ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE (1973)

written by Robert Boris & Rupert Hitzig

directed by James William Guercio

starring: Robert Blake, Billy Green Bush, Mitchell Ryan, Jeannine Riley, Royal Dano, and Elisha Cook Jr.

Director John Ford (The Grapes Of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, and My Darling Clementine), in addition to making numerous classic films which starred his perennially favorite actor/alter-ego; John Wayne, was one of the few directors who knew how to utilize the landscape/environment and effectively make it an un-credited "character". Witness his use of the Monument Valley in such westerns as The Searchers, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, and Stagecoach.

In 1973, James William Guercio, a music composer and record producer for the band; Chicago, made his directorial debut, as well as, his only film to date (he was replaced by William Wiard on Steve McQueen's Tom Horn in 1980), that would have made John Ford proud.

Shot in Arizona's Monument Valley, by the legendary cinematographer, Conrad Hall (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Day of the Locusts, and In Cold Blood], Electra Glide in Blue tells the story of officer John Wintergreen, a former Marine who served in the Vietnam war, played by Robert Blake (In Cold Blood, Lost Highway, and Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here), as a "vertically challenged" motorcycle cop, with a burning desire to become a homicide detective. As he tells his slightly unhinged, comic book-loving and hippie-hating partner, "Zipper", played by Billy Green Bush (The Culpepper Cattle Company, Five Easy Pieces, and Tom Horn), "I hate that elephant they make me ride under my ass!"

Wintergreen unexpectedly gets his opportunity for a promotion when he deduces that the apparent suicide of a desert rat/prospector is in fact a murder, and Harve Poole, captain of the homicide division, with an ever-present cigar in his mouth, played by Mitchell Ryan (The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Magnum Force, and Monte Walsh), agrees.

Donning his best western suit, his best cowboy boots, and his best Stetson hat, Wintergreen becomes Harve Poole's driver and, together, they set out to solve the murder. However, along the way, Wintergreen becomes disillusioned by his mentor's misuse/abuse of his power and authority, and of his apparent disregard for the truth, after harassing a bunch of innocent hippies who live on a nearby commune.

And, late one night, the abrupt disclosure of Wintergreen's on-going affair with Harve Poole's mistress, the sexy waitress/barmaid, Jolene, played by the voluptuous Jeannine Riley, results in his being busted back down to the motorman division.

Wintergreen eventually solves the case when he finally realizes that Willie, another desert rat/prospector and close friend of the deceased, played by the late and great character actor; Elisha Cook Jr. (Carny, The Killing, and Welcome To Hard Times], misled them in their investigation. Thus allowing Wintergreen to confront the self-important and self-absorbed Harve Poole with the truth, telling him that he was wrong all along, and to "take that cigar, and the suit, and the badge, and give them to some other little mouse that will believe your horseshit."

Wintergreen climbs back onto his motorcycle and resumes "tagging" automobiles, with the knowledge that he is destined to finish his career as he started it -- longing, like many a man, to prove his self-worth. But, alas, in the end, he unwittingly finds himself in a fatal encounter with the very same people he has persevered to protect.

Robert Blake, who began his film career with the role of Mikey, in The Little Rascals' featurettes, gives a heartfelt performance as a decent and honest man who appears to feel more kinship with the hippies then he does with the policemen he serves with. His portrayal of Officer Wintergreen is the embodiment of what we expect in our uniformed public servants, unlike Billy Green Bush's portrayal of Officer Davis, which is what we encounter all too often.

While Electra Glide in Blue is dated, in the same manner as Easy Rider, in its depiction of the "peace-love-dope generation", it is timeless in its depiction of Mother Nature's exquisite landscape, as well as, the emotional landscape of a heroic man living his life in quiet desperation.

[originally published in VMag - July 1998]