Officer, I'd Like To Make A Complaint

Electra Glide In Blue (1973) – An ambitious young Arizona motorcycle cop tries to prove the death of a reclusive old man is murder.  His simplistic approach to the law comes into conflict with everyone around him.

Directed by James William Guercio

Starring Robert Blake, Jeannine Riley, Elisha Cook, Jr, Mitchell Ryan

Why I Liked It – Blake brings a nice light touch to his character.

What to say about this movie?  It bears a strong resemblance to 1969’s “Easy Rider”, a movie with many flaws as well but a classic overall.  Here it’s the hippies doing the shooting rather than the other way around.  It is the directorial debut of James William Guercio.  It is with great thanks, even hallelujahs, that I can say it is also his last movie as director.  Guercio is better known, and more successful, as a music producer.  Specifically, the music producer for the group Chicago, along with Blood, Sweat and Tears, and the Beach Boys.  Several members of Chicago have minor roles in this movie.  According to Blake, Guercio did very little “directing” during the shoot, leaving that to the leading actor and cinematographer.

This movie is a mess.  There’s not a lot holding the whole movie together.  You get bits of things that are never developed, characters that never grow or change, scenes that appear and have no significant impact after the story moves on.

Take Jeannine Riley’s role, as an example.  For folks of a certain age, she’s recognizable as one of the pretty girls found on the ‘60s TV classic “Petticoat Junction” (She was Billie Jo Bradley).  Here she plays Jolene, the sexy if somewhat careworn waitress at the local bar.  I’m pretty sure she’s only in three scenes.  Scene one is in bed with Blake’s character.  Mostly slap and tickle stuff, but a setup for what comes next.  Second scene, Blake and his boss, Harve (Ryan) in the bar where we get the first hint that she’s also Harv’s woman!  Uh, oh.  Third scene is back in the bar after hours.  Harve and Wintergreen (Blake) show up with Jolene on their minds.  Riley is devastating in a scene where the unrequited dreams of her life have become more than she can bear.  She wanders the room talking about the past and the present.  Then she turns on Harve and devastates him with the truth of how Wintergreen outperforms him in bed.  It is far and away the best performance of the movie.  Outside of a very brief “We will never talk about this again” scene between the two men, she disappears from the movie.

That’s the whole movie, sadly.  The old guy who got murdered?  Wintergreen sticks it on someone, but doesn’t sound convinced.  It’s convenient.  His knuckle dragging, mouth breathing motorcycle sidekick, Zipper?  No character growth there, which results in the ending for him you expect.  Harve?  A big bag of hot air at the beginning and the end.  The hippies are cardboard cutouts for the cops to slap around.

Blake does a nice enough job with the naïve Wintergreen.  He has some fun with himself (Blake was 5’2″ tall and uses it to his advantage when flirting with a couple girls at one point), and that light touch is the only thing other than the scene with Jeannine Riley that makes this worth any time at all.  But that’s keeping the bar very low.

Oh, and the ending.  Which makes zero sense.  The last piece of action is predictable, but they do a fair job of putting it on the screen.  What happens AFTER that last piece of action?  Not a clue.  Not a single, solitary idea.  Drop me a note if you understand it.  The only thing worse might be the “Enter the gladiator” scene after we see Wintergreen and Jolene in bed at the beginning.  Idiotic.

Peter Cetera of Chicago plays a character named Bob Zemko (who they think is the murderer).  There’s an actor in the cast named Bob Zemko who plays a minor character.  An inside joke, apparently.

Are you really, really bored?  Do you have nothing, and I mean NOTHING, better to do with an hour and fifty-four minutes?  Go take a nap.  There are at least three good movie ideas here.  Like many people in the movie, they die an untimely death.

Rating – ** Not Impressed

Every scene in this trailer is in the movie.  This trailer bears no resemblance to the movie.