The Sweet Ride
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| The Sweet Ride | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Harvey Hart |
| Screenplay by | Tom Mankiewicz |
| Based on | The Sweet Ride by William Murray |
| Produced by | Joe Pasternak |
| Starring | Tony Franciosa Michael Sarrazin Jacqueline Bisset Bob Denver Michael Wilding Michele Carey Lara Lindsay Norma Crane Percy Rodriguez Warren Stevens Pat Buttram |
| Cinematography | Robert B. Hauser |
| Edited by | Philip W. Anderson |
| Music by | Pete Rugolo |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
|
Running time | 110 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,935,000[1] |
| Box office | $1.5 million (US/ Canada)[2][3] |
The Sweet Ride is a 1968 American drama film with a few surfer/biker exploitation film elements. It stars Tony Franciosa, Michael Sarrazin and Jacqueline Bisset in an early starring role. The film also features Bob Denver in the role of Choo-Choo, a Beatnik piano-playing draft dodger. Sarrazin and Bisset were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer, Male and Female respectively.
The Sweet Ride was directed by Harvey Hart and written by Tom Mankiewicz, based on a 1967 novel of the same name by William Murray, author, fiction editor and a native of New York City, who had moved to southern California in 1966.
The San Francisco rock and roll band Moby Grape contributed to the soundtrack, and appeared, credited, in the film, performing the song "Never Again" in a Sunset Strip nightclub called the Tarantula. Other famous Sunset Strip locations include Gazzarri's and Scandia, as well as location filming in Malibu, according to reviews of the film.
Dusty Springfield sings "Sweet Ride" over the film's opening credits.
The story, told in flashbacks, concerns a middle-aged tennis bum Collie who shares a beach house with surfer Denny and musician Choo Choo. Their carefree life becomes complicated, and later turns tragic, after they become involved with a mysterious young woman, Vickie, and a biker gang.
Vickie is raped by a biker and beaten up by television producer Caswell, and decides to return to her family. Denny takes a job in a hardware store.
Cast
- Tony Franciosa as Collie Ransom
- Michael Sarrazin as Denny McGuire
- Jacqueline Bisset as Vickie Cartwright
- Bob Denver as Choo-Choo Burns
- Michael Wilding as Mr. Cartwright
- Michele Carey as Thumper Stevens
- Lara Lindsay as Martha
- Norma Crane as Mrs. Cartwright
- Percy Rodriguez as Lieutenant Harvey Atkins
- Warren Stevens as Brady Caswell
- Pat Buttram as Texan
- Michael Forest as Barry Green
- Lloyd Gough as Parker
- Stacy King as Big Jane
- Corinna Tsopei as Tennis Girl
- Charles Dierkop as Mr. Clean
- Arthur Franz as Psychiatrist
- Paul Condylis as Sergeant Soloman (uncredited)
- Lou Procopio as Diablo (uncredited)
- Ralph Lee as Scratch (uncredited)
- Seymour Cassel as surfer (uncredited)
Production
The film was based on a novel by William Murray. Film rights were bought by 20th Century Fox, which assigned the project to producer Joe Pasternak. John Gregory Dunne, who touched on the making of the movie in his book on Fox called The Studio, described it as "a sexy surfing picture, a programmer the studio hoped to drop into the summer release market for a quick return from the vacationing teenagers who make up the bulk of the drive in theatre audiences."[4]
William Murray asked to adapt his novel into a screenplay but Pasternak refused as Murray had bever written a script before.[5] The job of doing the screenplay was given to Tom Mankiewicz who lived at Malibu, where the story was set, and who had written an original script that Fox admired. The director, Harvey Hart, had been working on Peyton Place for Fox.[6]
Mankiewicz wrote the problem with The Sweet Ride was "it tried to touch all the bases at once: drama, comedy, porn, dropouts, surfing, true love, a touch of perversion, and the general malaise of 1960s young people. Frankie and Annette it definitely wasn't."[6] Mankiewicz also says producer Joe Pasternak had suffered a stroke shortly before filming which impacted his effectiveness. (The movie would turn out to be Pasternak's last credit.)[7]
Michael Sarrazin was borrowed from Universal to play the lead role.[8] Tony Franciosca was the other male lead. Joe Pasternak said during filming that Franciosa "doesn't draw flies at the box office but he's a good actor. You're not buying box office any more. You're buying talent."[9]
Jacqueline Bisset was under contract to Fox and was cast as the female lead on the basis of her short appearance in Two for the Road starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. By the time The Sweet Ride was released she had been cast in The Detective starring Frank Sinatra and Bullitt starring Steve McQueen off the strength of her rushes in The Sweet Ride.[10]
Filming took place in Point Dume, Malibu, where the studio rented a beach house for two months.[11] Jacqueline Bisset said her nude scene in the ocean was 'miserable'.[12]
Reception
Critical
According to John Gregory Dunne, "the film received bad reviews and was saturation booked into drive ins and neighborhood theatre sacross the country."[13]
Variety wrote the movie "could sum up as Hell's Angels Bikini Beach Party in Valley of the Dolls Near Peyton Place" with "ragged scripting, paper mache characters and routine direction."[14]
The New York Times wrote "Even with color photography and rock music, Pasternak's current films aren't much different from the ones he made 30 years ago, except, perhaps, that today's heroines are more inclined—as we used to say 30 years ago — to go all the way."[15]
Box Office
According to Fox records, the film required $3,950,000 in rentals to break even and by 11 December 1970 had made $2,600,000 so made a loss.[16]
The movie's response resulted in Pasternak leaving Fox.[17]
Musical score and soundtrack
| The Sweet Ride | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | 1968 | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Label | 20th Century Fox 3198/S 4198 | |||
| Pete Rugolo chronology | ||||
| ||||
The score was composed, arranged and conducted by Pete Rugolo except the main title written by Lee Hazlewood and performed by Dusty Springfield with the soundtrack album released on the 20th Century Fox label.[18]
Reception
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [19] |
The Allmusic review by Tony Wilds noted: "Rugolo hits many of the same areas that made several Lalo Schifrin soundtracks great, but unlike Schifrin, Rugolo lacks the killer pop instinct. It all sounds like soundtrack music (the average cut is only about two minutes long), and there's nothing here that hadn't been done better elsewhere, earlier.".[19]
Track listing
All compositions by Pete Rugolo except where noted.
- "Sweet Ride (Main Title)" (Lee Hazlewood) - - 2:02
- "Vicky Meets Danny"- 2:30
- "Collier's Riff" - 1:35
- "Come Bossa With Me" - 1:53
- "Thumper" - 1:20
- "My Name Is Mr. Clean" - 2:09
- "Lost Wages Brash" - 1:50
- "Turn Me On" - 3:08
- "Sock Me Choo Choo (Sweet Ride Theme)" (Lee Hazlewood) - 1:50
- "Bedroom Time" - 3:08
- "Where's The Melody" - 1:00
- "Swing Me Lightly" - 2:31
Personnel
- Pete Rugolo - arranger, conductor
- Dusty Springfield - vocals (track 1)
- Unidentified Orchestra