Product Details

• Actors: Marjoe Gortner
• Directors: Milton Katselas
• Studio: Rank Video
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B001AT2AE4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #604,190 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

This highly sought-after 1979 film, adapted from the play of the same name by Mark Medoff, is regarded as one of the great lost films of the 70s. The year after its release, Medoff won the Tony Award for "Children of a Lesser God," and in 1970, the film's director, Milton Katselas, was nominated for the Tony for his direction of "Butterflies are Free." The esteemed background in Broadway is obvious as the acting, writing, and direction are top-notch.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Long Forgotten Curio, June 20, 2011

By 

Dr. O'Boogie - See all my reviews

This review is from: When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (VHS Tape)

I saw this film in 1981 onboard ship while in the Navy, and it's not a film you can easily forget. But since it's been 30 years, I'll try to recap as much as I can.

Since Marjoe Gortner had finally given up the evangelist business, he went into acting with limited success usually playing corrupt or psychotic individuals. Here, he really lets loose as a zoned-out Viet-Nam vet working as a drug smuggler. After crossing the Mexican border while taunting the border guards of having a "considerable amount of cocaine", and enduring a rather painful body cavity search along with his girlfriend (Candy Clark), he decides to hole up in a off-the-beaten path diner in New Mexico when their truck breaks down.

Gortner holds the owner and patrons hostage at gunpoint and the rest of the film basically has him insulting and tormenting the people while his girlfriend looks on helplessly. The hostages are a mixed crowd, we have Hal Linden (yes, that's Barney Miller!) and Lee Grant as an upper class couple, Peter Firth as a somewhat dimwitted cook, Pat Hingle as a local.

The film has some scenes that are rather tough to watch like Gortner trying to force the cook to have sex with the waitress on a table in front of everybody, humiliating Lee Grant by lifting her blouse exposing her breasts then beating up Linden when he tries to intervene among other things involving physical and mental torture. What the point is with all this, I can't really remember.

It's pretty much done on a B scale with a very low budget, it came and went with little notice. It was based on an obscure play written by Mark Medoff. Certainly no classic in any sense, but interesting to say the least. No video available in any format, but you can view a poor quality of it on Google Video. Worth a look at least.