Electra Glide in Blue

When it bowed in 1973, James William Guercio's Electra Glide in Blue—centering on ambitious Arizona motorcycle cop John Wintergreen (Robert Blake), who becomes disillusioned with the force while helping to investigate a murder—was not rapturously received. But the film gradually won an enthusiastic, if modest, cult following. To be sure, the grandiose stylistic flourishes of its first-time director, who was a name in the music business at the time, lend an undeniable sense of pretentiousness to what is, after all, a fairly generic noir tale. Guercio also encourages outsized turns from some of the supporting cast, which includes Billy “Green” Bush as Wintergreen's lowlife partner, Mitchell Ryan as a preening cowboy detective, Elisha Cook Jr. as an addled old-timer, and Royal Dano as the local coroner. But despite the hyperbolic approach, the movie works, largely because of Blake's magnetic performance as an honest guy whose ideals are crushed by the system. Debuting on Blu-ray with an excellent transfer, extras include a director's audio commentary and an interview with Guercio, who is a rabid fan of John Ford and wanted to visually mimic Ford's Westerns (Guercio was certainly helped by ace cinematographer Conrad Hall). Recommended. (F. Swietek)