DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY—“Hey listen, do you always meet someone for the first time and take an instant disliking to them?”  In the case of this 1974 actioner, it’s Peter Fonda, or at least the total dick character he plays, a surly wannabe NASCAR racer and actual white-trash criminal. Since the line is wielded by ‘Mary Coombs’, the title vixen played by Susan George, we grin in sympathy because (a) in real life, it happens every once in a while, (b) it occurs in nearly every movie Peter Fonda pretends to act in, and (c) because Susan George is not just a red hot bombshell but an excellent, underrated actress who fearlessly gave her all, whether in a great movie like Straw Dogs, a watchable cult item like this, or others with zip to recommend beyond her attention-snaring presence. *

                                Hey there, George’y girl

With help from his wary mechanic ‘Deke Sommers’ (Adam Roarke), smug hotshot driver ‘Larry Rayder’ pulls off robbing $150,000 from a grocery store in order to finance a shot at getting into the NASCAR big-time. Fleeing the scene (which included threatened hostages), they’re joined—girljacked, really—by Mary Coombs, a one-night-stand of Larry’s, and the mismatched, bickering trio roar away in a souped-up ’66 Chevy Impala. Pursued by local police led by ‘Captain Everett Franklin’ (Vic Morrow), the freewheeling fugitives trade up to a ’69 Dodge Charger. Its 440 engine, matched with Larry’s driving skills and kamikaze attitude, leads the outnumbering but overmatched lawmen on a wild demolition derby across a tangle of rural California roadways. The fitting finale is a shocker.

The screenplay by Leigh Chapman and Antonio Santean was based on “The Chase”, a novel written a dozen years earlier by Richard Unekis. The 188-page book was positively-reviewed but the script needs an oil change: the dialogue is lame, attempts at humor flatline, and Larry’s character is a real jerk, acceptance not helped by Fonda’s standard sub-par acting. Those weaknesses are overcome by the rousing action scenes, able work from Roarke, Morrow and key supporting players, and a spirited, smart, sex-charged turn from the greatly underrated Susan George, 24, basking from her breakthrough in Straw Dogs. 

The raison d’être of the flick—chase action—is excitingly staged by director John Hough, with one daring high-speed maneuver, split-second near-misses and collision after another giving the stunt crew (and the actors) a major workout. Capturing the (literally) terminal velocity, cinematographer Michael D. Margulies shot in central California around Stockton and small San Joaquin Valley towns. The agricultural landscapes are scenic enough to rate support billing, especially the thousands of acres of walnut groves around Linden. Those borderline insane daring helicopter sequences showcase the nerves of iron possessed by legendary stunt pilot James W. Gavin. **

Cinema crime was on fire that year, topped by instant classics The Godfather: Part II and Chinatown, with a decided streak of nihilism marking many entries: Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry fit right in with rowdy road trips Thunderbolt And Lightfoot, The Sugarland Express, Gone In 60 Seconds and Bring Me The Head Of Alfred Garcia as well as rule-flaunters Freebie And The Bean, The Longest Yard and Death Wish. Done for a scratch $1,140,000, the showcase for squealing brakes was a left-field grand slam, earning back the budget forty times over, the $46,100,000 gross placing 10th for the year, right after the considerably more prestigious The Godfather: Part Two. ***

93 minutes, with pro work from Roddy McDowall (two brief scenes, uncredited), Kenneth Tobey, Lynn Borden and Elisabeth James.

* Susan George’s credits record a lot of 2nd-rate productions (Straw Dogs the major exception) but she was always good even if the material was iffy. Your bumbling humble scribe saw her on the beach in St. Thomas in 1976, fab in a bikini. There I was, 21, on a blanket about ten feet away, and too bashful to risk saying anything. Politeness checkmated the inner caveman. One kicks oneself.

 ** Seeing Combat icon Morrow, 44, fully present in a hell-for-leather helicopter chase, is ironic and disturbing given his eventual grisly fate on Twilight Zone: The Movie, the victim of criminal directorial ego and appalling disregard for safety.

*** Who says it doesn’t pay? Crime Waving in ’74—Murder On The Orient Express, Macon County Line, “McQ“, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Yakuza, Mr. Majestyk, Three The Hard Way, Foxy Brown, Truck Turner, The Parallax View, TNT Jackson, Law And Disorder, Busting, The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three, Thieves Like Us, The Black Windmill, The Midnight Man, Open Season, Caged Heat.

Actress-turned screenwriter Leigh Chapman fesses: “I wrote action-adventure. I couldn’t write a romantic comedy or a chick flick if my life depended on it. I could write a love story, but it would have to be a Casablanca type of love story, and some people would have to die.”