DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY

In the late 70's in the Will household, it's obvious to say there was no cable. Get your listings from the paper. A solid week's worth of scheduling on about 4 pages of a "PARADE"--sized publication insert.

So, it was easy for a little chap like myself to scan the black and white newsprint, hopefully to find out if "White Lightning", "Eat My Dust", "Vanishing Point", or my personal fave, "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" were going to be aired anytime that week.

It was more miss than hit, but one of the local Milwaukee or Chicago stations would pop one of them on more than once a year, giving me a decent reason to scan the publication.

I'm no gearhead now, not even close, but as a boy I loved the car-chase movie. The roar of the engine, the endless action shots of Burt Reynolds, Barry Newman, Ron Howard, or yes, Peter Fonda whipping the steering wheel around like Devo on Acid.

Who needs plotline. Fonda, playing Larry, and his partner rip off a grocery store, pick up an idiotic airhead, Mary, along the way, and run for it. Vic Morrow, some kind of helicopter pursuit expert, is put on the case, and the chase, one that may be the longest ever filmed, ensues.

Some banter, which makes Adam Roarke the only sympathetic one of the three running from the law, is juvenile and poorly executed. Although there is a nice moment where Roarke befriends Mary, played by 70's iconette Susan George, when Fonda's character lets his assholeishniss get way out of control and pushes her. As far as emotional content, that's about as far as this one goes.

I gotta say, I showed this movie to my son earlier this summer, and he disagrees with me on the ending. There's a TON of c.b. chatter in the second half of this flick, and a lot of it is dialogue between Morrow and Fonda in the final chase segment. Just when it looks like the rogues have it made, and Morrow appears to be backing off as evidence by Oscar-worthy repartee, Fonda's Charger crashes right into a train.

Credits roll.

Greatest. Ending. Ever.