''Trucker's Woman'' (also released as ''Truckin' Man'') is a 1975

action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

directed by

Will Zens Frederick Willard Zens (June 26, 1920 – March 27, 2013) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter and soundtrack composer who worked on mainly low budget films from the 1960s through the 1980s. Early life and education Zens was bo ...

and starring Michael Hawkins.

Plot

Mike Kelly's father is driving his truck, when suddenly the brakes fail and he ends up losing control, resulting in a crash in which he dies. Kelly drops out of college and goes undercover as a trucker to find out what happened to his father. While out on his job, he meets Karen, who he soon falls in love with. However, there is something wrong with the trucking business, criminals are attacking drivers and controlling the truck routes. At one point, Kelly is set up and gets arrested. When he gets out, he gets his revenge by fighting the men who set him up, and then the thugs try to kill Kelly the same way his father died. Turns out, they cut the brakes on his father’s truck. Kelly manages to avoid an accident and ends up defeating the criminals, along with other truck drivers. Karen and Kelly now are big time in the trucking business, with Karen as boss. While driving, Kelly meets Karen again, but when Kelly stops and Karen gets out of the

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construct ...

, Kelly starts driving off without her. Karen sees this and is left behind, exclaiming “Kelly, you’re fired!”

Production

The film was shot over three weeks in November 1974 in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

and

Society Hill Society Hill is a historic neighborhood in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, with a population of 6,215 . Settled in the early 1680s, Society Hill is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in Philadelphia.The Center ...

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

Release

The film was originally called ''Truckin' Man'', and was screened under that title for the first six months of its theatrical release (appearing on a double bill with ''

Hot Summer in Barefoot County ''Hot Summer in Barefoot County'' is a 1974 comedy film directed by Will Zens and produced & distributed by Preacherman Corporation. The plot involves an undercover agent who is sent to a small southern town in order to uncover an underground m ...

''). The distributor felt that changing it to ''Trucker's Woman'' would result in higher box office returns.

Home media

One of the home media distributors was

Troma Entertainment Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production company, production and film distributor, distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz (producer), Michael Herz in 1974. They are the longest running independent film ...

, in 1983 on

videocassette Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocasset ...

. The cover of this release (below), featured new photography of models not resembling the actual actors in the film.

Legacy

In 2018, the film was subject to a comedic running commentary by RiffTrax's Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and

Bill Corbett William Daniel Corbett (born March 30, 1960) is an American writer and performer for television, film and theatre. He was a writer and performer on the cult television show ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''MST3K''), for which he voiced Crow ...

. ''Trucker's Woman'' also contains a mysterious, random image of a pepperoni pizza lying on a wooden deck that appears for a single frame in the middle of a brake line checking scene, at 1:08:38 (or 1:00:51 in the RiffTrax version, which, based on the shorter runtime and lack of R-rated material, seems to be based on a television edit). Due to the

vignetting In photography and optics, vignetting ( ) is a reduction of an image's brightness or saturation toward the periphery compared to the image center. The word '' vignette'', from the same root as ''vine'', originally referred to a decorative b ...

effect which was applied to it, it appears that the insertion of this frame was not accidental, but rather was an attempt to subliminally influence audiences to buy pizza (e.g. from

drive-in theater A drive-in theater/theatre or drive-in cinema is a form of movie theater, cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand, and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, c ...

concession stands).B&S About Movies
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References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0260440, title=Trucker's Woman
Excerpt
1975 films 1975 crime films American independent films Trucker films Troma Entertainment films Films directed by Will Zens 1970s rediscovered films Rediscovered American films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films English-language crime films American crime films