The California Kid


The California Kid is a 1974 American made-for-television action thriller film broadcast on the anthology series, ABC Movie of the Week. It was directed by Richard T. Heffron and starred Martin Sheen and Michelle Phillips.

Plot

In 1958, two Navy sailors on leave are speeding in a 1951 Ford Custom to get back to base on time. When driving through Clarksberg, a town infamous for speed traps, they are pursued at high speed by Sheriff Roy Childress, who pushes their car over the edge of a sharp mountain curve with his 1957 Plymouth Belvedere police car, killing them.
Soon after, a stranger named Michael McCord drives into town in a hot rodded black Ford [Model B (1932)#1934 Ford|1934 Ford] three-window coupe, known as "The California Kid". McCord is pulled over by the sheriff for speeding and establishes himself with the sheriff as a hot rodder and reckless driver, boasting that his car can hit in 10 seconds. McCord pleads guilty in front of Judge J.A. Hooker and pays the ticket.
McCord later gets coffee at a local diner where Childress and Hooker are also eating. As the sheriff and waitress Maggie look on, McCord clips a newspaper article, places it on the counter, and leaves. The sheriff sees that McCord chose an article about the sailors' crash. Childress returns to the station to review the accident report and realizes that one of the sailors killed in the crash was also named McCord.
McCord finds the sailors' wrecked car at the impound yard and sees that its rear bumper was dented by pushbars, reinforcing his growing suspicion that the crash was not an accident. He also repeatedly drives through the curves at the scene of the crash to familiarize himself with the road and his car, tuning his vehicle to better handle the curves. Maggie tells McCord that Childress has not been the same since his wife and son were killed by a hit and run driver five years earlier.
Lyle Stafford, the younger brother of the town's auto mechanic Buzz Stafford, is killed and his girlfriend Sissy badly injured after Childress pursues their 1955 Mercury for speeding and runs it off the same curve. Buzz wants to kill Childress in revenge, but McCord convinces him to hold off, revealing that one of the sailors was his younger brother. Childress, aware that McCord is on to him, orders McCord to leave town.
On his way out of town, McCord finds the sheriff waiting for him and goads him into giving chase. Childress tries to run him off the cliff, but McCord is unfazed, having modified his vehicle for the mountain roads. As Buzz and the sheriff's deputy look on, Childress loses control at the same treacherous curve and plummets over the cliff, becoming a victim of his own obsession, while McCord slides to a stop on the shoulder. Triumphant, McCord drives past the diner and waves to Maggie on his way out of Clarksberg.

Cast

According to producer Howie Horwitz, two shots in the film required stunt drivers to remain in cars as they drove off roads and downslope. Cinematographer Terry Meade said that one of the shots was planned with a cameramen below the road, and that Meade swapped him out for a remotely controlled camera which was destroyed by the stunt car.