, the cult members see them and give chase. Our four heroes high tail it out of there but the cult's fingers stretch all across the state and the travelers soon find out that the membership was a lot bigger than the dozen or so people they saw decked out in robes in the desert that night. Even the local Sheriff (R. G. Armstrong of The Ballad Of Cable Hogue - the Peckinpah ties run deep on this disc!) is acting suspicious, and then there's that red pickup truck that seems to be following them from town to town…

Part action movie, part horror thriller, Race With The Devil kicks it into high gear about fifteen minutes in and doesn't let up until the end credits hit the screen. This one is all about the chase and the direction is tight, making great use of the claustrophobic RV interior and contrasting it in interesting ways with the wide open road that it's barreling down. The cultists, supposedly members of an actual sect, are creepy and convincing during the sacrifice scene, as their chants mount and their blood lust finally boils over, and even creepier outside of the ceremony, giving knowing glances towards the travelers as they move from one location to another, looking for safe haven.

Oates and Fonda, who also starred alongside one another in 92 In The Shade made the very same year, have got a great on screen chemistry together which makes their struggle for survival all the more interesting and all the more fun. During the action scenes, both men have the air of the 'common man' about them that make them easy to root for and easy to sympathize with.

In short, there's enough tension and enough action in the film that you're easily able to overlook the plot holes and ridiculous premise and just enjoy seeing the two titans of 70s b-movies do their thing. Car chases, shotguns, devil worshipers, a snake or two and some creepy campers make this one well worth checking out.

Video:

Both movies arrive on Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfers framed at 1.78.1 widescreen. Both movies get a nice upgrade in the visuals department here. Detail is considerably improved on both films and colors look noticeably more natural and appear to be better defined as well. Shadow detail gets a nice step up from the DVD releases and the darker scenes look cleaner and clearer - you'll notice this during the ritual scene in Race With The Devil, for example. Lots of visible pours on the faces of various characters and there are visible threads and materials noticeable on the different costumes seen in the movies. Black levels are strong and if there are any compression artifacts evident, they're very minor. There are no obvious problems with edge enhancement or with noise reduction and both movies look quite good here in crisp, sharp and more importantly film like presentations. The gritty, sometimes grainy, seventies look and feel runs through both these movies quite strongly, but most of us wouldn't want it any other way.