AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Mainpost schneiders roadmovie1/12/2024 The trip allows Hooper (who wrote the film alongside Fonda and terry Southern) to explore the growing clash between traditional American values and the burgeoning counter-culture or ‘hippy’ movement. After a big score moving some cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, the pair decide to take a cross-country road trip across America to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Hopper also stars as Billy alongside Peter Fonda as Wyatt or ‘Captain America’, a pair of freewheeling bikers who make their living smuggling drugs across borders. The last two undoubtedly steal the show with their part in what is an unashamedly absurd slapstick romp across Europe and a great couple of hours of escapism.Ĭonsider the fact that Easy Rider was released in the same year as the blockbuster Monte Carlo or Bust and it’s apparent why Dennis Hopper’s counter-culture independent movie sent a shockwave through the cinema industry. Of course there also is a duplicitous German played by Gert Fröbe (of Goldfinger fame) matched by a pair of inventive but hapless British Army officers Major Digby Dawlish (Peter Cooke) and Lieutenant Kit Barrington (Dudley Moore). It features the typical ‘60s stereotypes of the rich American lothario Chester Schofield (Tony Curtis), the upper class English villain Sir Cuthbert Ware-Armitage (Terry Thomas) and his sinister butler Perkins (Eric Sykes). It follows the attempts of an all-star cast to battle 1,500 miles across Europe and be first across the finishing line in Monte Carlo. But will Captain Anson get his beer?Ī follow-up to Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (it was called Those Daring Young Men in their Jaunty Jalopies in the US), Monte Carlo or Bust is, like its predecessor, best described as a cartoon filmed with real actors. Negotiating minefields, fixing a broken spring, rescuing van der Poel from quicksand and hand-cranking Katy up a sand dune in reverse all make for an epic adventure. After the death of one of the nurses on his crew, Anson vows not to drink again until he can enjoy a frosty lager at their destination – the ‘ice cold in Alex’ of the title. The intrepid crew acquire a hitchhiker, a supposed South African officer Captain van der Poel (Anthony Quayle) who may not be all he says and seems very keen to keep prying eyes away from his backpack. Their transport is an Austin K2/Y army ambulance, nicknamed ‘Katy’. Set in 1941, Ice Cold in Alex follows the alcoholic Captain Anson’s (John Mills) attempts to flee the besieged city of Tobruk and travel across the desert to rejoin the British lines in Alexandria. This might not seem to fit in the conventional mould of a road movie, given its wartime setting and almost complete absence of tarmacadam, but in using a journey to show its protagonists overcoming adversity and growing, it is one of the best.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |