PSYCHOTRONIC NETFLIX VOL. 36



Welcome to another edition of PSYCHOTRONIC NETFLIX! This week we’ll take to the road again, this time with 18 wheels of cinematic justice as we take a look at ten flicks with trucks! Okay, nine films with trucks and one with a bus, but THE WAGES OF FEAR isn’t on streaming anymore.





10. Plunder Road (1957)









After a group of tough guys make off with millions in gold after robbing a train, they make their way via truck to the coast in Rubert Cornfield’s sparse, but highly atmospheric noir thriller starring Gene Raymond and Elisha Cook Jr. (Spoiler: Elisha Cook is whiny.)



9. Black Dog (1998)





Kevin Hook’s action pic about an ex-con (Patrick Swayze) driving a truck filled with illegal weapons across the country didn’t bring back the trucker genre, but it’s not a bad little flick, with solid supporting performaces by Meat Loaf, Randy Travis, Charles S. Durron and Stephen Tobolowsky.



8. Flatbed Annie and Sweetie Pie: Lady Truckers (1979)







Back in the ’70s, trucking was so big, they even made TV movies about them. In fact, they even made TV movies about LADY truckers! It was a crazy time, when Annie Potts and Kim Darby got together to start their own trucking journey in order to prevent repo man Harry Dean Stanton from grabbing Darby’s husband Fred Willard’s rig. With Avery Schreiber, Rory Calhoun, Rance Howard, Joe Estevez and Billy Carter in a role that cost his brother re-election.

7. Road Kill (2010)







A group of Australian teenagers are attacked by an evil, driverless truck. Dumb? Sure, but it’s an entertaining ride in Dean Francis’ Fangoria-distributed thriller.



6. High-Ballin’ (1978)







It wouldn’t be a trucker film list without Jerry Reed, and in Peter Carter’s drive-in flick, he co-stars with Peter Fonda as a pair of drivers fending off thugs trying to take them down. With Helen Shaver.



5. Therese Raquin (1953)







Set to be adapted again this year (with Jessica Lange), Marcel Carne’s tale of a truck driver who gets blackmailed after murdering his lover’s husband is a classic thriller featuring Simone Signoret.



4. Convoy (1978)







It’s a more memorable song than it is a movie, but Sam Peckinpah’s phoning-it-in action flick about a trucking gang’s vendetta against Sheriff Cottonmouth (Ernest Borgnine) still has a great cast, including Kris Kristofferson (as Rubber Duck), Ali MacGraw, Burt Young, Madge Sinclair, Franklyn Ajaye and Seymour Cassel.



3. The White Bus (1967)







Lindsay Anderson (IF…) directed this little-seen absurdist short (at 47 minutes) about a girl (Patricia Healey) on a London tour bus in which she is reminded as to the joys of living in the city.

2. Citizen’s Band (1977)







This early Jonathan Demme film may seem at first glance as a cash-in on the then-current trend of CB radio affictionados, but it’s a genuinely entertaining ensemble flick in the CAR WASH mold centered around a group of Southerners living out their fantasies. With Paul Le Mat, Candy Clark, Bruce McGill, Roberts Blossom, Charles Napier, Ann Wedgeworth, Alex Elias and Ed Begley Jr.



1. Deadhead Miles (1972)







Terrence Malick wrote this virtually plotless comedy about the life of a trucker (Alan Arkin) and his life on the road — like many independent films made at the time, not much happens, but it’s a fine character piece with some great moments that ranks as one of Malick’s most underrated efforts. With Paul Benedict, Charles Durning, Richard Kiel, Loretta Swit, Avery Schreiber and Hector Elizondo.

