Review of White Line Fever (1975) by Allan C — 11 Aug 2018

Jan-Michael Vincent plays an idealistic long-haul truck driver who wants no part of shipping illegal un-taxed cigarettes and slot machines (which by today's criminal standards seems positively quaint) for corrupt shipping company owner L.

Q. Jones. He the finds himself blackballed and unable to find work until he holds Jones at gunpoint, forcing him to give him a delivery job. He gets a job, but also finds every trucker in the state out to get him.

Co-staring Slim Pickens, R.G. Armstrong, Dick Miller, and Martin "Sweep the Leg" Kove, "White Line Fever" is super fun hixploitaiton with good ol boys cussin', fighting' and driving big rigs.

I've always loved Jan-Michael Vincent's early work and in reflection upon his career have been fascinated and somewhat haunted a quote from Vincent, lamented that he could have been another James Dean if he'd made only three movies and then died, instead of seeing his career and personal life spiral out of control with drugs, alcohol, and multiple arrests (he's now even minus a leg).

If we only remembered Vincent for "The Mechanic," "The Big Wednesday" and possibly this film, he's probably right. We'd have been remembered as a talented, handsome, leading man with a bright future ahead of him, instead of someone who squandered their career and talents.

But back to "White Line Fever," this film was written and directed by Roger Corman protege Jonathan Kaplan, who'd later go on to write and direct some major films, including "The Accused" and "Unlawful Entry," so it's an early work by a quality filmmaker, which bring quality to this unabashedly low-brown exploitation drive-in material.

Overall, "White Line Fever" is one of Jan-Michael Vincent's better films and is solid entertainment if you're in the mood for "Convoy" meets "Walking Tall.".