Between the first two Smokey and the Bandit movies, Hal Needham directed one of network television’s more memorably titled prime-time pics: Death Car on the Freeway.
To clear up any potential viewer confusion, it begins with a death car on the freeway: a blue van, in fact, with windows tinted to ensure the driver remains anonymous. With murderous intent and an 8-track tape blasting what sounds like electric bluegrass music playing at double speed, the van runs a little Honda off the 405, nearly killing the bit-part actress behind the wheel (Morgan Brittany, The Initiation of Sarah) and definitely making her late for her 8 a.m. call on Barnaby Jones.
No worries, California: KXLA anchorwoman Jan Clausen (Shelley Hack, two weeks after her debut episode of Charlie’s Angels) is on the case! Repped by Peter Graves, the cops assemble the hilariously named Fiddler Task Force, but the so-called Freeway Fiddler keeps at his work in terrorizing women driver, all in broad (no pun intended) daylight.
Victims include tennis pro Dinah Shore, who survives, and Night Killer’s Tara Buckman, who does not. Jan’s investigation takes her to the Street Phantoms biker club, where Sid Haig, ever the genial host, shames their leader into offering her a soda. Other familiar faces among Death Car on the Freeway’s cast of “Cameo Stars,” as the credits put it, are Frank Gorshin as Jan’s boss, George Hamilton’s as Jan’s ex and Abe Vigoda, who just sits in a hospital bed.
Needham’s direction may be unimaginative, but most of the driving stunts are terrific, which is really all that’s called for. Suspense is hampered less by Needham’s hand than the surprisingly clumsy editing by Frank Morriss, who expertly cut Steven Spielberg’s Duel, which this telepic does its damndest to resemble without investing much effort. —Rod Lott