Electra Glide in Blue is a 1973 American action film, starring Robert Blake as a motorcycle cop in Arizona and Billy "Green" Bush as his partner. It was produced and directed by James William Guercio, and is named after the Harley-Davidson Electra Glide motorcycle issued to traffic cops. The soundtrack was performed by members of the band Chicago, who also briefly appear; Guercio managed them at the time and produced many of their albums.
Plot
John Wintergreen is a motorcycle cop who patrols the rural Arizona highways with his partner Zipper. Wintergreen is an experienced patrolman looking to be transferred to the Homicide unit. When he is informed by Crazy Willie of an apparent suicide-by-shotgun, Wintergreen believes the case is actually a murder as the victim has shot himself in the chest rather than the head, which is more usual. Detective Harve Poole agrees it is a homicide, after a .22 bullet is found amongst the pellets in the man's chest during the autopsy, as well as hearing about a possible missing $5,000 ($ today) from the man's home, and arranges for Wintergreen to be transferred to homicide to help with the case.
Wintergreen gets his wish, but his joy is short-lived. He begins increasingly to identify with the hippies whom the other officers, including Detective Poole, are endlessly harassing. The final straw comes when Poole discovers that Wintergreen has been sleeping with his girlfriend, Jolene. The hostile workplace politics cause him to be quickly demoted back to traffic enforcement.
While demoted, Wintergreen solves the murder. The killer is Willie, who confesses while Wintergreen goads him into talking about it. Wintergreen supposes Willie did it because he was jealous of the old man he killed, who frequently had young people over to his house to buy drugs. Shortly after, it is discovered that Zipper stole the $5,000, which he used to buy a fully dressed Electra Glide motorcycle. Upon this discovery, Zipper becomes distressed and belligerent and shoots at Wintergreen, striking an innocent bystander. Wintergreen shoots him square in the chest.
Wintergreen, now alone and back on his old beat, runs into a hippie that Zipper was needlessly harassing earlier on a previous stop. Recognizing him, Wintergreen lets him off with a warning, but the hippie forgets his driver's license, and Wintergreen drives up behind his van to return it to him. The hippie's passenger points a shotgun out of the back window and shoots Wintergreen, killing him.
Cast
Robert Blake as Officer John Wintergreen
Billy "Green" Bush as Officer Zipper Davis
Mitchell Ryan as Det. Harvey Poole
Jeannine Riley as Jolene
Elisha Cook as Willie
Royal Dano as Coroner
Hawk Wolinski as VW Bus Driver
Peter Cetera as Bob Zemko
Terry Kath as Killer
Lee Loughnane as Pig Man
Walter Parazaider as Loose Lips
Joe Samsil as Sgt. Ryker
Jason Clark as L.A. Detective
Michael Butler as Truck Driver
Susan Forristal as Ice Cream Girl
Nick Nolte as Hippie (uncredited)
Production
First-time director James William Guercio took a salary of one dollar in order to have budget available to hire Conrad Hall as the cinematographer. During their discussions, it transpired that Guercio and Hall disagreed on how the film should look; a compromise was reached where Guercio would shoot the exterior scenes in a manner reminiscent of John Ford's films (which was the look Guercio wanted to achieve), while Hall could set up and shoot all the interior scenes any way he saw fit. In the DVD commentary, Guercio says a majority of the film was shot without permits, because the Arizona Highway Patrol did not cooperate with production. Filming was in Monument Valley and Fountain Hills, Arizona.
Prior to production an LAPD Motor Officer (Gerald L. Ray) was hired to teach Blake how to properly ride a Police Motorcycle. They spent more than a month riding replicas of Police Motorcycles around the Van Nuys area. Production was several days behind schedule due to Guercio's inexperience as a director. In Blake's 2012 autobiography Tales From a Rascal, he refers to this film as being a very tough shoot and that he essentially co-directed the picture with Hall while Guercio "stood around".