To the 1970s, nothing was sacred – so, we had a string of black comedies/satires about army surgeons (M.A.S.H. [1970]) or the goings-on at a big-city hospital (THE HOSPITAL [1971]) and, in this film’s case, ambulance-drivers. However, another thing these films had in common is that, amid the jokes, there was something serious being said – and things often took an unexpected tragic turn (as in the scene here where a call to a gun-toting junkie sees a young hospital attendant being blown away when he tries to reason with her!); another is the one in which a woman in labor, denied access to a hospital’s facilities due to the proverbial red tape, delivers her baby inside the ambulance and dies because the “rig” is ill-equipped to deal with massive haemorrhaging!
The men (and women) themselves are depicted as having a detached, even flippant, attitude to their sensitive profession – but we’re told that this is needed if one is to keep his sanity; still, there are those who overstep the line of decency (one attendant allows his green partner to drive the ambulance, when it had previously been his sole prerogative, so as to be alone with the unconscious and good-looking patient!). Other gags, however, are more typical: for instance, the scene where they have difficulty transporting a large black woman down a flight of stairs – which predictably ends with her slipping out of their grasp and scurrying down the street on a stretcher, miraculously dodging the oncoming traffic – brought tears to my eyes. A topical subplot, then, involves the rivalry between ambulance companies whose members would go to extreme lengths to intercept or otherwise stall their opponents – the issue is ultimately resolved in court by suggesting a merger between the two.
Though the film is somewhat uneven, it’s well served by the cast (incidentally, several films from this era opted to use monikers in connection with their protagonists for a title, such as the recently-viewed road movie DIRTY MARY CRAZY LARRY [1974]): Bill Cosby (as “Mother”, a seasoned driver everyone looks up to); Raquel Welch (“Jugs”, the secretary who wishes to be an ambulance driver and takes night school to acquire the requisite training – her first unofficial job proves memorable as a police car gallantly offers to escort her but, having no address, leads them on a wild goose chase until a colleague she unwittingly absconded with improvises a patient’s get-up!); the latter, then, is Harvey Keitel (a former cop suspended for drug-dealing, which earns him the nickname “Speed” – at first glance, the Method actor seems out of his element here but wisely plays it straight most of the time); Allen Garfield shines as the loud-mouth yet flustered director; and equally effective is Larry Hagman, naturally playing the biggest scumbag of the lot (the afore-mentioned lecherous driver who even gambles as to how many lives are lost per day – which causes Cosby to physically assault him when he wants to add Bruce Davison, the attendant who fell in the line of duty, to the list) and who, during the climax, suddenly reappears at his former workplace armed with a gun and making demands (having gone berserk in the interim)…only to be pinned down with a bullet fired by an over-eager cop.
The men (and women) themselves are depicted as having a detached, even flippant, attitude to their sensitive profession – but we’re told that this is needed if one is to keep his sanity; still, there are those who overstep the line of decency (one attendant allows his green partner to drive the ambulance, when it had previously been his sole prerogative, so as to be alone with the unconscious and good-looking patient!). Other gags, however, are more typical: for instance, the scene where they have difficulty transporting a large black woman down a flight of stairs – which predictably ends with her slipping out of their grasp and scurrying down the street on a stretcher, miraculously dodging the oncoming traffic – brought tears to my eyes. A topical subplot, then, involves the rivalry between ambulance companies whose members would go to extreme lengths to intercept or otherwise stall their opponents – the issue is ultimately resolved in court by suggesting a merger between the two.
Though the film is somewhat uneven, it’s well served by the cast (incidentally, several films from this era opted to use monikers in connection with their protagonists for a title, such as the recently-viewed road movie DIRTY MARY CRAZY LARRY [1974]): Bill Cosby (as “Mother”, a seasoned driver everyone looks up to); Raquel Welch (“Jugs”, the secretary who wishes to be an ambulance driver and takes night school to acquire the requisite training – her first unofficial job proves memorable as a police car gallantly offers to escort her but, having no address, leads them on a wild goose chase until a colleague she unwittingly absconded with improvises a patient’s get-up!); the latter, then, is Harvey Keitel (a former cop suspended for drug-dealing, which earns him the nickname “Speed” – at first glance, the Method actor seems out of his element here but wisely plays it straight most of the time); Allen Garfield shines as the loud-mouth yet flustered director; and equally effective is Larry Hagman, naturally playing the biggest scumbag of the lot (the afore-mentioned lecherous driver who even gambles as to how many lives are lost per day – which causes Cosby to physically assault him when he wants to add Bruce Davison, the attendant who fell in the line of duty, to the list) and who, during the climax, suddenly reappears at his former workplace armed with a gun and making demands (having gone berserk in the interim)…only to be pinned down with a bullet fired by an over-eager cop.