White Line Fever (1975)
May 27, 2016 8:15 AM - Subscribe
Returning from a stint in the Air Force, Carrol Jo Hummer borrows money to buy a truck, hoping to make enough money hauling produce to marry Jerri Kane and set up housekeeping.
White Line Fever is an American movie about truck drivers released in 1975 and starring Jan-Michael Vincent. The film was directed by Jonathan Kaplan, and was made during a heyday for trucking in American popular culture. It features performances by Slim Pickens, L.Q. Jones and Kay Lenz. (wikipedia)
• Kaplan received the offer to direct the movie from Peter Guber at Columbia Pictures after the success of Truck Turner (1974). He said his goal was to make a modern day Western, heavily influenced by the films of Sam Peckinpah. Jan-Michael Vincent was cast by Guber, who thought he was going to be a big star; Kaplan claims this was the film where Vincent first used cocaine.
• Dick Miller's character is named R. "Birdie" Corman, a tribute to producer Roger Corman, who was a mentor to director Jonathan Kaplan.
• In a telephone conversation, one character says, "Go get Joe Dante.” Director Joe Dante is an old friend of the film's director, Jonathan Kaplan, and, like Kaplan, is one of the legion of directors given his start by producer Roger Corman.
• The scene where Carrol Jo is charging toward the Glass House they used 2 different Ford W 9000 tractors. Throughout the movie Carrol Jo's truck had polished 10 hole aluminum wheels and in this scene, the truck had 5 hole steel wheels.
• Filming was in and around Tucson, Ariz.
Trailer
This movie is a selection of the Shut Up And Drive! club.
White Line Fever is an American movie about truck drivers released in 1975 and starring Jan-Michael Vincent. The film was directed by Jonathan Kaplan, and was made during a heyday for trucking in American popular culture. It features performances by Slim Pickens, L.Q. Jones and Kay Lenz. (wikipedia)
• Kaplan received the offer to direct the movie from Peter Guber at Columbia Pictures after the success of Truck Turner (1974). He said his goal was to make a modern day Western, heavily influenced by the films of Sam Peckinpah. Jan-Michael Vincent was cast by Guber, who thought he was going to be a big star; Kaplan claims this was the film where Vincent first used cocaine.
• Dick Miller's character is named R. "Birdie" Corman, a tribute to producer Roger Corman, who was a mentor to director Jonathan Kaplan.
• In a telephone conversation, one character says, "Go get Joe Dante.” Director Joe Dante is an old friend of the film's director, Jonathan Kaplan, and, like Kaplan, is one of the legion of directors given his start by producer Roger Corman.
• The scene where Carrol Jo is charging toward the Glass House they used 2 different Ford W 9000 tractors. Throughout the movie Carrol Jo's truck had polished 10 hole aluminum wheels and in this scene, the truck had 5 hole steel wheels.
• Filming was in and around Tucson, Ariz.
Trailer
This movie is a selection of the Shut Up And Drive! club.
Saw this in a drive-in somewhere in southern Maine as a double bill with Shadow of the Hawk.
posted by octothorpe at 12:15 PM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by octothorpe at 12:15 PM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
Shadow of the Hawk's wiki entry has a two-sentence description of the plot, with the word Shaman in both sentences. Now I want to see it so bad. I imagine it as written by Ed Chigliak.
posted by valkane at 12:40 PM on May 27, 2016
posted by valkane at 12:40 PM on May 27, 2016
The one-sentence synopsis at the top makes this movie sound like a sequel to "The Truck Farmer" (featured on last night's MST3K Club). If Shut Up and Drive! Club is going to do a movie about truck drivers, the annoying hit song "Convoy", also of 1975, spawned a movie of the same title, which was like "Smokey and the Bandit" with 75% less humor (Ernest Borgnine in the Jackie Gleason role? Meh.)
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:51 PM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:51 PM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]
foop, Convoy is actually on the schedule. But thanks for coming out.
posted by valkane at 5:37 PM on May 27, 2016
posted by valkane at 5:37 PM on May 27, 2016
Kaplan claims this was the film where Vincent first used cocaine
Can you imagine Vincent without cocaine? Yeesh. He's lifeless enough as it is all coked up.
posted by MoonOrb at 8:30 AM on May 28, 2016
Can you imagine Vincent without cocaine? Yeesh. He's lifeless enough as it is all coked up.
posted by MoonOrb at 8:30 AM on May 28, 2016
The irony of someone's first experience with cocaine happening on the set of a movie called White Line Fever is almost unbearable.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:23 AM on May 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 6:23 AM on May 29, 2016 [2 favorites]
I read the log line and thought this was a working-class lesbian romance. I'd watch that remake.
posted by infinitewindow at 11:44 AM on May 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by infinitewindow at 11:44 AM on May 29, 2016 [3 favorites]
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posted by valkane at 8:16 AM on May 27, 2016