SPEEDTRAP

US, 1977, 113 minutes, Colour.
Joe Don Baker, Tyne Daley, Richard Jaeckel, Robert Loggia, Morgan Woodward, Lana Wood.
Directed by Earl Bellamy.

A conventional enough thriller - with a police story both with police heroics and corruption as well as a mystery about a car thief. This provides background for a number of spectacular chases and some interesting technology. Joe Don Baker is at home with this kind of heroics. Tyne Daley is an attractive and strong heroine. Earl Bellamy has directed many films both for cinema and television like this. Enjoyable but very conventional.

1. An entertaining road movie? Caper movie? Police movie? Value? For Arnerican audiences, overseas audiences?

2. The conventions of the police genre, police efficiency, corruption? The background of Mafia-type criminals and drug-pushing? The oppressed family and the avenging daughter? The ex-policeman and his insurance agency role? The confrontation, the mystery, the resolution?

3. Colour, Arizona locations? Musical score? The emphasis on the special effects - cars, their movement, speed, crashes?

4. How plausible the plot - for the story purposes? For the conventions of car chases and crashes? Any elements of realism in the human aspects of the story?

5. Pete Novick as hero? Big, brawny, police background, investigation, the humorous touches in his being arrested, his relationship with Blossom and her seeing the medallion, his handling of Captain Nolan, of the criminals, the bond with Nifty? His tracking down the Road Runner? his car skills? The final confrontation and his response to the discovery of the truth? A future with Nifty?

6. Nifty as a strong heroine, her place in the police force, her computer skills, the revelation that she was the Road Runner - how evident from the beginning, middle? Her motivations because of her father, Captain Nolan, deaths and vengeance? Her amassing evidence against Nolan?

7. Nolan and his running of the police, his criminal connections, confrontation with Novick? Spilano and his wealthy connections, his brutal henchmen? The shootouts?

9. The special effects and audience enjoyment of these?

10. Basic themes of police work and corruption? The basic themes of car robberies and the effect on people - with the humorous touches of the lady driver, the wineo, the lady with the dog and her car stolen etc.?

11. Themes of justice?