Back in the golden age of drive-in theatres, movies needed nothing more than crazy stunt driving and a sexy leading lady (or man) to attract audiences. After the success of similar films like ‘Vanishing Point‘ and ‘Two Lane Blacktop‘ the folks at 20th Century Fox gave the green light to yet another road movie. And there’s no question that ‘Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry‘ has one of the coolest getaway cars ever, but the rest of the movie has not held up.
A simple plot; Larry is a struggling racer who’s convinced that if he can just steal enough money to build a fast car, he could make it to the big-time: NASCAR. He teams up with Deke, a skilled mechanic who drank his way out of every racing team on pit lane. They’ve cooked up a meticulous plan to rob a grocery store on payday and use cash to make their racing dreams come true.
To get the audience cheering for an anti-hero, the big caper must be pulled off without hurting anyone, except ‘the man’. Otherwise the anti-hero is a villain. This movie loses the plot right away. As Larry slinks into grocery store to demand money, Deke has already broken into the managers home and is holding the wife and teenage daughter hostage. To make the scene even more disturbing, Deke actually sneaks up on the wife while she’s naked in the shower, like a scene out of ‘Psycho’.
The duo escape with the loot and make a run for it in a souped up car. Between Larry’s reckless driving and Deke’s counter-surveillance using a police scanner, the road to fame and fortune seems well paved. But Larry has a stowaway in the car with him; an insignificant blonde named Mary whom he just had a one-night stand with. She threatens to tell the cops on Larry if he doesn’t take her along for the adventure. And so begins 93 minutes of derogatory comments and misogynistic treatment of Mary.
The big disappointment in this picture is Peter Fonda. A completely un-likeable leading man, his performance actually had movie-goers cheering for the cops. Crazy Larry is boastful and arrogant without the credentials to back it up. Yeah, right Larry… the car was the only reason you never made it to NASCAR! Strutting around like a rooster, laughing at his own jokes and treating Mary like crap, it’s hard to believe this is the cool cat from ‘Easy Rider’.
So, does ‘Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry‘ have any redeeming qualities? Yup; the car chase scenes are some of the best ever committed to celluloid. Initially, the duo escape the robbery in a blue 1967 Chevy Impala 4-door sedan. Such a car would have gone completely un-noticed back in 1974 and with Deke’s big-block engine under the hood, it’s the perfect getaway car. The Chevy even makes a jump over a rising drawbridge. Good stuff.
Later, the dynamic duo buy a Dodge Charger they scoped out in a used car lot. By ditching the Chevy, the cops won’t know which car to chase, and it’s assumed that the Charger is the car they’ll race in NASCAR. That is until Larry stupidly cuts off a farmer in a pickup truck and wrecks the front end of the Dodge! Climbing out of their stricken car, Mary asks Larry if he isn’t going to check on the pickup truck driver. Larry gives some horrible explanation that when you wreck at the race track, your job is to get back to pit lane, fix the car and get back in the race. Nobody checks on the ‘other guy’. Wow, Larry… such a hero.