Moving Violation (1976)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Eddie Moore (Stephen McHattie) is an amiable drifter passing through the town of Rockfield. Predictably, he gets harassed by the snake-mean local sheriff, a man named Rankin (Lonny Chapman). His day is brightened, however, when he meets lovely young Dairy Queen employee Cam Johnson (Ms. Lenz). They hit it off and go sneaking onto the estate of the local bigwig (Will Geer) after whom the town is named. From their vantage point they are able to see the sheriff - who, naturally, is also flat out corrupt - shoot and badly wound a greedy deputy (Dennis Redfield) who wanted in on the action. So Eddie and Cam have to spend the balance of the movie on the lam, dodging bullets fired by the sheriff and his cronies, while trying to find a sympathetic pair of ears.As one can see, this is very much formula-driven drive-in car chase and car crash fare. The characters are for the most part clichés, especially the one-dimensional villainous sheriff. Fortunately, the good thing that can often be said for exploitation entertainment of this variety is its unpretentious nature. It *does*, ultimately, show its viewers a reasonably good time, with plenty of pedal to the metal action and enough explosions to keep a persons' attention from wandering too much. McHattie and especially Lenz are watchable as the hero and heroine, and Chapman is just right as their persistent, nasty nemesis. Geer is too briefly seen, and under-utilized, but does a fine job nonetheless. The supporting cast includes such familiar faces as Jack Murdock, the ubiquitous and always welcome Dick Miller, and Paul Linke, but the movie really belongs to the excellent Eddie Albert, playing attorney Alex Warren, who decides to take the kids' case.Executive produced by Roger Corman, and produced by his wife Julie, this features a flavourful bluegrass score by Don Peake and a catchy ditty titled "Detroit Man" sung by Phil Everly. It's pretty much average for its genre, but still proves to be engaging enough to watch.Six out of 10.

In the 1970s, just about nobody understood the drive-in audience like movie producer Roger Corman. So it should come as no surprise that several times in the 1970s, major Hollywood movie studios hired Corman to make drive-in movies for them. "Moving Violation" was one of those movies, but despite the resources of a major studio at hand, it isn't very successful for the most part. The movie does look slicker and more expensive than Corman's independent movies of the time, but not by much. There's almost no effort in writing a story or characters with depth - we don't even learn the name of one of the lovers before the two of them go on the run! As a result, the actors for the most part aren't able to do much with their characters, though Eddie Albert does shine in his somewhat brief role. As for action sequences, it's mostly car chases done in standard mode, so they lack excitement. If you're desperate, this may help 91 or so minutes to pass by, but even then you might wonder if this is a good way to use your time.

Not having a clue about this film was about, we decided to take a chance. It was produced by legendary Roger Corman, a man who knew how to pack his films with a lot of action. "Moving Violation" is a film that will not disappoint fans of that genre as there is no let up from the start.The young drifter, Eddie, meets a bored Dairy Queen attendant, Cam, and asks her out. She decides to take him to a secret place where they can access the swimming pool in the estate of the rich Mr. Rickfield. They witness as the corrupt sheriff of the town shoots one of his deputies. That triggers a chase across the state as Eddie and Cam are followed through highways and small towns because they know what the sheriff did. They enlist the help of Alex Warren, an attorney that believes them, but ultimately can't do much for them.Charles Dubbin directed with an eye for the action. Stephen McHattie and Kay Lenz play the couple being chased. Lonny Chapman is perfect as the criminal sheriff and Eddie Albert makes a great Alex Warren.The film is non-stop car chasing and will delight the viewer who doesn't expect anything but just pure action.

This is a typical 1970s car chase movie (Eat My Dust, A Small Town in Texas, Vanishing Point, etc.). You might think movies like that aren't worth watching, but they're better than 80% of the stuff they call movies today. This movie shows an airbag being deployed back before airbags became standard in cars. It's a public service movie! And you get to see the top ripped off a car back before Buford T. Justice got the top ripped off his car. And you get to see what happens when you don't put all your lug nuts on tight. People in the 1970s rural America liked these movies because they could relate to the setting and the plot and the cars.