Taglines: No one’s faster than Crazy Larry, except Dirty Mary!
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry movie storyline. Larry Rayder is an aspiring NASCAR driver, Deke Sommers is mechanic. As they feel they collectively are the best, the only thing that is holding them back is money to build the best vehicle possible. As such, they decide to rob a supermarket’s office of the money in its safe to pursue their dream.
On the most part, their robbery is successful, although their plan breaks down in its end phase, which doesn’t allow them as much getaway time as they wanted. Another problem they face is an unexpected third person in their getaway, Larry’s one night stand Mary Coombs, who doesn’t like the fact that Larry ran off on her, although she eventually also says that she doesn’t want any of the money.
With a police scanner and two-way radio in their souped up Dodge Charger, they try to outrun the police, who have an identification of their vehicle, and a general description of the three. The police pursuit is led by the tenacious Sheriff Everett Franklin, who knows he and his team can catch them, but also knows that the three may be able to get out of the state to “freedom” through a grove of walnut trees, which Larry, Deke and Mary may or may not know. At every literal and figurative turn, Larry needs to show his superiority as a driver, while trying to ditch Mary, who is a little more resourceful in staying with them than he anticipates.
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry is a 1974 American car chase film based on the 1963 Richard Unekis novel titled The Chase (later retitled Pursuit). Directed by John Hough, the film stars Peter Fonda, Susan George, Adam Roarke, and Vic Morrow. Although Jimmie Haskell is credited with writing the music score, the soundtrack contains no incidental music apart from the theme song “Time (Is Such a Funny Thing)”, sung by Marjorie McCoy, over the opening and closing titles, and a small amount of music heard over the radio.
About the Production
The film was shot in and around Stockton, California in late 1973, mostly in the walnut groves near the small town of Linden. The supermarket scenes were filmed in Sonora, California, the drawbridge jump was filmed in Tracy, California, the swap meet scene in Clements, California and the climactic train crash was filmed on the Stockton Terminal and Eastern Railroad in Linden, near the intersection of Ketcham Lane and Archerdale Road. The Bell JetRanger used in the climactic chase was flown by veteran film pilot James W. Gavin (who played the character of the pilot as well) and was actually flown between rows of trees and under powerlines as seen in the film.
In the commentary of the 2005 DVD and later Blu-ray releases, Hough says two blue 1966 Chevrolet Impalas, as well as two 1969 (and one 1968) “Citron Yella” (Chrysler paint code GY3 color Dodge Chargers were used in the filming. As the film was a low-budget project,[citation needed] and no more than three Chargers could be purchased,[citation needed] a team of mechanics would work on the cars overnight to repair damage, while the film crew would cycle through the available cars throughout the shooting day. Car haulers would follow the filming team with the additional cars as they were available.
In the same interview, Hough also revealed that the ending in which the Charger crashes into the train was not in the original script. The novel upon which the film was based ended with the robbers colliding with a tanker truck, but as the Linden, California filming location offered a maze of railroad crossings, the ending was changed to incorporate the collision with the locomotive.
Hough said the lead characters did not die in the script. “I did that myself without asking or telling anybody. Consequently, we would not be able to make a sequel because the leading characters were all killed. But a statement I really wanted to make, was: speed kills. If you’re gonna drive a hundred miles an hour, you’ll get yourself killed, so you’d better not speed.”
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974)
Directed by: John Hough
Starring: Peter Fonda, Susan George, Adam Roarke, Vic Morrow, Eugene Daniels, Lynn Borden, Janear Hines, Elizabeth James, Adrianne Herman, James W. Gavin, Al Rossi, Ben Niems, George Westcott, Tom O’Neill
Screenplay by: Leigh Chapman, Antonio Santean
Production Design by: Philip Leonard
Cinematography by: Michael D. Margulies
Film Editing by: Christopher Holmes
Makeup Department: Wes Dawn, Charlene Johnson
Music by: Jimmie Haskell (Main
MPAA Rating: PG for adult situations.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: May 17, 1974
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