HiRiders

Hi-Riders (1978)

The movie opens up with a couple of kids, Mark and Lynn), cruising in a Camero. They meet up with a member of a car club called the Hi-Riders. After they smoke him in a race he takes off rather than pay off the bet he lost to them. Later they track him down and after beating him again in front of the rest of the club they get invited to travel with them for a while. So off Mark and Lynn go with the Hi-Riders. But when some locals get killed while drag racing with the club in the next town things get serious. Especially when one of the parents pays to have them taken out!

Okay right off I want to acknowledge that the story here isn’t very sophisticated and has some plot holes. The narrative tends to jump around and some of the characters are pretty one-dimensional. But then I think that everyone needs to realize this is a car movie, and a pretty good one at that. One of the cool things about the drive-in scene is that is spawned movies that had plots and characters who where there to support an hour and a half of car chases, crashes, and basically cool stunt work. Now I don’t want to sound like I’m trashing the script or cast, because I’m not. The story, while simple, is tight and gets the audience right to the action as quickly as possible. It also does a decent job of establishing the main characters so you will care what happens to them later on. As a whole the cast gives good performances. But again this isn’t the kind of movie that is going to give anyone a character they can really do a lot with, so don’t expect too much.

Behind the camera this is a well-made movie. The camera work and sound are decent, though I was a bit bummed by how dark many of the scenes were. But that is more than made up for with how well director Greydon Clark and cinematographer Dean Cundey capture the racing and chasing scenes. Though given Cundey’s career that shouldn’t be much of a surprise. The stunt work here is also top notch. From the drag racing, to the big accidents this movie delivers the goods. This is especially impressive given their budget.

I watched the new DVD from VCI for this review. They did a great job on the DVD that includes a nice interview with director Greydon Clark. He discusses his entire career, including breaking into the business and working with Al Adamson. There are some really fun stories here if you are into the drive-in flicks of the late 60s and early 70s. And of course he talks about making Hi-Riders.

The other special feature that I wanted to mention is the interview conducted with the stars of the movie Darby Hinton (Mark) and Diane Peterson (Lynn). They have some great stories about getting cast, making the movie, and working with some of the veteran actors that were in the cast (Mel Ferrer and Neville Brand). They also talk about the unfortunate accident that took the life of the stunt co-coordinator, Vic Rivers, on the final day of shooting. Both of these interviews were conducted by Jason Rutherford (Masters of the Grind) and are top notch. It really is nice to see some of these cool old drive-in movies get some respect.

So to sum things up Hi-Riders is a fun example of a drive-in movie from the 70s with plenty of action to keep the audience interested. I also have to say that the DVD from VCI is top notch and if you want to check this movie out really is the way to see it. If you are interested check out VCI’s website at http://www.vcientertainment.com/ for more information.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer