The Sweet Ride | |
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Directed by | Harvey Hart |
Screenplay by | Tom Mankiewicz |
Based on | The Sweet Ride by William Murray |
Produced by | Joe Pasternak |
Starring | Tony Franciosa Michael Sarrazin Jacqueline Bisset Bob Denver Michael Wilding Michele Carey Lara Lindsay Norma Crane Percy Rodriguez Warren Stevens Pat Buttram |
Cinematography | Robert B. Hauser |
Edited by | Philip W. Anderson |
Music by | Pete Rugolo |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 110 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1,935,000 [1] |
Box office | $1.5 million (US/ Canada) [2] [3] |
The Sweet Ride is a 1968 American drama film with a few surfer/biker exploitation film elements. It stars Tony Franciosa, Michael Sarrazin and Jacqueline Bisset in an early starring role. The film also features Bob Denver in the role of Choo-Choo, a Beatnik piano-playing draft dodger. Sarrazin and Bisset were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer, Male and Female respectively.
The Sweet Ride was directed by Harvey Hart and written by Tom Mankiewicz, based on a 1967 novel of the same name by William Murray, author, fiction editor and a native of New York City, who had moved to southern California in 1966.
The story, told in flashbacks, concerns a middle-aged tennis bum (Franciosa) who shares a beach house with Sarrazin and Denver. Their carefree life becomes complicated, and later turns tragic, after they become involved with a mysterious young woman (Bisset) and a biker gang.
The San Francisco rock and roll band Moby Grape contributed to the soundtrack, and appeared, credited, in the film, performing the song "Never Again" in a Sunset Strip nightclub called the Tarantula. Other famous Sunset Strip locations include Gazzarri's and Scandia, as well as location filming in Malibu, according to reviews of the film.
Dusty Springfield sings "Sweet Ride" over the film's opening credits.
Jacqueline Bisset was cast on the basis of her short appearance in Two for the Road starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. By the time The Sweet Ride was released she had been cast in The Detective starring Frank Sinatra and Bullitt starring Steve McQueen.
Tom Mankiewicz, who wrote the screenplay, later said the problem with the film was "it tried to touch all the bases at once: drama, comedy, porn, dropouts, surfing, true love, a touch of perversion, and the general malaise of 1960s young people. Frankie and Annette it definitely wasn't." [4]
Mankiewicz also says producer Joe Pasternak had suffered a stroke shortly before filming which impacted his effectiveness. [5]
Jacqueline Bisset said her nude scene in the ocean was 'miserable'. [6]
According to Fox records, the film required $3,950,000 in rentals to break even and by 11 December 1970 had made $2,600,000 so made a loss. [7]
The Sweet Ride | ||||
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Soundtrack album by | ||||
Released | 1968 | |||
Genre | Jazz | |||
Label | 20th Century Fox 3198/S 4198 | |||
Pete Rugolo chronology | ||||
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The score was composed, arranged and conducted by Pete Rugolo except the main title written by Lee Hazlewood and performed by Dusty Springfield with the soundtrack album released on the 20th Century Fox label. [8]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [9] |
The Allmusic review by Tony Wilds noted: "Rugolo hits many of the same areas that made several Lalo Schifrin soundtracks great, but unlike Schifrin, Rugolo lacks the killer pop instinct. It all sounds like soundtrack music (the average cut is only about two minutes long), and there's nothing here that hadn't been done better elsewhere, earlier.". [9]
All compositions by Pete Rugolo except where noted.
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien, better known by her stage name Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, pop and dramatic ballads, with French chanson, country, and jazz in her repertoire. During her 1960s peak, she ranked among the most successful British female performers on both sides of the Atlantic. Her image – marked by a peroxide blonde bouffant/beehive hairstyle, heavy makeup and evening gowns, as well as stylised, gestural performances – made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties.
Winifred Jacqueline Fraser BissetLdH is a British actress. She began her film career in 1965 and first came to prominence in 1968 with roles in The Detective, Bullitt, and The Sweet Ride, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer. In the 1970s, she starred in Airport (1970), The Mephisto Waltz (1971), Day for Night (1973), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Le Magnifique (1973), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), St. Ives (1976), The Deep (1977), The Greek Tycoon (1978) and Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.
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