In the decade between Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider (1969) and George Miller's Mad Max (1979), Electra Glide in Blue—the title comes from a make of Harley-Davidson motorcycle popular with law enforcement—roared into view.
Biker movies were hardly a new phenomenon in 1973, but they had grown in stature from the low-budget, grindhouse quickies of the 1950s and 1960s. If James William Guercio's sole directorial effort wasn't a critical or commercial success, it would become an object of serious consideration, culminating in Kino Lorber's new 4K restoration.
In one of two commentary tracks, biker, and screenwriter Robert Boris laments that the film was dismissed as "fascist" when it premiered at Cannes, damned to be seen as out of step with the times, possibly because the hippies aren't heroic. But neither are the cops. At heart, it's a Western in which Robert Blake's Monument Valley traffic cop, John Wintergreen, aspires to join the homicide unit, but when he gets the chance to assist Mitchell Ryan's Det. Harvey Poole, he's disillusioned by what he finds.
The suicide of the unseen Frank sets the plot in motion. Frank's housemate, Willie (The Maltese Falcon's Elisha Cook, Jr. in an overcooked performance), is bereft, not least because $5,000 has also gone missing. Ballistic evidence leads Wintergreen to suspect murder, bringing him to the attention of Poole, who enlists him to solve a case in which the members of a local commune and even Wintergreen's hippie-hating partner, Zipper (Five Easy Pieces' Billy "Green" Bush), could be culprits.
As a trainee, Wintergreen butts heads with both Poole and Royal Dano's dismissive coroner--it doesn’t help that the cop and the detective have been sleeping with Jeanine Riley's dancer-turned-barmaid Jolene.
Though the cop solves the case, his unwillingness to bend the rules leaves him on the outside looking in, neither an easy rider nor a vigilante antihero. Though Guercio, a Grammy-winning producer, wouldn't direct another film, he composed the elegiac score and cast four members of the band Chicago, including singer Peter Cetera as one of the murder suspects.
For all the ways Electra Glide in Blue broke the rules--Guercio's inspirations ranged from John Ford to Kenneth Anger—the director was limited by the $1 million budget, and had to cut a scene in which Wintergreen and a commune member enjoy a romance. The studio also rejected Boris's original title, Pig, which would have surely ruffled more feathers.
In the end, Robert Blake's performance makes the biggest impression--next to Godfather cinematographer Conrad Hall's widescreen compositions. Along with In Cold Blood's Perry Smith, Wintergreen would become Blake's defining role.
The traffic cop, who compares himself to actor Alan Ladd, may be short, but he's mighty, from his ebullience when trying on his detective outfit to his soul-crushing despondence when Poole and Zipper show their true colors. The role would lead to mainstream stardom two years later when ABC hired him to topline the enjoyably eccentric detective series Baretta.
What type of library programming could use this title?
Library programming on biker movies and cult classics could make excellent use of Electra Glide in Blue.
What academic subjects would this film be suitable for?
Electra Glide in Blue would be suitable for courses involving law enforcement on film, particularly in the countercultural era.
What kind of film series would this narrative fit in?
Film series on offbeat detective dramas would find a prime example in Electra Glide in Blue.