The California Kid
| The California Kid | |
|---|---|
 "The California Kid" movie poster | |
| Directed by | Richard T. Heffron |
| Written by | Richard Compton |
| Produced by | Howie Horwitz Paul Mason |
| Starring | Martin Sheen Vic Morrow Michelle Phillips Nick Nolte Gary Morgan Fredric Downs Janit Baldwin |
| Cinematography | Terry K. Meade |
| Edited by | Robert F. Shugrue Richard Belding |
| Music by | Luchi De Jesus Hal Mooney |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
Release date |
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Running time | 75 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,000,000 |
The California Kid is a 1974 TV movie starring Martin Sheen, Vic Morrow, Nick Nolte, Michelle Phillips, Gary Morgan, and Janit Baldwin.
Plot
The story takes place in 1958, and involves a town, Clarksburg, California, with a famous speed trap, in which a disturbed Sheriff Roy Childress (Vic Morrow), whose wife and daughter were killed by a speeder, turns bad, with a habit of deliberately punishing speeders by pushing their cars off the mountain highway in his 1957 Plymouth Belvedere.
Two Navy sailors on leave (one portrayed by Sheen's younger brother, Joe Estevez), speeding to get back to base on time in a 1951 Ford Custom, are pushed off to their deaths by the sheriff. Soon after, a stranger arrives, driving a hot rodded black 1934 Ford three-window coupe. He provokes Sheriff Childress into giving him a speeding ticket on purpose, establishes his credentials with the sheriff as a hot rodder and potential speed maniac, with an explicit reference to the 3-window's tested speed. He pays the ticket in front of Judge J.A. Hooker (Frederic Downs), and it is revealed he is Michael McCord (Martin Sheen), older brother of one of the sailors.
Believing his brother's death was no accident, he does his own investigating, with the help of Maggie (Michelle Phillips). He finds a stripped bumper from his brother's Ford at the impound yard, dented as if by pushbars. He checks out the lay of the land. Knowing how his brother was killed, he goes out to the Curve, testing its limits.
When Lyle Stafford (Gary Morgan), the younger brother of the town's auto mechanic Buzz Stafford (Nick Nolte) is killed and his girlfriend Sissy (Janit Baldwin) badly injured by the sheriff after the duo go for a drive in a 1955 Mercury, McCord sees the pushbars on the sheriff's car. When Buzz wants to kill the sheriff for revenge, McCord persuades him not to. Then the sheriff tries to run McCord out of town, and the stage is set for the climactic duel.
McCord then runs the speed trap, challenging the sheriff, who tries to run him off the road. McCord is ready, knowing his car's limits for the curve, and the sheriff is a victim of his own obsession, going too fast to make the deadly turn. He drives off the cliff, while McCord manages to stop in the sand.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Martin Sheen | Michael McCord |
| Vic Morrow | Sheriff Roy Childress |
| Stuart Margolin | Deputy |
| Frederic Downs | Judge J.A. Hooker |
| Joe Estevez | Don McCord |
| Michelle Phillips | Maggie |
| Janit Baldwin | Sissy |
| Monika Henreid | Gerry |
| Sandy Brown Wyeth | Leona |
| Barbara Collentine | Edith |
| Nick Nolte | Buzz Stafford |
| Gary Morgan | Lyle Stafford |
| Don Mantooth | Jack (as Donald Mantooth) |
| Britt Leach | Johnny |
| Norman Bartold | Howard |
| Michael Richardson | Charley |
| Gavan O'Herlihy | Tom |
| Jack McCulloch | Pete |
| Ken Johnson | Harlie |
| Trent Dolan | Stranger |
