Moving Violation (1976)

Perfectly adorable

Excellent, a Must See

Disturbing yet enthralling

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Eddie Moore (Stephen McHattie) is an amiable drifter passing through the town of Rockfield. Predictably, he gets harassed by the snake-mean local sheriff, a man named Rankin (Lonny Chapman). His day is brightened, however, when he meets lovely young Dairy Queen employee Cam Johnson (Ms. Lenz). They hit it off and go sneaking onto the estate of the local bigwig (Will Geer) after whom the town is named. From their vantage point they are able to see the sheriff - who, naturally, is also flat out corrupt - shoot and badly wound a greedy deputy (Dennis Redfield) who wanted in on the action. So Eddie and Cam have to spend the balance of the movie on the lam, dodging bullets fired by the sheriff and his cronies, while trying to find a sympathetic pair of ears.As one can see, this is very much formula-driven drive-in car chase and car crash fare. The characters are for the most part clichés, especially the one-dimensional villainous sheriff. Fortunately, the good thing that can often be said for exploitation entertainment of this variety is its unpretentious nature. It *does*, ultimately, show its viewers a reasonably good time, with plenty of pedal to the metal action and enough explosions to keep a persons' attention from wandering too much. McHattie and especially Lenz are watchable as the hero and heroine, and Chapman is just right as their persistent, nasty nemesis. Geer is too briefly seen, and under-utilized, but does a fine job nonetheless. The supporting cast includes such familiar faces as Jack Murdock, the ubiquitous and always welcome Dick Miller, and Paul Linke, but the movie really belongs to the excellent Eddie Albert, playing attorney Alex Warren, who decides to take the kids' case.Executive produced by Roger Corman, and produced by his wife Julie, this features a flavourful bluegrass score by Don Peake and a catchy ditty titled "Detroit Man" sung by Phil Everly. It's pretty much average for its genre, but still proves to be engaging enough to watch.Six out of 10.

Not having a clue about this film was about, we decided to take a chance. It was produced by legendary Roger Corman, a man who knew how to pack his films with a lot of action. "Moving Violation" is a film that will not disappoint fans of that genre as there is no let up from the start.The young drifter, Eddie, meets a bored Dairy Queen attendant, Cam, and asks her out. She decides to take him to a secret place where they can access the swimming pool in the estate of the rich Mr. Rickfield. They witness as the corrupt sheriff of the town shoots one of his deputies. That triggers a chase across the state as Eddie and Cam are followed through highways and small towns because they know what the sheriff did. They enlist the help of Alex Warren, an attorney that believes them, but ultimately can't do much for them.Charles Dubbin directed with an eye for the action. Stephen McHattie and Kay Lenz play the couple being chased. Lonny Chapman is perfect as the criminal sheriff and Eddie Albert makes a great Alex Warren.The film is non-stop car chasing and will delight the viewer who doesn't expect anything but just pure action.

Moving Violation is about a man named Eddie Moore(Stephen McHattie) who is a drifter from the motor city who meets a small town waitress(Kay Lenz) who saw Sheriff Rankin(Lonny Chapman) killing his Deputy(Dennis Redfield) at the Rockfield mansion that Mr. Rockfield(Will Geer) saw and Sheriff Rankin chases them , and Eddie Moore was shot in the arm during one of the chases.Then the next day, they call a lawyer named Alex Warren(Eddie Albert) who helps them and dislikes Rankin. until following day when they supposed to go to the courthouse and there was a shooting outside the courthouse and Alex was shot and killed. Then Eddie shoots and blowing up the patrol cars and shoots Rankin. At the end Eddie and Cam talk and Cam climb the fience.It was a good movie.I give it ***1/2.

A wildly uneven but watchable combination of violent melodrama and car-chase comedy, about an unassuming young couple who stumble onto a murder and end up on the run, framed by the redneck sheriff who actually committed the crime. This is a 1970's drive-in picture, made to order. The comedy and violence tend to clash and cancel each other out, but the performances are good and the action well-staged for such a low budget film. Worth a peek on a slow night, but nothing to stay up for.