''White Line Fever'' is a 1975 Canadian-American

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...

film directed by

Jonathan Kaplan Jonathan Kaplan (born November 25, 1947) is an American film producer and director. His film '' The Accused'' (1988) earned actress Jodie Foster an Oscar for Best Actress and was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 39th Berlin Internation ...

and starring

Jan-Michael Vincent Jan-Michael Vincent (July 15, 1944 – February 10, 2019) was an American actor known for portraying helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke in the TV series ''Airwolf'' (1984–1987) and the protagonist, Matt Johnson, in the 1978 film ''Big W ...

Plot

Sam Hummer is a local truck driver from Tucson, Arizona who works for a Tucson-based produce-shipper called "Red River". His driving partners are Duane Haller and "Pops" Dinwiddie. Eventually Sam's son, Carrol Jo (hereafter known as "CJ"), is old enough to ride with his father and the two of them then become partners as well. Sam changes the lettering on the trailer of his rig to read "Sam Hummer and Son". CJ begins dating Jerri and the two want to get married, but Sam dies and the trucking partnership suddenly ends. As a result, CJ joins the Air Force and is soon sent to Vietnam. CJ performs well in Vietnam and is deemed a hero, but all he wants to do is return home to Jerri. Jerri spends her time waiting for his return, which is the subject of the film's theme song "Drifting and Dreaming" by

Valerie Carter Valerie Gail Zakian Carter (February 5, 1953 – March 4, 2017) was an American singer. Biography Carter began her career singing in coffeehouses as a teenager, and eventually became one-third of the country-folk band Howdy Moon. Though they de ...

. The opening sequence shows CJ's plane arriving from overseas as Jerri and her brother give him a hero's welcome. We see the two get married and start their life together in humble settings. CJ obtains a loan from the bank to purchase a truck. He and Jerri visit a local used truck sales lot where he purchases a repossessed 1974 Ford WT9000 cabover rig with a 350 NTC

Cummins Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, filtration, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipment, including fuel systems, controls, air ...

turbo diesel engine. The salesman throws in a custom paint job to seal the deal and CJ picks a blue and white paint scheme, highlighted with the words "BLUE MULE". Later, the two are jubilant as they drive their new truck through the deserts around Tucson, imagining the new life that awaits them. CJ announces to the local listeners on the CB radio that he is in business for himself and is intent on getting as much as he can, so that he can get out of hock to the bank as quickly as possible. When CJ goes back to work at Red River he finds out that things are very different. He sees unfriendly and unfamiliar faces now working there. Duane Haller informs him that the company is now hauling un-taxed cigarettes, slot machines and other contraband. Duane further states that if he wants to stay out of trouble and keep working, he’ll have to keep his mouth shut. CJ gets angry and forces his rig to be unloaded, vowing never to haul illegal cargo, but not after having an altercation with Clem, the ringleader of the corrupt goons working the docks. Later in the day, Carol Jo is pulled over on a lonely highway and discovers that Deputy "Bob", the local sheriff is in on the crooked dealing as well. He handcuffs CJ to his truck and then speeds off. Clem, along with two other goons from Red River then show up and break his ribs. After CJ recuperates enough from his injuries, he tries to find work at other trucking companies around Tucson. He discovers that Red River has blackballed him as a troublemaker, and he is unwelcome everywhere he goes. Livid, he returns to Red River with a shotgun and threatens Duane Haller. Duane informs him that he is just a pawn in the game and that the person he actually needs to talk to is Duane’s boss, Buck Wessler (L.Q. Jones). Buck is a sleazy, lower-level crook who now manages Red River. Buck agrees to let CJ take a load to Dallas, free of any contraband. Sam Hummer’s old friend “Pops” Dinwiddie decides to come along, to help keep CJ safe on his trip. En route, they are attacked by men from Red River, but manage to fight them off and continue on their way. Throughout the rest of the story, CJ tries to make a living by driving daily loads in and out of Tucson, mainly for Red River. He slowly discovers that Red River is actually owned by a large corporation based in Phoenix called the “Glass House”, a diversified energy and transportation company. Unbeknownst to him, though, Glass House is actually a front for organized crime. They use the trucking companies that they own as a transportation system for their syndicate and its illegal shipments. Over the course of several months, CJ tries to organize the other drivers at Red River and around Tucson to stand up to the Glass House and refuse to haul illegal cargo. In the process he is beaten, vandalized, cheated and then eventually framed for Duane Haller’s murder. After his acquittal, CJ discovers the murdered body of Pops Dinwiddie, who had been driving the Blue Mule while CJ was in jail, in his house. This leads to a climactic confrontation with all of the Red River drivers against Buck and his goons at the loading dock. CJ beats Buck senseless, until CJ’s brother-in-law stops Carnell (Pop's son), also wanting to attack Buck, avenging his father's death. A few days later, Carol Jo, Carnell and with all the other Red River Drivers are invited to the Glass House for a meeting with the senior management. They are propositioned job opportunities with similar business arrangements that the GH had with Buck and his associates. Not trusting the Glass House nor their shady business practices, Carol Jo declines their offers electing to continue operating on his own and encourages the other drivers to do likewise. That night, CJ and Jerri are viciously attacked by a masked thug during their sleep and their house is set on fire. CJ wakes up and gets both of them out of the house before it partially burns down. Later on at the hospital, the doctor informs him that Jerri has lost the baby she was carrying and will never be able to have children. CJ returns home in despair. Moments later, he emerges from the house with a shotgun and gets into the Blue Mule. He radios Deputy “Bob” that he is headed for the Glass House and to tell them that he is coming. Bob tries to intercept him on a two-lane road, but CJ runs the deputy off the road, destroying his patrol car. CJ shows up at the Glass House headquarters, faced by several heavily armed security guards who are waiting for him. He accelerates as fast as he can toward them, but his truck is riddled with bullets, blowing out several tires, the radiator and the windshield. CJ takes one bullet to the face. He manages to run through the security gauntlet, but he knows he won’t be able to get the crippled truck all the way to the corporate headquarters, so he aims for the giant sign that stands in front of the building, an enormous two-story glass structure with the letters “GH”. Carroll Joe runs up an embankment leading to the sign and crashes through it, completely destroying it and his truck at the same time. In the last scene, a TV news reporter is announcing that all truckers in Tucson are on strike. The strike is being held in protest of the corrupt system set up by the Glass House and in honor of one trucker who dared to stand up against them, Carroll Jo Hummer. CJ’s brother-in-law wheels him out of his hospital room to the parking lot, which is filled with semi-trucks and truckers. They all begin to clap. CJ then begins to smile. Jerri is in a window directly behind him (apparently still hospitalized herself), overlooking all of this. Her lack of a smile may indicate that she is still unsure about living her life as the wife of a whistle-blowing hero who is willing to die for his family and the truth.

Production

Kaplan received the offer to direct the movie from

Peter Guber Howard Peter Guber (born March 1, 1942) is an American business executive, entrepreneur, educator, and author. He is chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment. Guber's most recent films from Mandalay Entertainment include '' The Kids Are All ...

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

after the success of ''

Truck Turner ''Truck Turner'', also known as ''Black Bullet'', is a 1974 blaxploitation film, starring Isaac Hayes and Yaphet Kotto, and directed by Jonathan Kaplan. The screenplay was written by Michael Allin, Leigh Chapman (under a pseudonym, Jerry Wilke ...

'' (1974). He says Guber mistakenly thought ''Truck Turner'' was about trucks. He said his goal was to make a modern day Western, heavily influenced by the films of

Sam Peckinpah David Samuel Peckinpah (; February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984) was an American film director and screenwriter. His 1969 Western epic ''The Wild Bunch'' received an Academy Award nomination and was ranked No. 80 on the American Film Institut ...

was cast by Guber, who thought he was going to be a big star; Kaplan claims this was the film where Vincent first used

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly used recreationally for its euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South Am ...

. Kaplan says "politically I was trying to counter-act the right-wing vigilantism of some of the pictures that were around at the time." Filming was in and around

Tucson, Arizona , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

as well as

Monument Valley Monument Valley ( nv, Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii, , meaning ''valley of the rocks'') is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, the largest reaching above the valley floor. It is located on the Utah-Arizona ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

Cast

as Carrol Jo * Kay Lenz as Jerri *

Slim Pickens Louis Burton Lindley Jr. (June 29, 1919 – December 8, 1983), better known by his stage name Slim Pickens, was an American actor and rodeo performer. Starting off in the rodeo, Pickens transitioned to acting and appeared in dozens of movies and ...

as Duane * Sam Laws as "Pops" *

L.Q. Jones Justus Ellis McQueen Jr. (August 19, 1927 – July 9, 2022), known professionally as L.Q. Jones, was an American actor and director. He appeared in Sam Peckinpah's films ''Ride the High Country'' (1962), '' Major Dundee'' (1965), ''The Wild Bun ...

as Buck * Don Porter as Cutler *

R.G. Armstrong Robert Golden Armstrong Jr. (April 7, 1917 – July 27, 2012) was an American character actor and playwright. A veteran performer who appeared in dozens of Westerns during his 40-year career, he may be best remembered for his work with director ...

as Prosecutor * Leigh French as Lucy *

Dick Miller Richard Miller (December 25, 1928 – January 30, 2019) was an American character actor who appeared in more than 180 films, including many produced by Roger Corman. He later appeared in the films of directors who began their careers with Cor ...

as "Birdie" Corman *

Martin Kove Martin Kove () (born ) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as John Kreese, the main antagonist of ''The Karate Kid'' (1984). He reprised the role in ''The Karate Kid Part II'' (1986), '' The Karate Kid Part III'' (1989), and th ...

as Clem

Reception

The film earned $6 million in theatrical rentals in North America."All-time Film Rental Champs", ''Variety'', 7 January 1976 p 46

References

External links