Drive-In (1976) Columbia/Comedy-Drama RT: 96 minutes Rated PG (language, violence, sexual material, drug use) Director: Rod Amateau Screenplay: Bob Peete Music: Lee Osborne Cinematography: Robert Jessup Release date: May 26, 1976 (US) Cast: Glenn Morshower, Lisa Lemole, Gary Cavagnaro, Billy Milliken, Lee Newsom, Regan Kee, Andy Parks, Trey Wilson, Gordon Hurst, Kent Perkins, Ashley Cox, Louis Zito, Linda Larimer, Barry Gremillion, David Roberts, Phil Ferrell, Joe Flower, Carla Palmer, Carrie Jessup, Bill McGhee, Gloria Shaw, Robert Valgova, Jessie Lee Fulton, Michelle Franks, Jack Isbell, Dejah Moore, Curtis Posey, Billy Vance White, Hank Stohl. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ***
Talk about a blast from the past! I stumbled across the low-budget comedy Drive-In while looking for something to watch on Tubi. My mind instantly went back to the first time I saw it. It was way, way back in February 1979. I was a mere lad of 11 and on a President’s Day weekend vacation in Lancaster, PA with my family. It was the Friday Night Movie on one of the network channels. It looked good to me, so I tuned in. Sadly, I fell asleep before it was over, but I loved what I saw of it. I finally got to see the whole thing when it showed on TV again a couple of years later. It would be about another ten years before I finally got to see the unedited version courtesy of a local Mom & Pop video store.
This weekend’s re-viewing of Drive-In was the first in nearly 32 years. It’s funny how some films hold up regardless of how dated they are. The day and age of the drive-in movie theater is long gone, but the sweet memories linger on. True, there are still a few of them scattered around the country, but the experience is nothing like it was back in the mid-70s. Back then, you could see two or three dopey exploitation flicks for $5 a carload. Nowadays, it’s not much different from seeing a film at a multiplex. They show the same movies as the local AMC theater. The only real difference between the two venues is you’re sitting in your car (or outside if you prefer) instead of inside a climate-controlled cinema.
Rod Amateau, the auteur behind illustrious cinematic achievements like The Seniors, Lovelines and The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, takes us back to a more innocent time and place, a small Texas town on a typical Friday circa 1976. What a time to be a teen! He kicks things off with a fly-over shot to the titular location while The Statler Brothers’ “Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott” plays over the soundtrack. In a town as small as this one, there’s not much to do. By day (i.e. after school), the youngsters hang out at the roller rink where they skate in a circle to C&W music. By night, everybody goes to the Alamo, the local drive-in theater that serves as the town’s social hub. Tonight’s feature attraction is Disaster ’76 which might have been Team ZAZ’s inspiration for Airplane a few years later. The movie-within-the-movie is a riot, but it takes a back seat to the hijinks and drama going on below the screen.
The central story of this loosely plotted tale is the budding romance between virginal Orville (Morshower) and the more experienced Glowie (Lemole). Orville, who has no luck with the opposite sex, is taken aback when Glowie expresses interest in him. She’s looking for a nice guy now that she’s through with her abusive and possessive ex Enoch (Milliken), the leader of The Widow Makers, a local gang out for blood after one of their own is assaulted by rival gang The Gear Grinders. Despite all the encouragement from his horny 12YO brother Little Bit (Cavagnaro), Orville isn’t convinced Glowie is a sincere girl. He’s more afraid of getting pounded by Enoch. Nevertheless, he agrees to meet up with her at the drive-in that night.
They’re not the only attendees with a story. Two inept criminals, Gifford (Wilson) and Will (Hurst), plan to hold up the place when the manager (Zito) cashes out for the night. Local stud Bill (Perkins) is getting grief from his girlfriend Mary Louise (Cox) after proposing to her. She’s not sure she’s ready for marriage yet. A black couple, Dr. Demars (McGhee) and his wife (Shaw), are a little concerned about being in “Klan country”. He doesn’t want any trouble, yet he always seems to be around when trouble rears its ugly head. A redneck (Valgova) is there with his mother (Fulton) who nags him endlessly until he gets her high on weed.
While all the real life comedy and drama plays out, a reel life story involving every disaster you can think of plays out on the screen. Disaster ’76 pays homage to all the biggies like Airport, The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno and Jaws as well as some non-biggies like Flood! What we get to see of it is hilarious with the bad acting and cheesy special effects. I wish Amateau had thought to turn it into a real feature-length movie.
As much as I like Drive-In, it does have its share of problems. It doesn’t always follow through on the plot threads it introduces. It’s mentioned more than once that Mary Louise is the daughter of the local sheriff. This would appear to set up a rivalry between Bill and his potential father-in-law, but nothing ever comes of it. We don’t even meet the dad. The only law enforcement in town seems to be a couple of not-too-bright deputies.
There’s also an issue with tonal imbalance. For the most part, Amateau keeps things light. As such, it comes as surprise when we see Enoch slapping Glowie around for the usual reasons creeps beat up on women. It’s an abrupt shift in tone that is thankfully reset when Glowie finally stands up to Enoch. One thing, I didn’t know a van waterbed had that much water in it.
In many ways, Drive-In is like a C&W version of American Graffiti with teens hanging out at a drive-in movie instead of cruising the strip. Like AG, the song selections are perfectly fitting. It’s a virtual cornucopia of country tunes by popular artists like Ronnie Milsap (“Pure Love”), George Jones and Tammy Wynette (“God’s Gonna Get’cha for That”), Jerry Reed (“Last Train to Clarksville”) and Ray Stevens (“Misty”).
Drive-In has an amiable, shaggy quality that makes it pleasing and likable. The cast is made up of unknowns (at the time) which gives it a sense of realism. The most familiar face of all (again, at the time) is young Cavagnaro who played Mike Engelberg in The Bad News Bears. He would make one more movie, the 1979 made-for-TV drama Crisis at Central High, before he quit acting. The whole cast does a decent job. It would hard to single out any one actor; they’re all varying degrees of good. I’ll leave it at this; it’s solid ensemble work.
While not hilarious, Drive-In is sufficiently funny. The running gag about Enoch’s customized van getting damaged bit by bit never gets old. The bits with the manager trying to keep the place under control work extremely well.
Drive-In is a movie that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. Nobody even seems to remember it. On the few occasions I brought it up, I got a lot of blank stares. I highly doubt it would go over with today’s audiences. The milieu depicted here would be positively alien to Gen-Z youngsters who order tickets on their phones and sit in pre-chosen reclining seats in gigantic cinemas without personality. I missed the whole drive-in era by about 10 years, but I’ve heard stories. Also, I tend to favor the trashy movies that typically screened in such establishments. Drive-In is a nice, mostly sweet reminder that going to the movies could be eventful.
