James William Guercio on "Electra Glide in Blue"

Electra Glide in Blue (1973), produced, scored and directed by James William Guercio.

A motorcycle policeman wants a promotion to detective, which is a mistake. As a patrol officer he is honest and kindly, if strictly by the book. In plain clothes he is in over his head. He does solve a murder, but no one thanks him for it.

I never saw the CHiPs TV series, so motorcycle cops of this era automatically suggest to me the death squad in Magnum Force (1973). The story is set in a mirror-universe to Easy Rider (1969), and in fact the cops use posters of that film for target practice, which I found hilarious.

When the director took the film to Cannes it was criticized as "fascistic", which is not what he intended. He wanted to show the dignity and endurance of the common working man, and also feature the seldom-shown courage of those who must give up their dreams and settle for less.

The cast:

• Robert Blake: a little guy with lots of ambition. And a lot of energy: three times a morning, says his girlfriend. His problem is that he is too honest to do the dirty work required on the murder squad. The director said this film got Blake his Baretta series. (Story I heard: the producers disliked Tony Musante so much that they killed his show Toma and brought it back under a new name with another lead).
• Billy "Green" Bush: the cop buddy, lazy and goofing off, reading comic books (Wonder Woman!) and fond of planting evidence on hippies. I never paid much attention to the actor, known for his losers and troublesome good old boys, but the director describes him as a master craftsman of his character. He did the set decoration for his desert trailer.
• Jeannine Riley: a fading beauty who tends bar and has too many cop boyfriends. The actress sort of tells her own story here, with her pinups and publicity photos on the wall. She'd been in Petticoat Junction and plays one of those characters who had big dreams and has settled for less.
• Mitchell Ryan: head of the detective squad, impressive authority figure and borderline psychotic.
• From old Hollywood: Elisha Cook (The Maltese Falcon (1941), House On Haunted Hill (1959)) as the crazed desert rat and Royal Dano (The Red Badge of Courage (1951), The Trouble with Harry (1955)) as a surly coroner.

The director was a career music producer, working with Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears and The Beach Boys. Many music people show up in bit parts in the film.

This is a remarkable effort from a one-time-only film director and you can tell from his commentary that he knows movies. His father and grandfather were projectionists and he grew up with an old Irish theater owner who thought John Ford walked on water. Guercio says he saw The Quiet Man (1952) 200 times one summer.

Returning to Monument Valley for this film sort of closes the circle. It is a western with bikes instead of horses, vans rather than wagons.

Photographed by Conrad Hall; Guercio took a $1 salary so he could afford him.

Available on Blu-ray from Shout Factory. The director provides a worthwhile commentary track, although he apologizes after stretches of silence, saying he's not much of a talker and would rather let the film speak for itself.

• They got no cooperation from the police and were kicked out of town, so much the film was a guerrilla effort. Hence the great reliance on the open spaces.
• They stopped a woman in a sports car: want to be in our movie? That's how they got the scene with the LA cop and his companion.
• Residents of a nursing home were hired as extras for the scene there, but looked too dressed up. So they took a bus down to the mission and brought back folks from the soup kitchen in exchange for an extra meal.

None of them