Electra Glide in Blue

Electra Glide in Blue (1973)

He's A Good Cop..... On A Big Bike..... On A Bad Road.

A short Arizona motorcycle cop gets his wish and is promoted to Homicide following the mysterious murder of a hermit. He is forced to confront his illusions about himself and those around him in order to solve the case, eventually returning to solitude in the desert.

Date of release
1973-05-17
TMDB
6.9 / 10 (109)
Runtime
1h 54m
Genres
Crime, Drama, Mystery, Action, Comedy
Director
James William Guercio

Casting

Interesting facts

Electra Glide in Blue is a 1973 American satirical black comedy action film, starring Robert Blake as a motorcycle cop in Arizona and Billy "Green" Bush as his partner. It was produced and directed by James William Guercio, and is named after the Harley-Davidson Electra Glide motorcycle issued to traffic cops.

Production

First-time director James William Guercio took a salary of one dollar in order to have budget available to hire Conrad Hall as the cinematographer. During their discussions, it transpired that Guercio and Hall disagreed on how the film should look; a compromise was reached where Guercio would shoot the exterior scenes in a manner reminiscent of John Ford's films (which was the look Guercio wanted to achieve), while Hall could set up and shoot all…

Prior to production an LAPD Motor Officer (Gerald L. Ray) was hired to teach Blake how to properly ride a Police Motorcycle. They spent more than a month riding replicas of Police Motorcycles around the Van Nuys area. Production was several days behind schedule due to Guercio's inexperience as a director.

Guercio was best known as the producer of the rock band Chicago. Members of the band appear in the film in minor roles, including Peter Cetera, Terry Kath, Lee Loughnane and Walter Parazaider, as well as Hawk Wolinski from the Guercio-produced band Madura. Chicago members also perform on the movie soundtrack.

Blake complained about production woes and lamented his $20,000 fee for a starring role. In addition, he spoke badly of the film (though not mentioning it by name) on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. However his performance caught the attention of television executives and led to the police drama series Baretta, for which he is most known.

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