Road Games (1981) | aka Roadgames

Self-declared pupil of Alfred Hitchcock, Richard Franklin, worked closely with screenwriter Everett De Roche (their second collaboration together, after the cult thriller, Patrick) to create another film project. At the time, De Roche had been writing for a TV series called “The Truckies” and had recently typed up a script called “Roadgames” in which we find a small community of people who spend much of their lives on the highways in Australia, making them a sort of community among themselves.  Originally, they had envisioned the idea of human meat within a truck trailer hauling pork, partially an homage to “Sweeney Todd”, which was a musical that had just been produced by Franklin’s friend, Stephen Sondheim. Eventually, Franklin had the idea that the killer wouldn’t be the truck driver, but the driver would be the witness to a series of murders committed by someone out there, in the vein of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Franklin had the idea to combine the two stories, except this one isn’t set in one room, but out on the road in the cab of a semi. They built the story up again from there, giving it a Hitchcockian vibe of old Hollywood tropes and Hitchcock’s black comedy spirit to make a film based more on suspense and an air of glamour than in gore and cheap shock.

Along for the Hitchcockian ride is Pamela (Jamie Lee Curtis, real-life daughter of Psycho‘s Janet Leigh), who along with independent truck driver Pat Quid (Stacy Keach, whose well-read intellectual character says he “drives a truck, but he’s not a truck driver”) and his pet dingo Boswell, tries to get to the bottom of a story which might connect a series of killings which have surfaced around Australia to a mysterious driver of a creepy looking van that’s on the road with them, as Quid attempts to deliver a rig full of pork to Perth, which is undergoing a meat shortage at the time due to butchers going on strike. As the trucker drives on toward his destination, he gets into greater danger, including stirring up the locals into thinking the serial killer they’ve been hearing about on the radio might be Quid himself.

The story is simplistic, and in many ways nonsensical, as the semi and the van seem to always run into each other everywhere they go, especially through the dunes of  Western Australia, including Nullarbor Plain and Eucla, which we learn is called this because of its distinct lack of trees (the result of a rabbit plague that ate all the vegetation in the area) . With a thriller such as this, suspension of disbelief is a must, but if you are able to maintain it throughout, it’s a nifty b-movie that offers a good deal of fun and mystery in a modest fashion. Although it clearly lifts heavily from Hitchcock (Curtis’ character is called “Hitch” by Keach, and the Master himself manages to make his trademark cameo), Road Games makes it on its own terms as something wholly different than anything you’ve seen before. It’s actually quite an odd little thriller, lackadaisical in its approach, and even though it is predictable in where it ultimately ends up, how it gets there is refreshingly off the beaten path.

As with Rear Window, we get a lightly romantic flair, mixed with paranoia, mostly presumptive, that there is a murderer on the loose there. Like Jimmy Stewart’s character, Pat Quid makes his own names up for the people on the road with him, from Benny Balls (who has a station wagon filled with sports balls of many varieties), Fred and Frita Frugal, Captain Careful, Sneezy Rider, and the suspected killer, dubbed “Smith or Jones” because Quid saw him checking into a hotel, likely using a pseudonym, with a prostitute at the beginning of the film he assumes became a victim.  As with Grace Kelly’s character, Pamela ends up getting involved in the dangerous sleuthing,  prompting much of the later action. The Hitchcock influence can also be felt in the score from Brian May, who copied Herrmann in the first two Mad Max films.

It seems hard to believe, given the modest production values, that, at $1.75 million in its budget, this was the most expensive Australian film production in history at the time. The American distributors, who committed nearly a third of the money into the production, insisted on a lead actor that would appeal to North American audiences. Franklin pursued Sean Connery to star, as the screenplay had been written with him in mind, but was unsuccessful due to a price tag that made him far out of reach (higher than the entire budget of the film) and settled for the less-expensive American actor Stacy Keach. Keach is a fine actor, and terrific in the role, but not the box office draw that was hoped for. The film would earn a paltry half-million dollars at the U.S. box office, despite every effort to appeal to those American audiences at the time.

As a result, the intended lead actress to play Hitch, Lisa Peers, was replaced by another American actor, this one known to horror-suspense fans that might enjoy a film like Road Games: Jamie Lee Curtis.  Curtis was picked as the American replacement due to his friendship with John Carpenter from their time studying film at USC, after turning down the possibility of getting Jodie Foster or Brooke Shields, both of whom were still teenagers that Franklin felt was far too young for the role. With 21-year-old Curtis, Franklin saw the possibility of a Bogart and Bacall matchup with Keach that would work well for the comedy and a tinge of sexy banter. While this move was made to help the inroads distribution-wise, it did cause some issues with one of Australia’s actors’ unions, who opposed the switch. Some in the Australian film industry a the time felt that they were exploiting local resources in order to cater to markets outside of the country.

Ironically, the film would end up proving successful in Australia nonetheless, but could barely find an audience in the United States, despite these controversial efforts that almost derailed the film altogether.  Franklin would end up blaming the poor marketing for the film, which virtually ignored the involvement of the American actors, and was incorrectly promoted as a run-of-the-mill slasher-horror flick, rather than the more lightheartedly old-fashioned suspense vehicle intended. Curtis’s casting further made American audiences assume it was slasher-horror film, as this was what she was primarily known for at this early stage of her career, with her filmography only containing “scream queen”-defining roles in Halloween, The Fog, Prom Night, and Terror Train. Unlike most of the American slashers at the time, no killing is actually shown on the screen, hence the PG rating (though that is a very generous rating given the subject matter, some strangling, and what is shown during the final scene). Nevertheless, the film did catch the eye of someone at Paramount Pictures, who were looking for someone to direct the long-in-coming sequel to a classic Hitchcock film, Psycho II.

Franklin would end up having to sacrifice his intended ambitious ending for the film, one involving a chase through the streets of Perth with Quid running into most of the recurring road characters, due to running over schedule and over budget on the film.  It is perhaps one of the weaker elements of the story, but some people will still enjoy Road Games for the journey, even if they aren’t as keen on the destination.  Also, there is a shot in the film of someone eating a sandwich containing meat from the butcher shop that might have questionable sourcing that was going to be Franklin’s intended revised ending, but the American distributors said that shocking endings were all the rage at the time, so Franklin reluctantly added a scene in which a key body part is discovered in a very startling way.

Road Games isn’t really essential viewing, but for those who love Hitchcock, quirky Australian films, or are big fans of Keach, this is a fun rehash of a great classic film. Quentin Tarantino has cited it as one of his favorite unsung films by one of his favorite Australian directors, Richard Franklin, claiming it as one of the works by screenwriter Everett De Roche, an American who went on to write films in Australia, that made him appreciate the so-called Ozploitation cinema.  Road Games would further influence filmmaker Greg McLean, who says he was inspired by the menace on the highway through the Australian outback premise to make his 2005 horror-thriller, Wolf Creek. It may not really hold up to scrutiny, especially when you think back to strange events when it’s all through, but by the time you get to that point, you’ll most likely have gotten enough mileage out of it to make this a worthwhile ride in the end. It’s not Hitchcock, but it’s also not a bad attempt to emulate his style.

Qwipster’s rating: B

MPAA Rated: PG for violence and sexuality (definitely PG-13, and possibly even R today)
Running Time: 101 min.

Cast: Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis, Grant Page, Marion Edward, Thaddeus Smith, Alan Hopgood, John Murphy, Bill Stacey, Robert Thompson, Colin Vancao
Director: Richard Franklin
Screenplay: Everett De Roche