Old movie, The California Kid

[INresponse]

Many, many years ago I saw this movie on TV and thought it was pretty good, but never saw it again. I have been trying to figure out the movie and the past few months I have considered asking about it on here to see if someone knew the movie. Just a bit ago surfing on YouTube the movie popped up and I thought it looked familiar so I started watching and sure enough it was the movie.
Martin Sheen, Nick Nolte, Michelle Phillips are a few of the cast. Starts out where a couple of sailors, in their white uniforms, are driving through a small "speed trap" town and while trying to run from the sheriff the last 3 miles to the state line the sheriff catches up and uses his push bumper to to force the car off the side of the road and down a cliff to their deaths. Martin Sheen plays the brother of one of the sailors and shows up in town to learn what happened and what is going on. He keeps working on his hot rod adjusting the suspension until he can go super fast around the deadly turn on the 2 lane highway and ultimately at the end of the movie the sheriff is chasing him and while trying to keep up the sheriff crashes off the cliff and the story has a "happy" ending.

I watched the first 15 minutes so far, I will watch it all tonight. Hopefully I can find the DVD online and get myself a copy because if memory serves me right it is a classic I would enjoy watching over and over.
Just thought I would mention it in case anyone else was looking for a good old movie.

 

[d_marsh]

I had to look that one up. Never saw it but it sounds familiar.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071268/

A deranged desert town sheriff has a murderous habit of forcing speeders to their deaths, until a young man with a souped-up hotrod arrives to possibly end it.

 

[Weedygarden]

I looked to see where you can watch it online. It looks like you can watch it if you have ROKU and it is available for free on YouTube.

 

[Weedygarden]

Thank you INresponse! I watched it.

 

[Peanut]

I looked up the imdb top 50 films of 1974. It didn't make the top 50 list.... I saw 1, 3, 8 and 24. I'll always choose a comedy over a thriller so I'd have skipped the California kid. Don't remember hearing about it at all...

The Top 50 Films of 1974

https://www.imdb.com/list/ls091439603/

1. The Godfather Part II

2. Chinatown

3. Blazing Saddles

4. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

5. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

6. The Conversation

7. A Woman Under the Influence

8. Young Frankenstein

9. Lacombe, Lucien

10. Scent of a Woman

11. Celine and Julie Go Boating

12. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
.
.
.
24. The Longest Yard

 

[INresponse]

Soooo, I did watch it last night. I enjoyed it, but I would guess it is kind of a "B" movie. Relatively slow, not a lot of dialogue, and not a lot of action. But, for me, because I enjoyed it many years ago I really enjoyed watching it again.
My memory recalled a lot more wrenching on the car and testing it's handling on the tight mountain curves, but that wasn't the case. Overall, I am glad it popped up on YouTube and maybe I will buy the DVD if it is available and affordable, meaning cheap enough.

 

[Weedygarden]

It was a movie that had some interesting cars and that is of interest to some. I wanted to watch it to see what the outcome was for the sheriff, and I had predicted the ending correctly. I doubt that I would watch it again, but I don't regret watching it.