Main Cast: Peter Fonda, Susan George, Adam Roarke, Vic Morrow, Kenneth Tobey
Release Year: 1974
Country: US
Run Time: 93 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Three outlaws hit the road until the road hits back in this supercharged action thriller. Larry (Peter Fonda) is a stock car driver whose reckless nature has caused him a long run of bad luck. Larry and his friend and mechanic Deke (Adam Roarke) need money if they're to get a new car and get back in competition, so they map out a plan to hold up a grocery store after 150,000 dollars has been dropped off for payroll and working cash. The heist goes as planned, except for one little hitch -- Larry spent the night before with his occasional girlfriend Mary (Susan George), and she has planted herself in Larry's car and isn't about to budge. With Mary along for the ride, Larry and Deke try to outrun the cops and make their way to freedom, though lawman Franklin (Vic Morrow) is determined to shut them down. Much loved by both gearheads and action film fans for its hair-raising stunt work and solid performances from the leading cast, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry was a surprise box-office hit in 1974, grossing nearly 30 million dollars in its initial release. Roddy McDowall appears uncredited as the manager of the supermarket. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
This fast-paced drive-in favorite is one of the more distinctive entries in the car-chase genre. Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry differs from other car-chase fare like Smokey and the Bandit and The Gumball Rally because it is as much a heist movie as it is a car-chase adventure. Leigh Chapman and Antonio Santean's script gives the film a distinctly antiheroic flavor that makes it feel like a low-budget descendent of Bonnie and Clyde. Larry and Deke pull the supermarket heist that opens the film with cold-blooded efficiency and the attraction between Larry and Mary is as volatile as it is magnetic. The script is also notable for its odd yet thoroughly quotable dialogue; the exchanges between Mary and Larry are laden with creative epithets and the automotive shop-talk between Deke and Larry is full of gearhead jargon guaranteed to make viewers scratch their heads. John Hough's direction rises to the script's lean feel by keeping the pacing taut and maintaining a gripping sense of narrative tension from start to finish. Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry also benefits from solid acting by a crew of genre professionals: Fonda's trademark ambivalence fits Larry perfectly, George brings a believable fieriness to Mary, and Roarke manages to be low key and intense all at once as Deke. These colorful leads are balanced by some effective supporting turns, the best being Vic Morrow as the grizzled but dedicated Franklin and an uncredited Roddy McDowall in a believably frazzled turn as the supermarket chief whose family gets ransomed. All in all, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry is a gritty but stylishly helmed B-movie that is worth the hunt for car-chase film fanatics. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
Roddy McDowall - George Stanton; Lynn Borden - Evelyn Stanton; Adrian Herman - Cindy; Janear Hines - Millie; Elizabeth James - Dispatcher; Edna Macafee - Seller at Swapmeet; Eugene Daniels - Hank; Thomas Castranova - Steve; William Campbell - Sur
Credit
Ronald L. Schwary - First Assistant Director, John Hough - Director, Christopher Holmes - Editor, Jimmie Haskell - Composer (Music Score), Michael D. Margulies - Cinematographer, Norman T. Herman - Producer, Don Johnson - Sound/Sound Designer, Leigh Chapman - Screenwriter, Antonio Santean - Screenwriter, Richard Unekis - Book Author
