Simply A Masterpiece

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

American music producer James William Guercio's one-off dalliance with filmmaking, ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE is made when he is only 28-year-old. It stars Robert Blake as a motorcycle cop Johnny Wintergreen who patrols rural Arizona highways and aspires to be a homicidal officer.The movie opens with a promising panache hardly betrays that Guercio is a greenhorn, conjecturing through its voyeuristic close-ups, audience would soon realize a face-unshown man prepares to kill himself, yet, Guercio's camera also cunningly suggests that he is cooking beef streaks at the same time. Then, boom! He blows himself dead through a shotgun, which unusually aims to his chest rather than the usual easy target, the head, it compellingly sets a paradoxical situation that one immediately knows there is something fishy about the whole act.Also, before the title card, Guercio takes a tongue-in-cheek tack to introduce our unlikely hero, big Johnny, the camera lurks and swirls in the apartment where Johnny expertly gratifies Jolene (Riley) in bed, before revealing that Johnny is small in stature. When a man's masculinity is stunted by his appearances, it gives audience an idea why he is so eager to achieve something, to compensate the ingrained inferiority complex is a shoo-in. So the apparent-suicidal case becomes his stepping stone to be recruited by detective Harve Poole (Ryan) for his astute observation that it is indeed a murder underneath the hatched facade.But the ensuing police procedural dampens Johnny's driving enthusiasm, especially after witnessing Harve hectors physically abuses and a group of hippies to milk information about their prime suspect, a drug dealer Bob Zembo (a cameo of Peter Cetera, one of the four CHICAGO members who take on acting roles here apart from their contribution to the picture's soundtrack), and the final straw is an awkward confrontation between him, Harve and Jolene, the latter turns out to be Harve's lover, and spitefully lambastes Harve's incompetence to make her contented and laments her ill-fated destiny, working in a barrelhouse after a dashed Hollywood dream, Johnny and Harv fall out afterwards.Unambiguously Guercio conducts a half-hearted approach to solve the murder mystery, after trifling with a biker-chasing set piece to keep the action moving, the movie falls back on Johnny's "inner voice" for an expedient epiphany to realize who is the murderer at the end of a MADURA concert, with reasons unexplained, but that is not enough, ultimately there would be another revelation later, to further muddle the water and leave the opening scene ever so ambivalent when one retraces back, before reaching its chilling coda, completely hits viewers like a cold shower, willful but symbolic, overall, it is a loner's world against the canvas of a vast Arizona landscape, everyone in the story is either indolent, disillusioned or corrupt, only the hippies' community stands in as a getaway from the unpleasant reality, but their guarded world is defiant towards the mainstream values, Johnny represents a tragic hero who is doomed because of what he represents, an authority figure, cannot be saved by his amiable personality and all-too-well intentions.Performance-wise, everyone on board is on a par with excellence, Elisha Cook Jr. is heart-rending to watch in his committed lunacy, Mitchell Ryan expertly imbues a certain degree of passing diffidence in his bombast mannerism and Billy Green Bush is so organic as Johnny's shade- hogging partner and nails his big scene with a flourish, so is Jeannine Riley, manages to steal some limelight even with a role riddled with platitudes. And our leading man Robert Blake, ever so self- reliant as a pipsqueak trying rather hard to chase his dream, only to get short-changed by a cynical world.ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE, also bolstered by a symphonic soundtrack produced by Guercio himself and its striking wide-screen landscape sensation shot by DP Conrad L. Hall, is an astonishing debut feature, if it intends to be more of a zeitgeist-capturer than a gripping detective story, then I must give my whole-hearted congratulations to the crew, mission grandly accomplished!

The film opens with an unidentified old man, preparing pork chops in a frying pan. He places two sterodents into a glass of water holding his false teeth. The man then proceeds to take his filthy socks off. This entire time, we are never exposed to his face (hence the unidentified part..). He then seemingly appears to tie string to his big toe, fastening the other end to the trigger of a shotgun, aiming the barrel to his heart and pulling the trigger.John Wintergreen is a short-a**e motorcycle cop with dreams of becoming a homicide detective. He is unhappy with patrolling the desert roads (filmed in the Arizona deserts made famous in the John Ford westerns). He is a charming man with the ladies, an effort he seems to have to make due to his lack of height. he has lofty allusions that he may never adhere to, but that is something that does not stop his determination. His partner, Zipper (Billy 'Green' Bush), is perfectly happy with his duties; he particularly enjoys the thrill of harassing hippies (hey, who wouldn't have?). But this life just isn't what John thinks he wants.They soon discover the body of Frank, the apparent suicide victim, in his lonely shack in the desert. This is signalled by a local crazy, Willie (Elisha Cooke), who's wild ramblings lead them to the body. John is immediately struck by some inconsistencies at the scene, particularly the fact the the pork chops were consumed. this seemed to him as though they had been eaten after the incident occurred. This is much to the chagrin of the local coroner (Royal Dano), who states insistently that it is a straight suicide. These cries from Frank are overheard by Detective Harve Pool (Mitchell Ryan), who agrees with him, then hires Wintergreen as his driver (bizarrely he sees this as a major step up, and dresses himself in the same fashion as Harve, with the stetson and cigar).Harve takes john to a bar to introduce him to Jolene, who he believes is a very innocent girl. However, we have met her before at the beginning of the film, in bed with john. This causes a major problem between john and Harve, and he is back to motorcycle duties.This is a slow burner. Whilst it is enjoyable to a degree, it really seems to go nowhere. John does have a story arc, but one that just changes his by-the-books attitude to police procedure. John is played by Robert Blake. who I know from his incredibly scary role as Mystery Man in David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997). He is very good in this film, and has a certain charm to him. He certainly seems to have a way with women (something that he seems to have to do to compensate for his lack of stature).It also seems be be trying to be an almost authoritarian version of Easy Rider (1967), with its role reversal of highway drifters. In this case the drifting biker procedural of police work. Maybe I'm just reading into that due to it's era and the open desert roads. It's not a bad film, it just seems to drift. There is of course a conclusion, but it only seems to anchor on John's story arc (as I stated before, it simply shows that he no longer wants to work in homicide, as this is seeming full of corruption and ineptitude, and therefore he simply does not follow the proper police procedural). Well, I am certainly repeating myself here, so I will end. A kind of fruitless movie really. On the upside, the cinematography is stunning - but this would not be difficult in the surroundings it was shot.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

I saw this movie at a drive-in in Spokane, Washington in the summer of 1973--double feature with Westworld! What a great memory. Electra Glide in Blue was so cutting-edge, so modern! It had motorcycles and girls with enormous breasts (covered) and blood and cussing. It even had several members of Chicago, my favorite band at the time! Unfortunately, it lacked one important thing, something critical to make it actually . . . good--a story. I own a copy of it, and I watch it from time to time to relive the good memory of seeing a movie that had the line, "Yeah, man, I'll tell ya something. You're standing in pig dung." Robert Blake was so intense in his desire to be promoted, Mitch Ryan could do his officious buttbag-act in his sleep, Billy Green Bush was great as the wack-job motorcycle cop, and Chicago-member Lee Loughnane, sitting there with the pigs, should have stuck to his day job with Chicago--he may have been sober, but his delivery of that pig dung line was proof of the dangers of drugs. I even own a copy of the album, with all the poster stuff. The soundtrack was the best part of the movie.This movie was truly awful. It slogged and plodded and tried so hard to be deep, and all it accomplished was teach me that 15 year olds make terrible film critics.

This movie, like a lot of movies of that time are just way too cool...remember Vanishing Point or The Last Detail? Stuff like that...cool script...trippy music...strange characters...great locations...weird lighting...not too pretentious...very realistic while strange at the same time...you are laughing one minute, shocked the next...and usually very original...a lot of the music then was the same...let's see, Cinderella Liberty, Carnal Knowledge...I guess you could go on and on...but strange, cool little movies that you can't forget...and unlike many modern movies, not overdone...just right...usually has you walking away kinda scratching your head...Technically, I guess heavy duty film critics could find a million things wrong with them but even the flaws make the quality happen too...weird...I love movies like that...I guess because they don't spoon feed you like all too many of the movies of the last fifteen years or so do...again...just right...let's see, Serpico, The Lords of Flatbush...Midnight Cowboy ('69?)...on and on...