Electra Glide In Blue

Who would be a cop during the Simple Rider era? All the hippies despise him, but diminutive highway patrolman John Wintergreen (Robert Blake) just wants to do a good job. James William Guercio’s cult hit straddles the fine line between straight-up procedural thriller and comedic character study as surely as ‘Huge’ John rides his Electra Glide motorbike.

It looks and feels like typical drive-in fare with its chases and slo-mo violence, but this is an when all’s said and done richer, weirder film. Subversively shooting in John Ford’s Monument Valley, Guercio pokes fun at Dirty Aggravate-style cops as Wintergreen transforms into one of Hollywood’s unlikeliest cult heroes.