Coast to Coast (1980 film)
| Coast to Coast | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Joseph Sargent |
| Written by | Stanley Weiser |
| Produced by | Jon Avnet Steve Tisch |
| Starring | Dyan Cannon Robert Blake |
| Cinematography | Mario Tosi |
| Edited by | Patrick Kennedy George Jay Nicholson |
| Music by | Charles Bernstein |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $4.5 million[1] |
Coast to Coast is a 1980 American romantic comedy film starring Dyan Cannon and Robert Blake, directed by Joseph Sargent. The screenplay was written by Stanley Weiser. The original score was composed by Charles Bernstein. The film was shot in Stockton, California. It was Blake's first film in six years and first since his popular TV series, Baretta left the airwaves.
Plot
Madie Levrington is a wealthy woman who is also neurotic. She was committed to a New York mental institution by her husband, Benjamin, in order to keep her from divorcing him and taking his money. She manages to escape and, in the process, hitches a ride on a livestock truck.
The truck is driven by Charles Callahan. Before realizing she is on his truck, he hears over his CB radio about her escape and a substantial reward for her return. This gets his attention as he is so in debt that he has a repo man after him to repossess his truck.
Behind her back, he meets up with people who are out to get Madie, and gets part of the reward money from the woman who leads them. At the same time, he is also slowly falling in love with her. He even teaches her to drive the truck (frantically, after he was hit in the crotch and sent flying by a bull).
Eventually she finds the money he was given and she wonders how he got it. He then reluctantly explains how, trying to explain that he took it unwillingly. She doesn't believe him and ends up getting in the truck and driving off without him.
He winds up hitching a ride on the back of a motorcycle with an older man. When they finally find the truck, he is forced to get off the bike and jump onto the back of the truck while both are still moving, thus putting him in her shoes at the beginning.
Madie drives the truck all the way back home to her husband, who is having a party in the backyard. Despite his pleas for her to stop the truck and that "everything will be just fine", in probably the most memorable scene in the film, she proceeds to wreak havoc on the party by running over everything in her way, and finally put the coup de grace on it by driving the truck through the house until it won't go any further.
After getting out of the truck, Benjamin tries to choke her to death, but Callahan jumps out of the trailer and tackles him to the canvas. Then she fingers him as the driver of the truck, and she and Callahan get away, but not before running one more time into the repo man, at which point he simply concedes the truck to him.
Cast
- Dyan Cannon as Madie Levrington
- Robert Blake as Charles Callahan
- Quinn Redeker as Benjamin Levrington
- Michael Lerner as Dr. Frederick Froll
- Maxine Stuart as Sam Klinger
- William Lucking as Jules
- Rozelle Gayle as Orderly
- George P. Wilbur as Billy Ray
- Darwin Joston as Drunken Trucker
- Dick Durock as Gregory
- Cassandra Peterson as Dinner Party Guest
- Karen Montgomery as Dinner Party Guest
- Vicki Frederick as Golfer
- John Roselius as Policeman
Awards and nominations
- Nominated: Worst Actor (Robert Blake)
References
- ^ "Coast to Coast". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 14, 2019.
External links
- 1980 films
- 1980 comedy-drama films
- 1980 romantic comedy films
- Paramount Pictures films
- 1980s adventure films
- 1980s road movies
- American road movies
- Trucker films
- Films directed by Joseph Sargent
- Films scored by Charles Bernstein
- American romantic comedy-drama films
- 1980s English-language films
- 1980s American films