''The Great Smokey Roadblock'' is a 1977

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

road film A road movie is a film genre in which the main characters leave home on a road trip, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives. Road movies often depict travel in the hinterlands, with the films exploring the theme of alienatio ...

written and directed by John Leone. It stars

Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor. He had a career that spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. He cultivated an everyman screen image in several films considered to be classics. Born and rai ...

Eileen Brennan Eileen Brennan (born Verla Eileen Regina Brennen; September 3, 1932 – July 28, 2013) was an American actress. She made her film debut in the satire ''Divorce American Style'' (1967), followed by a supporting role in Peter Bogdanovich's ''The L ...

John Byner John Byner (born John Biener; June 28, 1938) is an American actor, comedian and impressionist who has had a lengthy television and film career. His voice work includes the cartoon series ''The Ant and the Aardvark'', in which the title characte ...

Dub Taylor Walter Clarence "Dub" Taylor Jr. (February 26, 1907 – October 3, 1994),Dub Taylor, 87, Actor in Westerns, The New York Times, October 5, 1994, Section B, Page 12 was an American character actor who from the 1940s into the 1990s worked extens ...

, and

Daina House Daina House (born December 30, 1954 in Dallas, Texas) is a former model and actress. She was ''Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was ...

. The film is also known as ''The Goodbye Run'' and ''The Last of the Cowboys''.

Plot

While in a

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

hospital, 60-year-old truck driver Elegant John (

) gets his truck repossessed by a finance company. Deciding that it is time to make one last perfect cross-country run, he escapes from the hospital and steals back his truck. His first stop is a diner where he is well remembered. He picks up Beebo a hitch-hiker (

Robert Englund Robert Barton Englund (born June 6, 1947) is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing the supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger in the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise), Nightmare on Elm Street'' film series. Class ...

) heading to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and says he can take him as far as

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. Meanwhile in a

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

whorehouse MadaM Penelope entertains various men. However, one is an undercover cop and the place is given 48 hours to close down. John finds it impossible to get a load as firms checking his vehicle have it listed as stolen. John then visits his old friend, Madam Penelope (

), he picks up six prostitutes (

Susan Sarandon Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actorMcCabe, Bruce"Susan Sarandon, the 'actor'" ''Boston Globe''. April 17, 1981. Retrieved January 21, 2021. and activist. She is the recipient of various accolades, ...

Melanie Mayron Melanie Joy Mayron is an American actress and director of film and television. Mayron is best known for her role as photographer Melissa Steadman on the ABC drama ''thirtysomething'' for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Sup ...

Leigh French Leigh French (born July 14, 1945) is an American actress. Early life French was born in Ashland, Kentucky. Career In her early career as a regular on ''The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'' of the late-1960s, French portrayed a hippie named Gol ...

Mews Small Mews Small (born Mary Edith Wilard Small; March 20, 1942 in Pasadena, California) is an American actress and singer. She was known professionally as Marya Small during the 1970s and has also been credited as Merrya Small, Mary Small Rusk, and M ...

, and

Valerie Curtin Valerie Curtin is an American actress and screenwriter. Personal life Curtin was born in Jackson Heights, New York, the daughter of radio actor Joseph Curtin. She attended Lake Erie College. She is a cousin of TV comedian/actress Jane Curtin. ...

) to bring them across the state border, heading for

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

. He heads off into the night with the police on his tail. En route they are ambushed by Harley Davidson, a renegade country cop who throws them all in jail and awaits the photographers for his moment of fame. The girls strip naked and lure the sheriff and his deputy into the cell then all escape. They reach

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

and drop into another diner where they all know him. In the next diner a TV news programme discusses their flight from the law and shows much sympathy. They encounter a "duck toucher" and his journalist friend. The journalist gives them radio time and encourages them to run the growing blockade, naming them "Elegant John and the Sweet Mystery Six". They gather a cavalcade of vehicles trailing after their truck. They smash their way through the blockade which has been set up on a bridge. John's illness starts to kick in and Beebo takes over the driving.

Cast

as John Howard known as "Elegant John" *

as Penelope *

Austin Pendleton Austin Campbell Pendleton (born March 27, 1940) is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor. He is known as a prolific character actor on the stage and screen who has appeared in films including ''Catch-22'' (1970); '' W ...

as Guido *

as Beebo Crozier *

as Harley Davidson *

as Bobby Apples *

as Ginny *

as Lula *

as Glinda *

as Alice C. Smith *

as Celeste *

Gary Sandy Gary Lee Sandy (born December 25, 1945) is an American actor. He is best known for playing program director Andy Travis on the television sitcom ''WKRP in Cincinnati'' (1978-1982). Early life and education Sandy was born in Dayton, Ohio, the ...

as Charlie La Pere *

as Mary Agnes *Johnnie Collins III as Jimmy *Bibi Osterwald as Annie McCarigle

Production

''The Great Smokey Roadblock'' was filmed in

Oroville, California Oroville (''Oro'', Spanish for "Gold" and ''Ville'', French for "town") is the county seat of Butte County, California, United States. The population of the city was 15,506 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, up from 13,004 in the 200 ...

. Fonda suffered from a number of illnesses during filming."Overview"
on

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...

Release

The film debuted at the May 1977

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

as ''The Last of the Cowboys''. Dimension Pictures acquired distribution rights and re-edited the film against Fonda's wishes and retitled the film. ''The Great Smokey Roadblock'' was previewed on February 3, 1978 in Texas and had its premiere in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

on April 12, 1978 before opening in other states.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Great Smokey Roadblock 1977 films 1970s chase films 1977 comedy films 1970s comedy road movies American chase films American comedy road movies Films scored by Craig Safan Trucker films 1977 directorial debut films Dimension Pictures films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films