Grindhouse Weekly – ‘Electra Glide in Blue’

James William Guercio’s Electra Glide in Blue is a slightly odd film to categorize.  At its core it’s a 70s bike flick, but tonally, it’s all over the place.  It originally premiered at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival and was immediately reviled by critics.  This was most likely because of the lackluster script that attempted to be a jack of all trades but fizzled out on nearly every level.  A young Robert Blake starred in the picture and it was interesting to see him before he became a deranged lunatic murderer.  A strong introduction and climax make the film worth checking out, but the dull second act makes this nothing more than a mediocre cult flick.

In the film, Blake plays John Wintergreen, a young highway patrolman who has his sights set on becoming a homicide detective.  After stumbling onto a dead body, Wintergreen gets his shot, only to be almost immediately demoted after his new partner find out he’s been sleeping with his wife. Back on the bike John ends up solving the murder anyway, however the consequences he must now face are dire.

The film opens with a very interesting scene involving a man that appears to be simultaneously cooking breakfast and getting ready to kill himself.  The way this is shot is some of the best cinematography of the movie, however the finale also features some truly artistic camerawork.  Other than these two scenes, the rest looks fairly typical of the time.

What makes this movie odd is that there is never a consistent tone throughout so the viewer is never really sure what to think.  It attempts to mix comedy, violence, social issues, and action into a coherent narrative, but it fails miserably.  What you’re left with is a confusing mashup where one scene is a goof involving Robert Blake being short and the next is showing someone being brutally run over by a car. This isn’t to say that you can’t have comedy and violence and drama together in a film, but it’s the execution of these things in this movie that make it feel out of place. Some may enjoy this aspect of the film, but it didn’t work for me.

 

Another odd aspect to this film is its creator James William Guercio.  This is his only directing credit, however he has since gone on to an extremely successful career in music and has been nominated for 36 Grammy awards and was one of the founding members of the band Chicago.  Several members of the band including Peter Cetera were also featured in the film. In addition to Chicago, he was also a member of Frank Zappa’s band and was one of the former owners of Country Music Television.

While Electra Glide in Blue is certainly worth a lazy Sunday viewing, don’t expect it to be anything groundbreaking.  It’s a mildly entertaining bikesploitation flick that’s light on plot, sex, violence, and just about everything else you would want in a movie like this.  Fans of road movies shouldn’t pass this one up, but most others will probably find it average at best.