Flighty, but willful and endearing wealthy screwball Madie (a winsomely daffy and bubbly Dyan Cannon) escapes from an asylum she was put in by her cheapskate jerk of a psychiatrist husband. Madie hitches a ride with grumpy, rough-around-the-edges cowboy trucker Charlie Callahan (nicely essayed with scruffy, rugged grace by Robert Blake), a profane, surly, seriously down on his luck grouch who just recently got divorced and is up to his eyeballs in debt. Charlie grudgingly agrees to drive Madie from the Pennsyvania Turnpike to the California coast in his massive 30-ton, 13-gear Diesel behemoth, arguing with her every mile of the way and eventually falling for the sweetly ditsy lass. Spunky little old lady cop Maxine Stuart, her brawny goon partner Dick Durock, and overzealous truck repossessor William Lucking give chase. Directed with typical consummate adroitness by "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" 's Joseph Sargent, with a slight, but efficient script by Stanley Weiser, a jaunty score by the ubiquitous Charles Bernstein, sparkling, polished cinematography by Mario Tosi, a flavorful country and western soundtrack, a pleasingly breezy and playful lighthearted comic tone, plenty of eye-catching scenery, solid cameos by Michael Lerner as an oily, patronizing shrink and "Assault on Precinct 13" 's Darwin Joston as a drunken trucker, and a terrifically dynamic, luminescent chemistry between the two well-matched leads, this fitfully amusing and good-natured tongue-in-cheek road movie romp possesses the right mix of silly charm and goofy laughs to qualify as a perfectly enjoyable piece of fluff.
Review of Coast to Coast
