Movie Details
| Title: | White Line Fever | |
| Director: | Jonathan Kaplan | |
| Year: | 1975 | |
| Genre: | Hicksploitation | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 11.16.25 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (2)
- Over the Edge
- Truck Turner
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 11.16.25 | Internet | This Screening is part of event: DVRfest 2025 "Fellow shit-kickers, this here's Carrol Jo Hummer and I'm commencin' broadcastin' to you today from my new bucket, which will from now on be known as the Blue Mule. We're in business for ourselves, me and the mule, and we aim to get our butts outta hock so all you turkeys better watch out we don't get all the work." "Well bless my ass!" Jan Michael Vincent, perhaps as a precursor to Stringfellow Hawk, plays Carrol Jo Hummber, a vet who buys a truck like his dad used to and just tries to making a living of it until he learns his dad's friend, played by Slim Pickens, is forcing truckers to put contraband in their trailers. He says fuck that but it turns out there's a whole conspiracy going on so Big Trucking tries to intimidate him, incapacitate him, and ultimately neutralize him. Not just for standing up to them, but also because he's showing other truckers they can also operate independently and perhaps form a union. This was good mostly due to Kaplans direction I think. Once scene in particular, where Hummer storms back into Pickens' office with a shotgun and demands a load since he's been blackballed and can't get work anywhere else, that's shot like a western shootout. There's gotta be fifty setups of people reacting, whooshing by them, zooming in, craning up to show Martin Kove on the roof of the trailer. Hummer's swinging his shotgun, everything's real tense, then he gets in his truck and drives away but Kaplan shoots the everloving shit out of it and it's amazing. Everyone gives pretty good performances, that guy Dick Miller pops up as a trucker, I even liked Jan Michael Vincent's performance, perhaps for the first time. The music gets a little grating after a while but they're going for that folksy country cracker thing so harmonica and fiddles are de rigeur I guess. The movie's also shot in Arizona, primarily around Tucson. Having spent a decent chunk of time in Southern Arizona recently, it's cool to see the town back when it was pretty small and wide-open but with the same mountains in the background. One road is called out by name in a courtroom scene and it's like an urban road now but if it's really the same road in the movie then it was out of town. There's also some beautiful shots of Monument Valley covered in snow. Just gorgeous. I think I tracked this down when Kaplan died earlier this year. He's primarily been working in TV for the past long while but Over The Edge is like the quintessential Teen Angst in Suburban Hell movie for me and Truck Turner is S-tier blaxploitation. This one's a lot of fun as well. |
