Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
She was a carhop who wanted to be a country singer.

(00:03):
He was a hustler who dreamed he was Billy the Kid.
And the Dalton said it made me a criminal.
Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw, starring Marjoe Gortner and Lynda Carter.
Lyle, make love to me tonight.
For a while,
they had something.
And then...
We're not talking about actors.
We mean a real monster.

(00:24):
I brought her back.
She'll live and I'll get her another body.
I know they're gonna catch me but don't let anyone see me like that! Please, doctor!
Help me!
Biologically speaking, it's a primary importance that man should want to mate.
Hey, that's right!
You don't get all your kicks from surfing, do you?
We want to be free to ride our machines without being hassled by the man.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

(00:46):
And we want to get loaded.
You think you're gonna make a slave of the world?
I'll see you in Hell first!
The American International Podcast.
Are you ready?
It's once again time for the American International Podcast.
I'm Cheryl Lightfoot.
And I'm Jeff Markin.
And today we're looking at a Wonder Woman and a So-So Guy with Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw from 1976.

(01:08):
Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw was produced and directed by Mark L. Lester, written by Vernon Zimmerman
and co-produced by Lynn Ross and Steve Brody for Caldwell Productions.
Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw stars Marjoe Gortner as Lyle Wheeler, Lynda Carter as Bobbie Jo Baker,
Jesse Vint as Slick Callahan, Merrie Lynn Ross as Pearl Baker, Gerritt Graham as Magic Ray,

(01:29):
Belinda Balaski as Essie Beaumont, Peggy Stewart as Hattie Baker, Gene Drew as Sheriff Hicks,
Richard Breeding as Deputy Leroy.
Also appearing are John Durrrenn as Deputy Gance, Chuck Russell as another Deputy, Virgil Frye as Joe Grant,
Howard R. Kirk as Mr. Potts, Aly Yoder as Mrs. Potts, Joe Kurtzo as Flat Top, aka "Pinball Hood,"

(01:51):
Jesse Price as Buford the Grocery Clerk, Kip Allen as the Hotel Manager, James Gammon as Lethersalesman,
and Jose Toledo as Old Indian.
Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw opens in the desert and it tells us that the quick draw contest is about to begin.
Challenger Lyle Wheeler from New Mexico is taking on, I guess the US champion, I didn't write that down,

(02:12):
it protracted walking towards each other in the center of the street scene and when Lyle pulls out his pistol,
seeing or hearing some cue that I sure didn't. And since he started first, he wins.
The whole contest takes about half a second once it started, which if I were in the audience,
I would consider quite disappointing. After winning, Lyle looks smug as only Marjoe Gortner can.
Next we see Lyle at a garage having his car looked at. It seems it needs a new water pump.

(02:37):
It'll cost 2750 with no guarantee and the mechanic will have to run into town to get the parts.
But Lyle sees he has no other choice but to have it fixed.
So the mechanic hops into his truck and heads towards town. While Lyle is waiting, another car pulls up.
The driver comes out and tells Lyle to fill it up and check the fluids, etc.
But Lyle doesn't work there. He tells the driver that the owner should be back any minute.
Then the driver starts to brag about his speed wagon. It goes 150 miles an hour.

(03:01):
And he can cover 18 western states every 12 days. Then he introduces himself.
Challenger is his name and leather is his game. He's got the alligator, he's got cow hide.
And he can hook Lyle up with a new jacket. But Lyle isn't interested in a new jacket or anything like that. He rarely has sleeves.
What he is interested in is that orange Mustang. Although everyone says it's orange, I see yellow.

(03:22):
But maybe that's just the print.
Turner offers Lyle a chance to sit behind the wheel and rev the engine of his car.
All the while telling Lyle that he should get one of these bad boys.
Don't mind if I do, says Lyle and he peels out of the station.
Turner rages in coherently as the credits roll and he tries to catch up to his car on foot.
Speeding a long Lyle drives past a speed trap and the police car gives chase.

(03:44):
Lyle ignores the siren and keeps going. The chase goes on for a while and eventually Lyle goes off road and comes back behind the police car.
Then he continually bumps the police car and eventually runs the police car off the road and over a hill.
The police car crashes but doesn't explode. Lyle pulls over to make sure he didn't kill the cop.
He sees the officer climb out of his car and smiles.
Kind of gives a wave and goes back to his car.

(04:06):
Makes him look like a psychopath. Now we're in a drive-in restaurant where pretty car hop Bobbie Jo serves burgers and fries to some curtains who lightly harass her after they get served.
But she tells the harasser to henceforth beat his own meat.
She seems to be used to this kind of situation and it's all part of the job.
Yeah, it's not cool, but any waitresses used to this situation, I'm sure.
And then we see that Lyle is there.

(04:27):
Bobbie Jo goes to commiserate with less pretty and rather short car hop.
Essie likes the cut of her harassers' jib but Bobbie Jo is not impressed. S.E. says that Bobbie Jo being so particular about guys is no way to land a husband.
But Bobbie Jo is not interested in husbands. She wants to do more with their life like travel or something.
Essie thinks that she's dreaming but Bobbie Jo says she'll know him when she sees him.

(04:51):
It's further, she won't.
You know, it's Lyle waiting to have his order taken so Essie strolls over to wait on him.
Lyle asks Essie why she has to do all the work around here. She's off work as he says, knowing who he's referring to.
Of course she does.
Lyle asks her name. "Essie," she says. Her name's Essie. Essie? Lyle pointing at Essie.'s name tag.
Then she gives in.

(05:12):
Bobbie Jo.
Now listen, can I take your order?
Lyle asks Essie to send Bobbie Jo over there.
She's off work, I said. Now what can I get you?
Lyle orders a hamburger fries and a Coke with ice in the glass.
After Essie goes to take his order back, Lyle sees Bobbie Jo now in her regular clothes of a tiny tank top and mom jeans walking out of the restaurant.
So rather than wait for his food, he immediately follows her in his car.

(05:33):
Bobbie Jo walks past a musical instrument shop on her way and admires a guitar from outside. Lyle sees this.
Then he also follows her all the way home and parks outside her house like a creep.
At her home,Bobbie Jo's mother is sitting around.
Bobbie Jo's mom is a Jesus freak and secret alcoholic and we see her take a hit off a squeeze bottle full of hard liquor.

(05:54):
When Bobbie Jo comes in, she says someone from the church stopped by and said that they all need saving.
And Bobbie Jo's mother agrees with this.
She's got a daughter who has left home and Bobbie Jo stayed out all night the other night.
Bobbie Jo denies being with any boy that night, but her mom has not done her ranging her.
She wants Bobbie Jo to be good and well, you know what that means.
Bobbie Jo is not swayed.
Bobbie Jo goes into her room to change and her mother follows her to continue the conversation.

(06:18):
Bobbie Jo's mother, whose name is Hattie, says that she never would have acted like that when she was young.
And she doesn't know what she would have done without the Lord.
But Bobbie Jo says it looks like she gets more peace from booze than from Jesus.
Hattie snarls at Bobbie Jo to take that back.
It's getting hot in here says Bobbie Jo and says she's going outside for some air.
Having changed from one tank top to another tank top, she marches outside and hops straight into the Mustang, waking a dozing lyle.

(06:43):
Let's go, she says.
Lyle tries to be sensible.
You don't even know me, but Bobbie Jo has thrown caution and reason out the window.
They take off.
Lyle says that Bobbie Jo reminds me of someone.
It's not Wonder Woman.
Linda Ronstadt asks Bobbie Jo.
No, but Lyle asks if that's her idol.
Maybe says Bobbie Jo and well, if it is, she's got great taste.
She asks Lyle who his idol is and he says it's Billy the Kid.

(07:07):
He didn't take shit from nobody.
Then Lyle asks Bobbie Jo if she likes country music and unfortunately for the viewing audience, she says yes.
Bobbie Jo says country music means to her what this car means to Lyle.
And Lyle is impressed with her probity.
But Bobbie Jo says that at school she was told that she was deep.
And now for the first time, but not the last time we hear the song "Those City Lights" by Bobby Bare.

(07:31):
Learn to love it.
In a montage, Lyle and Bobbie Jo, who have both changed their clothes, so some time has passed.
I believe that they actually went shopping when it was off screen, but I'll get into that later.
Okay.
They're walking through the desert and to kind of a fort.
It's a big pile of bricks and do some sort of a structure.
That's the ruins of some kind of ancient building.
Then they sit on a blanket among the ruins.

(07:54):
Bobbie Jo starts to play the guitar, which I also believe they purchased on the shopping trip because she didn't have one before.
That's right.
Unless he's surprised you're with it, you bought it after she looked at it and then while he was on his way to stalk her.
I don't think he would have been able to follow her home if he had done that.
That's true.
Good reasoning.
I think they bought new tops and they bought a guitar.
I'm surprised they bought anything though, because the movie shows them stealing every single thing that they want.

(08:18):
Well, maybe they stole it then.
It wouldn't fit with the plot though.
Anyway, she's using this guitar and serenading Lyle, asking if he's as lonely as she is.
Well, the song is "Are You Lonely Like Me?" and it's performed by Lynda Carter.
She says she wrote it, but IMDb says otherwise.
Her song ends and Lyle tries to convince Bobbie Jo that she could be a country in western star.

(08:38):
But Bobbie Jo isn't having it.
She didn't have voice lessons as a kid and now it's too late.
Lyle insists that it's never too late.
Bobbie Jo confesses that she used to pretend to be Minnie Pearl at the Grand Ole Opry when she was a kid.
She'd even dressed up like her and then she was staying in front of the mirror as if she were on stage.
Lyle said he used to practice gunfighting the same way.
He would do themself in the mirror.

(08:59):
Every draw was a tie.
And then they repeat that Lynda Carter song only about three minutes after it had just ended, so they can have a sex scene.
And now it's later the next day.
That same day, who knows.
Lyle shows off his beer can shooting skills, so Bobbie Jo doesn't have to look at his boiled lobster skin glowing in the sun.
He's taken off his shirt so we can all enjoy that.

(09:22):
He's shooting coarse cans off the hood of an old car and Bobbie Jo isn't pressed for this talent or at least she pretends to use.
And then he compliments her figure and she says that doesn't mean much, but he says that's what keeps him interested in teaching her how to shoot.
Now he's going to let her have a shot.
She misses and Lyle comes behind her and helps her aim in his time. She hits a can.
Then those city lights plays again.
As Lyle and Bobbie Jo return to the drive-in to pick up Essie after her shift.

(09:47):
And once again we have no idea how much time has passed since they met.
I think this is just one day.
They each had the clothes they would head on their backs when they met.
Right, Lyle just stole a car so he didn't have anything with him.
He had his blanket thing.
That's it.
And apparently he has a book.
Oh right, where was that?
Stuffed it down the back of his pants?
Unless he got that on his shopping spree too.

(10:08):
Or shoplifting spree, whatever.
So Essie joins them.
He's sitting in the back seat and asks what they're going to do tonight.
We says Lyle, where I come from, three is a crowd.
Little hostile Lyle.
Essie finds Turner's leather sample book, asks about it and Lyle pretends that he is in the business of selling tan animal hides and they buy it.
Essie says she thought they were supposed to wear plastic to save the animals.

(10:29):
Lyle tells her that's a bunch of horse shit.
He asks her what she thinks she's sitting on.
“Vinyl?" says Essie.
"No, that's 100% genuine cow hide."
Then they go to a bar so Lyle can show off his pinball skills.
Essie is also shooting pool, but Bobbie Jo is watching Lyle.
She's cheering him on.
A while Lyle is showing off his pinball prowess, another guy in the bar sporting a mullet.

(10:51):
Sees Lyle playing the game and walks over there.
He bumps into Bobbie Jo and the game, shutting it off.
And any challenge is Lyle to a contest, even spotting him 10,000 points and offering 2-1 odds on the bet.
Lyle says he doesn't know the machine is kind of new to him.
Lyle doesn't have any money though, so the guy offers to spot him 20 bucks, which could mean 40 to Lyle.
Yoron says Lyle. Essie and a small crowd come over to watch.

(11:15):
The other guy whose name appears to be Flattop goes first.
He plays an admirable game and scores 54,700.
Then Lyle is up. He does better and wins.
But Flattop isn't quick to pay.
Flattop asks for best 2-3.
Lyle tells him that he won fair and square and his old lady isn't like him gambling, so he'd better just pay up.
Flattop reluctantly pays and Lyle reminds him of the offer to spot him in the 20.

(11:37):
So Flattop pays that too.
The 3 of them leave, only to be followed by Flattop and his whole game.
They don't like cheaters, you see.
And they're going to take it out on Lyle in the parking lot.
Both women get in the car and Lyle, with his back to the mob, works the antenna off his car.
Lyle says that you got me all wrong.
“No man, we got you dead right!"
growls one of the guys through his teeth.
That's one of the best line reads in the whole movie.

(12:00):
And the fight is on.
Lyle uses the antenna to slash at and then choke the guy with a bad diction.
And then hostage style, he drags that guy back over to the driver's side.
He throws the guy in presumably the antenna aside and hops in the car and speeds off.
Bobbie Jo asked Lyle why they were so upset.
After all Lyle beat them parents square.
Not exactly admits Lyle.
He pulls on a magnet explains how he had especially made to cheat at pinball.

(12:22):
I didn't know he had it specially made.
You said he did, really?
Yeah.
I guess special made magnets.
That's ridiculous.
You might be the smartest person I've ever met explains Bobbie Jo to which Essie rolls her eyes.
Essie rolls her eyes so far back she can see Texas.
Essie gags, tired of being the third wheel on this weird romance, and asks to be taken home.

(12:43):
Now, sans Essie, Bobbie Jo and Lyle are camped out over a fire they appear to be cooking a tentacle.
No way it's a rabbit.
Bobbie Jo admires Lyle's guns.
He has a pistol on a rifle now.
I guess he used it to kill the rabbit and not a squid.
Lyle tells Bobbie Jo, he got it from his brother who was a hunter.
He doesn't shoot anything he won't eat.
And his handgun is a cult like Billy the Kids.

(13:05):
Lyle says that he learned from the hunting accident that killed his dad to never lose his footing.
Bobbie Jo asked if that's why he learned to shoot so well.
Lyle says no.
What makes you say that?
Then he says that he's got the confidence that won't quit.
Lord grant me the unerred confidence of a Marjoe Gortner.
Then Bobbie Jo asks him what life is like on the road.
Lots of towns, lots of girls.

(13:26):
No, nothing like that says Lyle.
He asks her if he can tell her something personal without her getting mad.
He confesses that he's not really a leather salesman.
She looks as if she's trying to hide her disappointment.
But I imagine she's really relieved.
He found that sample book at a gas station, omitting exactly how he found it at the gas station.
Then those city lights plays again and Lyle and Bobbie Jo get naked again until morning.

(13:49):
This is the third time.
And still, not the last.
I know it's the next day we're at some sort of pool parlor gas station bust depot.
I don't have any idea.
And Essie is dropped off.
She joins Bobbie Jo and Lyle and she's got a travel bag.
Bobbie Jo is pleased to see her but Lyle who's playing pool seems less than pleased.
Essie says she had to get three different rides to make it there.

(14:11):
But she did manage to go to Bobbie Jo's place to get her a change of tank tops.
She tries to give gas money to Lyle, $20.
But he rejects it.
Is this a threesome now?
He asks.
Bobbie Jo takes the bill until it's Lyle to be nice to Essie.
And Essie tells him that he's too uptight and that they can do whatever comes naturally.
In the next scene, Lyle, Bobbie Jo and Essie have met up with a Native American.

(14:40):
They're in a pool of water and mud and sharing mushrooms.
I guess that's what comes naturally.
They're all naked and there's a Native American medicine man guiding their trip, I guess.
Essie asks for some help with hers.
Lyle doesn't seem to need any help with his.
But when he comes out there, he sees the whole US cavalry, and Indians too and a sheriff and his posse are coming and they're after Lyle.

(15:01):
He says he's trapped in a building.
Bobbie Jo tells him to just go out the back door, but it's too late.
Lyle's been shot.
Oh no.
He's foreshadowing the entire movie.
Bummer.
Post-trip, the gang stops at a convenience store.
A cop pulls up next to them.
Seconds later, same cop is at Lyle's window asking for his license.
In response, Lyle peels out and takes off.
The cop follows.

(15:22):
Lyle warns them that the posse is after them.
Bobbie Jo asks what's gotten into Lyle and Lyle explains that the car he's driving isn't exactly his.
"Do you mean it's hot," asks Essie?
Lyle keeps driving.
There's a truck's trailer in the middle of the road pointed in an angle so it makes a great ramp.
Lyle drives over it, lands back on the road and turns with it.
The police car follows, lands back on the road and skids off it.

(15:44):
As Lyle, Bobbie Jo, and Essie drive away, the policeman scrambles from his car.
He barely makes it before it detonates.
Of course it does.
In the car, Lyle tells Essie and Bobbie Jo that they can surface and ask them what they think they should do now.
Bobbie Jo thinks for a second and then suggests they go to see her sister.
Her sister's in show business, so maybe she could help.
Her sister's show business happens to be a grimy strip club.

(16:07):
There's two tapeless girls dancing.
Bobbie Jo, Lyle and Essie are at the bar.
Bobbie Jo's sister Pearl comes up and compliments her sister on growing up pretty because they haven't seen each other in a while.
Pearl's bow slick joins them as well.
Slick is able to figure out that they're here because they have no money.
Yes, Bobbie Jo, if she wants a job, but Pearl says she wouldn't work in a place like this.
So Slick is Bobbie Jo $10 to get herself some feed and they'll figure something out.

(16:30):
Then Slick asks Lyle to drive him to the office so he could pick something up.
Lyle says sure and he and Slick take off.
Before he goes, Bobbie Jo caution signs be careful not for any particular reason.
Everyone's scoffs at her for caring and Essie even says, "Loosen the leash."
Pearl tells her sister that Slick may look dumb, but he's great in the sack.
And he's a really good dancer too.
And he believes in her and he has since they first met, which is also the first time they had sex.

(16:54):
And she asks if Bobbie Jo and Essie aren't in any trouble.
Bobbie Jo is sure as her they're not.
A lot of Lyle and going on in this maybe.
Meanwhile, Lyle and Slick are off on that errand.
Slick likes the Mustang.
He takes a snort of something and offers some to Lyle, but Lyle turns it down.
You ain't ever seen me high, have you?
I spent three minutes ago, so no, they have not seen each other high.
I'm funny as hell when I'm high, says Slick, as he puts on a pair of novelty glasses.

(17:18):
Well, that proves it.
They've arrived at their destination, so Slick jumps out of the car.
How long are you going to be, Essie?
Just a couple of minutes, says Slick.
So wearing the glasses, he reaches into his shirt as he walks to a fenced-in area
behind the New Mexico Peter built building.
Seconds later, Slick is scuttling back to the car, pursued by a night watchman.
Who tells Slick to stop.
Fires his revolver in the air and then fires at Slick.

(17:39):
Slick is hit and he goes down, dropping his gun.
Lyle leaps from the car, picks up the gun and shoots the security guard in the face.
As they drive away, Slick asks Lyle if he got the gun.
Lyle is understandably miffed.
Why didn't you tell me what was going down?
Do you realize I killed somebody back there?
Slick tells him not to worry about it.
Lyle asks if Slick needs to see a doctor, but Slick tells him that Pearl can patch him up.

(18:00):
Interleparate camey and matching panties.
Pearl does first aid on Slick.
Slick is not a very patient patient, though.
Plotpoint radio interrupts the music.
Turn us the news of the guard's death and subsequent manhunt with two men in an orange Mustang.
An apprehension is imminent, the announcer says.
And it looks like this is the first time the women are hearing about the murder part of this adventure.
I guess we're all in this together now, says Pearl.

(18:22):
What do you mean we?
I'm the one who's gonna hang, says Lyle.
And Bobbie Jo says, wait a minute, aren't we all family here?
They'll figure out what to do together.
I see, suggest turning themselves in now, but Slick says that that idea sucks.
Lyle looks outside to verify the imminent apprehension.
There's already a cop looking at Lyle's distinctive vehicle outside.
Lyle tells them to kill the lights and announces that he has a plan.

(18:43):
Uh oh.
Since they're all in this together, they'd better climb out through the roof.
Really?
And clear out of there.
The next day, the radio is reporting that roadblocks have been set up for the suspects and last night's murder.
They have acquired a school bus painted up for the new Mexico Christian crusade.
And the women are all dressed like sister wives.
It's Slick Pearl, Essie, and Bobbie Jo's job to distract at the roadblock so Lyle can get through in another car.

(19:05):
Bobbie Jo wants to ride with Lyle, but they explain that they don't know about the rest of them,
so it's better if he goes this one alone.
Bobbie Jo and Essie each hug Lyle goodbye, and Slick comes over to tell him not to let his meet-low.
I'm not sure I speak the same language as Slick does.
On the road, the bus goes first.
You get stopped at a roadblock where Sheriff Hicks quizzes them on their destination.
The young Christian folks in his convention, they say, "Hicks tries to challenge them."

(19:29):
He thought that was in Gallup last week, but Pearl says she doesn't know nothing about that.
They're headed for Santa Fe.
The sheriff loves the Lord, and so he lets them pass.
Once he's out of earshot, Slick offers to kill Hicks now, but Pearl tells him to shut up and drive.
And we'll find out later that that proves unwise.
So they drive through while seeing bringing in the sheaves.
Once they're through, Lyle hops into his car and busts through the roadblock.

(19:52):
So not so fired and Sheriff Hicks jumps into his car to give chase.
After Lyle passes, the school bus is left in the middle of the road.
The others pile into Lyle's car.
A police car ran through the back quarter of the bus, and Hicks himself crashes through the school bus,
somehow getting enough lift to accomplish this.
He lands on a hillside and the car rolls over back onto the street, but upside down.
It does not explode.

(20:14):
[Music]
And now we're back with the gang.
They're at the stream where they did the mushrooms or perhaps they're in a different stream.
That's he's grateful for Lyle's driving skills, but Lyle just pushes her into the water.
Bobbie Jo, he confesses he thinks it would be better if the two of them were alone.

(20:35):
But Bobbie Jo says that they'll just stay one step ahead of the cops.
Lyle thinks or tries to for a second, and then agrees that they can do that.
Then he, wearing a diaper, jumps in the water for a swim.
Meanwhile, Slick is working on the car.
Pearl tells him that he's acting like a coward, doing everything Lyle tells him to.
Slick says that Lyle is much better at planning things than he is, so he isn't mind taking the back seat.

(20:57):
Anyway, it didn't bother Pearl when it was just the two of them, but now Slick wants her to remember one thing.
A hard man is good to find.
Problem solved.
And they all swim or sun themselves in their underwear.
Slick wonders what the next move is now that the car is ready to go.
Lyle says they're gonna lay low for a while and figure out their next move.
And now we're at a trailer park where apparently you can rent trailers by the night.

(21:19):
All five of them are crammed into one single wide.
Pearl needs to know where they are and where they're going, and she's going to be the driver.
Lyle thinks they should travel in two cars, but Bobby Joe doesn't like that idea.
Plotpoint television now has a special message from Guadalupe County Sheriff Bud Hicks to the outlaws.
Hicks wants to tell Lyle Wheeler in particular that if he turns himself in now,
he will promise a fair trial, which I guess means that only special cases get those.

(21:44):
He goes on to say that he believes they weren't implicated the way that they thought they were,
so it's a good time to turn themselves in.
And if they don't, he's going to hunt them down like dogs.
Essie. thinks turning themselves in sounds like a good deal.
Lyle tells her she's free to go anytime she wants.
But Essie says amnesty he means they can ALL go back home, but nobody else is buying a sheriff's story.
Lyle says they should lay low until they can get a hold of some more money.

(22:07):
Everyone thinks this sounds like a great idea, except for Essie,
who goes off by yourself to the other side of the trailer.
That night, as the various couples cuddle together in bed asleep,
Essie, the fifth wheel, sneaks out to the payphone to announce to the law where they all are.
Instantly the police arrive gun's drawn.
Sheriff Hicks yells out that Lyle needs to come out nice and easy.
As Lyle and Slick ready themselves for a shootout, Bobbie Jo and Pearl sneak out through a hatch in the floor.

(22:32):
Bobbie Jo notices Essie is missing, but there's no time to look for her now.
Sheriff Hicks calls out for one more chance for Lyle to give himself up peacefully.
He tells his men that if he's not out there in three seconds to let him have it.
Essie runs out in front of the trailer.
"No, you promised!" and the cops open fire and down goes Essie.
Is that three seconds?
Was up.
There's firing back and forth the cops at the trailer.

(22:54):
Lyle and Slick at the cops.
Then Lyle and Slick take the way out through the hatch.
They run out in front of the trailer and get in the car that Pearl is pulled around.
Somehow, not getting shot.
As he's getting in the car, Lyle scoops up Essie and they drive away.
Then, for reasons I cannot explain, the entire trailer explodes.
And then the cops realize that the outlaws have departed.
After driving for a little while, the car pulls over.

(23:17):
Lyle is still holding Essie and Essie is crying, telling Lyle that he promised they'd be okay.
She says she really thought that she was helping him.
Lyle says it's okay and Essie dies.
She's dead, says Slick.
No, says Bobbie Jo.
Yes, says Lyle.
No, says Bobbie Jo.
But Lyle confirms that she is most sincerely dead and says that he'll miss her.
And then there's more driving.
Once they stop, we see that they're bearing Essie in an unmarked grave in the middle of nowhere

(23:41):
where no one who loved her will ever be able to find her body.
Marjoe Gortner preaches grave side from the book of Billy the Kid, saying,
"I wanted to get killed in one hell-firing minute of smoking action."
And then he says that Essie had that spirit and they all do.
And he vows revenge on the sheriff that killed Essie.
And to start that campaign of vengeance, they're going to rob a bank.

(24:02):
This is met with gang-wide approval.
I think Bobbie Jo even climaxes.
Well, anyway, she goes "Christ!" in a very excited tone.
Lyle says they're going to need a lot more firepower and everyone's going to have to learn how to use these guns.
Well, the women anyway.
And the next scene sees them practicing shooting some newly acquired automatic weapons on an abandoned house.
You never see how they get those weapons because it's the next scene where they steal what they need.

(24:26):
Earl and Bobbie Jo are waiting in the car outside a gun shop.
Bobbie Jo gets tired of waiting. It's taking too long.
So she stupidly goes to stand in the center of the street outside the shop,
just as Slick and Lyle are exiting guns of lasing.
The gun shop owner chases after them and shoots at them.
Slick gets into the car.
Bobbie Jo comes back and is ducking behind the car and Lyle joins her and hands off his big guns

(24:47):
so he can get off a shot with his cult.
Bobbie Jo seems to enjoy shooting a little too much though,
even after she takes down the last man firing at them.
She shoots a few dozen more rounds for the sheer joy of it,
Lyle has to haul her bodily back to the car.
As they drive off, Lyle warns her to never do that again.
Next time he's not coming back for her.
But Lyle, I made him dance, didn't I?
Lyle looks concerned at how very into this she is.

(25:10):
Now we're at an old farmhouse and an even older couple are sitting in rocking chairs in front of this house.
These are the pots.
Mr. Potts explains that these kids offered him $50 to stay in their barn for a week.
Mrs. Potts knows all this already, she lives there too.
And they haven't been using the barn anyway, but she just doesn't like strangers.
Well then, I guess it's good that they're leaving.

(25:32):
The four of them come outside to say goodbye.
Lyle says he's very grateful for their hospitality and he wants to give them $50.
But he doesn't have it.
The old folks look really disappointed at this.
But promises Lyle, he will mail it to them at some future time.
You order Bobbie Jo to get their address and tell them to watch for them on the TV tonight.
Are you going to be on a game show as Mr. Potts?
No, we're going to be on the news, says Lyle.

(25:54):
Bobbie Jo gets the address and compliments Mrs. Potts on her pie.
And Mr. Potts says as they go, "I know those nice kids.
They wouldn't hurt a fly."
Next we see Bobbie Jo and Pearl are in a station wagon and Slick and Lyle are in a pickup truck.
Lyle radios at the reach checkpoint Charlie.
Bobbie Jo radios back that they'll be in position in the next two minutes.
The station wagon, containing the women, pulls up to the gentleman's bank.

(26:18):
While Pearl waits in the car, Bobbie Jo goes into case to join by attempting to cash a check.
The bank manager says that since she has an out of town check and she doesn't have an account with them, they can't help her.
Bobbie Jo thinks them and goes back on side.
Then the pickup truck comes around the corner and crashes into the bank.
Slick stands up in the back of the truck and introduces himself, Lyle and Bobbie Jo, as their robbers today.

(26:39):
Everyone has their hands up and an older woman seems to be having some trouble,
so Lyle tells her not to worry about a thing and has Bobbie Jo get her a chair to sit in.
I think they made the first drive through bank here.
Then Lyle ties a chain around the bank's safe, attaches the other end to the front of the truck.
The bank manager reaches for something and Slick and loads his gun into him.
They back out, dragging the safe with them.
Bobbie Jo exits two, gun at the ready.

(27:01):
Then they have to waste time disconnecting the chain, safe from the front bumper, and reconnecting it to the back.
Then everyone jumps in their respective vehicles and they drive off.
The safe sparking and bouncing is its drag behind the truck.
Then we see Sheriff Hicks hit the scene of the crime. He's really impressed at this amount of damage
and tells Deputy Lee Roy to take a look at this and then to call for backup.
Now we see that Lyle, Bobbie Jo, Slick and Pearl have taken refuge at Magic Ray's dome.

(27:24):
It's kind of a commune.
Yeah, and again they're leaving. We only ever see them when they're leaving a place.
Magic Ray offers to let them stay, but they've got to keep moving. And they leave.
Soon though, Sheriff Hicks shows up at the commune and he goes to question Magic Ray.
The sheriff knows that the bank robbers have been through there. He just wants to know which way they went.
Magic Ray says he doesn't know and maybe they passed through on some higher plane.

(27:46):
The sheriff responds by spitting his tobacco onto his table.
Ugh, so gross.
He's always chewing tobacco in every scene. Even when he was on television, we didn't mention it before.
This is a habit that makes me sick to my stomach, so I noticed every time.
That action doesn't make Magic Ray any more cooperative.
So Deputy Leroy chokes Ray with a rifle stock for a little while.

(28:07):
Then Hicks sends Leroy out to the car so he can ask one more time for information, which Ray once again does not provide.
Then Hicks pistol whips Ray and takes his leave.
Ray picks himself off the floor and snarls, "peace officer, huh?"
And now we have another pit stop on the road to tradition.
Yep, Lyle, Bobbie Jo, Slick and Pearl have driven into town.
They're feeling fairly safe and flush with cash. So Lyle sends Bobbie Jo and Pearl out for ice cream while he and Slick head to the barber shop for a shave.

(28:34):
Lyle also says he plans to mail the $50 that he owes the pots. Pearl rejects to this because it's all their money, but Lyle says a promise is a promise.
Bobbie Jo and Pearl go into the drug store and order a couple of chocolate ice cream cones.
While they're waiting, they see that they've made the headlines along with Lyle's picture. The article lists them all by name with commentary on Slick.
They describe Slick as a no good chiseler, as do I, but that really belongs in an op-ed piece and not a news item.

(28:58):
Pearl says that's not very nice to say, and besides they didn't even mention her dancing.
Bobbie Jo says they should get two copies and give one to the boys.
No money ever changes hands in the scene. They get their ice cream in their newspapers and never give the clerk a dime.
Meanwhile at the barber shop, Lyle and Slick are sitting in the chairs with hot towels on their faces.
The barber says he has to go out and stroke his strap, and this sets Lyle and Slick into fits of giggles.

(29:21):
Me too. They stop laughing when someone comes in and points his shotgun at them.
I guess he wasn't stroking his strap after all.
This is Deputy Gance. He tells them not to move unless they feel lucky.
Because dead or alive, he gets the reward either way. Then Gance turns to Slick, "and you must be that two-bit thief.
Why don't you try to steal past me?" Slick says, “Cheeseface, I'm gonna take you apart."

(29:44):
Gance says that he'd shit like him for breakfast.
Ew.
Gance hands his shotgun to the barber and tells him to keep an eye on them while he goes and calls the sheriff.
Wouldn't it be better if he held the shotgun and told the barber to go call the sheriff?
Because the barber would get the reward.
Oh, I see. I don't think the cops would do each other dirty like that.
He goes off-screen to call the sheriff. The barber asks Lyle and Slick to hand over their boots.

(30:07):
Because it'll be great for business to have those on the premises.
Lyle says that the barber can have his shoes once Lyle is through with him.
Meaning the barber? Deputy Gantz returns, and the rifle once again changes hands, but that's where Lyle makes his move.
He gets control of the rifle as Slick takes the barber's straight razor.
Lyle makes Gance get on his hands and knees and squeal like a pig, which he's not very good at doing.

(30:28):
All his bravado is now gone.
Then Slick grabs Gance and throws him into the barber chair.
What you need is a close shave, Slick says, rubbing the handle of the straight razor against his throat.
Gance begs for his life, telling them that he can help them hide or give them money.
Lyle says there are some things money can't buy.
And Slick says that he can't exactly call off the sheriff.
A couple of seconds later, Slick decides to slit the deputy's throat.

(30:50):
This is too much for Lyle. He marches Slick out of the shop, commanding the barber to stay put for 15 minutes.
The barber grimaces at the man bleeding out in his chair next to him.
Lyle and Slick went into the car where Pearl and Bobbie Jo are waiting.
Bobbie Jo asks what's wrong, and Lyle tells everyone that Slick just slit a deputy's throat.
Pearl, while trying to start the car, asks why he did that. Slick says he guarantees he had a coming.

(31:11):
Lyle says that killing someone is self-defense and doing it in cold blood in front of witnesses is a difference between good and evil.
I guess good then is killing people who are trying to stop you from committing a crime.
Lyle gets tired of watching Pearl struggle to start the car.
He jumps out of the back seat and pushes into the driver's side, managing to start it almost immediately.
And they take off.
Sheriff picks his arriving town and he's questioning the barber since he's the only witness.

(31:42):
The sheriff is waving his knife in the barber's face while blathering at him with a mouthful of chew.
The only thing a barber remembers is that Lyle promised to give him his boots when he's through with them.
The sheriff says that's going to be sooner than he thinks, and he spits a ball of chaw onto the ground.
Groves, on the road, everyone is content but Bobby Joe.
She's scared and she wants her mama.
Slick says that's not going to happen. They got to keep moving.

(32:04):
But Lyle promises she will see her mom.
And in the next scene, she does.
There in a park and Hattie tells Bobbie Jo that the sheriff gave her a number to call if Bobbie Jo shows up.
Hattie gives the car to Bobbie Jo.
Then she greets her other daughter a little less enthusiastically.
Pearl is suspicious of her mama's motives.
Hattie swears that the sheriff believes that they're innocent and that he's so nice.

(32:25):
But Pearl forces Hattie to admit that the sheriff promised her $50 to get Bobbie Jo to call them.
Hattie says that she needs the money.
Pearl is smug about being right, but Bobbie Jo says, "I know mama."
And then she adds, "We have to go."
Hattie sadly says goodbye to her baby, but not at all to Pearl.
And as they go, she takes a hit off of her squeeze bottle.
It's like she's drinking out of a bottle of Hydrops.
It's so weird. Just get a flask.

(32:47):
Now it's night. The sheriff pulled up to a hotel, advertising quadruple X movies.
Stream live to your room.
Lyle was looking out the window and he sees his old friend the sheriff has tracked them down.
The sheriff goes in to talk to the hotel manager.
The sheriff shows in photos of the culprits and the manager recognizes them.
Back in the room, Lyle tells the others he's going to create a distraction.

(33:08):
And when they hear one shot, they are to run out to the car.
Back in the hotel office, the manager tells the sheriff that they're in room 8.
No wait, 9.
Then he asks if they're dangerous.
The sheriff just looks at him.
"The real Lyle Wheeler's gang, you tell me."
"Whaaaat?"
Lyle shoves up a beam and gets himself on the roof.
He walks along to another part of the hotel where an officer spots him.

(33:30):
Lyle shoots the cop. The shot makes Hicks send every cop he has in that direction.
Which is on the other side of the hotel from when Slick, Bobbie Jo and everyone else was staying.
The three of them exit the hotel and Lyle makes it back to where the car is parked.
And he hops in with them and they go.
Hicks and his cops stake out room number 9.
Hicks tells them to come out with their hands up, waits to beat,

(33:51):
and then Hicks declares this to be resisting arrest so they unleash a barrage of ammo into the room.
But when Hicks goes to enter the room, he finds a different set of guests, a naked man and two women riddled with bullets.
One deputy looks shocked, but Hicks says it was the Lord's will. They are all sinners.
So, no big deal.
"Just then the manager runs over to tell the sheriff that he's made a mistake.

(34:12):
The night manager had sent them out into another room while he was out.
Whoops."
"Yeah, the manager looks at the bodies and just realizes how fatal of a mistake he's made.
And now we're back with our gang who are camped out somewhere in the desert.
Slick says that the Texas newspaper says there's a bounty on their heads there too.
They discuss where they should go.
Bobbie Jo wants to go to Pueblo, New Mexico, Colorado? I don't know.

(34:35):
But Slick says that they should go to Mexico as soon as possible.
"This sounds good to Pearl because she can go for a taco right now."
"I'll decide that they're going to sleep on it tonight and decide in the morning.
Bobbie Jo asks Lyle to sleep on her tonight, but he just walks away.
Bobbie Jo tells her sister Lyle just has things on his mind right now and goes after him.
Slick watches her go and says that Lyle knows what's going to happen, just like he knows what's going to happen.

(34:59):
And he's just sorry he dragged Pearl into this.
Pearl says that all her life, he's the first person to ever tell her she can do anything.
So she's glad to be here and she's not leaving him.
"She's going to be his ride and die. I mean, ride or die.
Also, she wants to get laid right now and they probably should because it might be their last time."
The next day we see Lyle having his car fill up at a service station.

(35:20):
The cost is $5.53, but the attendant is willing to draw him for it.
He recognizes Lyle and he introduces himself as Joe Grant, the fastest drawing Texas.
Lyle says okay and Joe runs inside to get his gun.
He comes back out and Bobbie Jo asks what's going on.
Lyle says he's just paying a bill and she and the others should wait inside.
Joe tells Lyle to draw, but Lyle says he never draws first.

(35:42):
He takes his position in the road and the two start pacing towards each other, has Slick, Pearl and Bobby Joe look on.
The musical tension rises. Joe takes off his rings and then the two draw, but Lyle is a little faster.
He shoots Joe in the gut. In slow motion, Joe grimaces and falls to his knee and then flat on his face.
So undignified, but a weird hobby.
Then Lyle asks Bobbie Jo for a $100 bill, which he stuffs into the Deadman's hand.

(36:07):
Maybe that'll help pay for a decent funeral. Then they all pile into the car and leave once again.
We always see him going.
And we're still at the gas station where Sheriff Hicks is consoling some relative of Joe's with a wet mouthful of chalk.
Yuck.
Deputy no name comes out with a map that was left behind in one of the booths.
Someone wrote Weblo several times in the margin and this is enough of a clue for Hicks and they all leave.

(36:31):
Next we see Bobbie Jo alone at the market. But where are the others?
Well it turns out Lyle Slick and Pearl are holed up at an Indian reservation.
Are so we're meant to believe.
Lyle asks if anyone has seen Bobbie Jo. Pearl says she went to go get some food.
In town asked Lyle, Pearl says she'll be fine.
At the store, Bobbie Jo has to body block the newspaper with her photo on the front as she checks out.
The grocer is sure that he recognizes her, but he thinks she's Jack Kingman's daughter.

(36:55):
Bobbie Jo denies that and tells him to make it snappy.
He's taking too long. He bags her groceries and she leaves.
Given the grocer's opportunity to see the cover of the paper.
That's great, senior, before.
Looks like it's her high school photo on the cover of that edition.
And now we see that Sheriff Hicks has tracked them down at the reservation.
He has his men surround them and gives them to the count of 12 to surrender.

(37:18):
That's pretty generous for him, usually two or three.
He makes the count and the police start shooting.
I would expect him to short-changes them on the count.
While in Slick's shoot back while Pearl stays low.
She stands to grab her own gun and gets shot in the belly in the process.
She collapses onto the couch and Slick rushes to her side to say goodbye.
Now tells him that they gots to go when they shoot their way out.

(37:39):
Almost successfully because they make it to their car without getting hit.
But when they open the door, Hicks is waiting for them on the front seat of the car.
He's been at this long enough to know their MO by now.
So he shoots them both.
They keep getting in their car and driving away so he never needed to be.
Exactly. And as he shoots them, the frame freezes so we never see them fall.
It is now daylight. Bobbie Jo has returned and is in custody.

(38:02):
A blanket is thrown over Lyle and swims dead bodies.
A deputy has found Lyle's book on Billy the Kid in his car.
There's a page marked and the sheriff reads from it.
He reads this passage from the book of Billy as Bobbie Jo struggles against those holding her.
The biggest fool in the world is he who thinks he can beat the law.
Crime never pays and never will.
Bobbie Jo calls Hicks a bastard and then she calls him a bastard again and spits in his space.

(38:26):
Hicks commands the cops to get her out of here.
Then he posthumously and literally throws the book at Lyle as the credits roll.
And for the fourth time, we are those city lights by Bobby Bare.
And that's the end?
Welcome back to the American International Podcast where we're talking about Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw from 1976.

(38:51):
The film was originally to be called Desperado and another working title was Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw Man.
But in March of 1976, the LA Times announced that Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw would be at least that spring.
Bobbie Jo and the Lyle was shot in and around New Mexico beginning in August of 1975 with production wrapping in September of 1975 on a budget of about half a million dollars.

(39:12):
AIP acquired the domestic release rights in December of 1975 according to an article in the Hollywood Reporter.
The movie was based on the Billy the Kid story.
In interviews, director Mark L. Lester said, "I did a lot of research on Billy the Kid and I told the writer to follow the Billy the Kid story.
I read about how he had lasted a safe and tied it to his horse.
So when our movie, the guy, Lester, is the safe and ties it to his pickup truck and crashes through the bank.

(39:37):
They travel the same route as Billy the Kid in the movie.
And the character, I thought, should just think he's Billy the Kid."
Lester's first choice for the role was child evangelist Marjoe Gortner, who bicker with Lester on his salary for the role.
He's quoted as saying, "We were fighting over money with Marjo and I told him he had until five o'clock that evening to make his choice.

(39:58):
At 4:59, he called and agreed to do the picture.
And then I had to call and tell Sylvester Stallone that he didn't get the part.
Sylvester Stallone as the Outlaw. Can you imagine?
Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw marks the film debut of Miss USA 1972 Lynda Carter, premiering a month before she was seen on television as Wonder Woman, which itself only lasted for three seasons.
The film's also the only one to feature Lynda Carter in a new scene.

(40:21):
I heard that later she disavowed this movie because of that because of her new found religion.
Merrie Lynn Ross, who played Pearl, also co-produced the movie under the name Lynn Ross.
In an interview for the Blu-Ray release, she said that she helped raise money for the production and problem-solved when circumstances called for that.
The book from which Lyle is reading over Essie's grave is Love Letters and Bad Men by Jay Robert Nash, published in 1973.

(40:45):
In December of 1976, variety announced that Nash had filed a lawsuit against producer director Mark L. Lester, Command Properties Incorporated, and AIP for Copyright infringement, alleging that sections of his book were quoted in the movie with confirmation.
Nash asked for $15 million in damages and attorney fees, as well as the cessation of foreign distribution and the withholding of all profits.

(41:06):
The outcome of the situation is unknown to us at this time.
Mark Lester said he was surprised to hear that he was being sued by Nash.
He said, "It turns out I wasn't allowed to use the book in the movie.
I had to pay the author for the rights to the Billy the Kid story. I thought it was public domain at the time."
Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw was released in February of 1976, the film had its LA premiere in April of 1976 and opened in New York City that July.

(41:30):
AIP recommended that theater owners hold a Marjoe and Lynda look alike contest, giving prizes to the people who most resemble the distinctive looking stars.
They also suggested allowing anyone named Bobbie or Jo, no variations on the spelling, to get in to see the movie for free.
Other suggestions include a pinball tournament, a display of "Indian lore," and a water pistol drawing contest.

(41:52):
Taglines for Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw include, "Bobbie Jo was a car hop. She wanted to be a country singer. He was a hustler who dreamed he was Billy the Kid. For while they had something and then..."
"It started out as a joyride. It sure didn't end that way."
That's true. Mark Lester called Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw very successful, which it was and went on to make $5 million.

(42:14):
Critics didn't love it, however, even if the general public did.
Lou Cedrone and the Baltimore Evening Sun had harsh words for the movie after Marjoe Gortner canceled an appearance to promote the film in that city.
I imagine his plans were changed because the producers of the film realized it was a lost cause.
I walked down before the film was over while the kids were planning to rob a bank.
They were at desperately dull bunch and I knew what was going to happen, so I spared myself the agony.

(42:39):
RJ Gardner of the Baltimore Sun apparently saw the whole movie and he was not the first or last critic to call Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw a poor man's Bonnie and Clyde.
But he did add for emphasis of very poor man.
He went on, saying "Gortner decided his real calling lay in the acting field.
The film goes a long way towards challenging that decision."
Of Belinda Balasky, Gardner said she, quote, "looks in this film as if she would rather read books than do almost anything else. Would that she had."

(43:05):
Stanley Eichelbaum of the San Francisco Examiner's review was headlined. He got out of evangelism for this and called Bobbie Joe and the Outlaw a paltry and tedious abomination ripped off from every popular hit glorifying the outlaw.
Marjoe takes his one-dimensional role in stride and appears to enjoy every minute of this tacky celebration of carnage.
Vincent Canby of the New York Times. So Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw is a second feature after They Came from Within, also known as Shivers.

(43:31):
Of the second half of the bill, he said, “Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw is another terrible film about young people on a crime spree with Texas and Environs.
This one stars Marjoe Gortner, the former child evangelist who is now too whether to play a young person with much pictorial conviction."
Michael Walsh in the Vancouver Province said in his review, director Mark L. Lester can't wait to get the blood flowing.

(43:52):
In Vernon Zimmerman's telegraphic script makes a perfunctory stab at social significance.
While he praised Lynda Carter for her role in the new original Wonder Woman, saying she has arrived, he said Bobbie Jo in the Outlaw is pretty much a dead letter.
Drive in double feature fair, a bit of minor exploitation for the backseat crowd.
Fox office magazine's review said Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw was a "week spin-off of the Bonnie and Clyde theme" and that there's no socially redeeming value to the film.

(44:19):
It is strictly an exploitation item for the quick playoff market. The screenplay is poorly conceived and pointless.
In Mark Lester's 1982 film, Class of 1984, there's a scene with the character of Stegman, the evil teenager in Class of 1984,
sits at home watching Lynda Carter bask in the aftermath of a machine gun orgy as Bobbie Jo plays on TV.
Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw was released on DVD as part of MGM's Archive Collection in 2011 and on Blu-ray in December of 2015 from Scorpion releasing.

(44:48):
[Music]
Well, now is a part of our show where we talk about how we felt about the movie. I cannot find a single positive review of Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw. Maybe you've got one. What do you think, Jeff?
Well, I think you cannot find a positive review because truthfully told it's not a great film. [laughs]

(45:11):
I think one thing that could have helped it was maybe another song or two for the soundtrack.
Oh my God. No other reviewer, well, one book I read mentioned the fact that this one song gets repeated over and over again.
It's so weird. You have a movie with a budget and you just have one and a half songs on the soundtrack that you repeat again and again.
It doesn't make sense. Nobody else does that.

(45:33):
No, it makes it pretty funny, actually.
Well, I guess it's that comedy-low where if you do it a couple of times as funny, if you do it a little more than that, it's not funny anymore.
But if you keep doing it over and over again, then it gets funny again. And that's kind of what happened here.
I don't know. The Lynda Carter song they play only twice and it's twice in a row, like one after the other.
It is between them. It's pretty hilarious in that context.

(45:55):
I guess they just needed some making out music and that's all they had.
They needed a better song for the end of the movie when everyone's dead except Bobbie Jo and the cops are wrapping up the scene.
Playing "Those City Lights" again, it just doesn't fit at all. They're not in the city. There's no lights. It makes no sense.
Well, it's the only song they had.
Yeah. Well, you just complained about that. So I'm joining you.

(46:18):
Well, that's why they did it. I'm just saying that maybe they should have sprung for another song.
And I made several comments about them shopping off screen and they had to have happened.
Yeah. I don't know how they had money.
Well, when I say shopping, it means going to a store. It doesn't necessarily mean buying anything.
But we saw their crime spree. Why would they leave that part out? It's not that long of a movie.

(46:41):
They could have added a few more minutes of them stealing tank tops and guitars.
It's boring. Why would you come watch them steal tank tops and guitars just to make the rest of the film logical?
I got news for you, Jeff. Some of the stuff they do on camera is boring too.
In fact, a lot of the things they do in this movie are boring.
I think a lot of the boring stuff was cut. We don't have to watch them hanging out at the commune or at the pot's house.

(47:02):
We just get there with just this is our leaving. And just in time for the show up to show up usually.
That's true. But we did have to live through the magic mushroom trip in the water with mud and boobs everywhere.
And Marjoe Gortner's hilarious one man show being killed and hail of bullets as he thrashes around in the water,
scaring everybody next to him.
Yeah, I don't think that scene was entirely necessary, but what it does is it shows the way Lyle thinks of himself.

(47:28):
He really thinks of himself as a modern day Billy the Kid and he puts himself in that situation in his trip and then in real life or within the film.
That's true. However, it looks silly. And silly is the word I would apply to a lot of scenes in this movie.
Oh, it is. We laughed a lot.
Oh, we did the line reads. We've acted out a few of them. The guy in the bar fight going, no, man, we got you did right without opening his mouth ever.

(47:56):
And Portland, a Carter, I love her. And that's the reason I picked this movie. But she's like really weird in some of these scenes.
And now it's going to rob a bank and she's I said she climaxed it just her level of enthusiasm is that off the charts. She goes Christ. It's so funny.
And after she shoots up the store for no reason.

(48:18):
But Lyle, I made him dance, didn't I?
It's funny. It's really hilarious. And then there's the Marjoe Gortner of it all. I don't know how I keep getting stuck with movies with him.
And I picked this not because of him, but despite him, I don't care for him very much. He's just strange.
She's not the right person for this role. I don't think no. He's no supposed to alone. No, he probably is a slightly better actor, at least back in 75.

(48:45):
And you pictures the less just alone in this. I cannot. This came out the same year as Rocky. Yo, Bobbie Jo. No, I can't see that.
But I can see somebody else. Maybe Beau Bridges or somebody with a modicum of talent. Maybe Jeff Bridges, young Jeff Bridges.
Obviously, this may be his beneath this level of talent.
The script is kind of ridiculous to get what they were going for. This modern Bonnie and Clyde slash a log.

(49:12):
Jesse James kind of thing going on. It just seems imperfectly executed.
Yeah, we talked about these scenes that appear to be on of order, where they're practicing, shooting their guns and the X-seeing.
Stealing the guns. I assume stealing the guns. And they don't have money, but yet they all can get a change of wardrobe.
Well, they're constantly changing cars. They're stealing cars all the time because they're on the move and they're being chased.

(49:33):
They have to change their vehicles so that they're less identifiable. But whatever clothes they have or somehow making this trip, all these guns are somehow making this trip.
Yeah. And that book on Billy the Kid is somehow making this trip. You see that running to a car in a hurry, but nothing is ever being carried with them.
It's just like a video game where you dip into your digital bag to grab something when you need it. And when you don't need it, it's not there anymore.

(49:59):
We never actually see them steal a car except for the Mustang at the beginning. And we know we didn't have anything on him then.
He had his little blanket roll.
Oh, the book could have been tacked in there, but I don't think it was a right now.
No, it was a huge book. It's like a giant textbook size tomm and the blanket roll was tightly rolled. It wasn't that.
It was like I'm dragging around a bath bat. You're not able to smuggle a book in there.

(50:20):
So a shotgun definitely wouldn't have fit in there.
No, no guns whatsoever. He didn't have guns on him when he stole the car.
And we only see the guitar in the one scene. Maybe they rented it.
That could be just a loner.
I went to the musical instrument library to borrow a guitar. Maybe tank top since Lee the shirts too.
Just movie. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense in the first scene after he steals the car. And he basically hides from the cop chasing him.

(50:46):
He doesn't have to go out and harass the cop afterwards. He could just hang behind and the cop would never have found it.
He could just drive off in the other direction with his stolen car safely underneath him.
You could, but that's not what Billy the Kid would have done.
Yeah, but it just makes him look really stupid from the get go. And it doesn't make me like him.
Nothing in this movie makes me like.
Oh, it makes him cocky. Yes. Like I said, the unearned confidence of a Marjoe Gortner is on full display in this movie.

(51:13):
And it's obnoxious.
A while back we did food of the gods and that film had Marjoe Gortner in it as well as Blinda Balaski.
She's funny in this movie. I probably liked Marjoe Gortner better here than in Food of the Gods.
Here's an outlaw. There's a football player always playing against type.
Blinda Balaski is kind of the comic relief.
It seems like maybe they were trying to go for that, even though they give her the tragic ending.

(51:36):
Well, she said in an interview that she knows you couldn't compete with Lynda Carter.
So she wanted to go characters. So it was her idea to wear the glasses and the hippie costume.
Yeah. And I think that was a good choice because the made her character seem spunky.
She seemed like a character. Yeah. It definitely made her stand on the film.
I think she is the stand out in this film. Oh, yeah. I was going to say Jesse Vint.
But I like him so much less than this movie that I did in Macon County line.

(51:59):
I enjoyed that movie so much. And comparing those two performances, he definitely comes out on the losing end here.
This performance here is just kind of weird.
I guess he had lived a lot of his lines and they're all strange.
Don't let your meat loaf.
Hard man is good to find. He calls the guy cheesehead.
His hair looks wildly unkempt. It's just a mess in this movie.

(52:22):
Yeah. If I didn't know where I'd know him from, I would know I'd know him from somewhere.
Never would have placed him as being the guy in Macon County Line.
No. It's weird to see him without his brother too.
Maybe his brother could have been the Outlaw in this movie. That might have been a little better.
Yeah. That probably wouldn't have been better.
And it's within AIP's budget too. So retroactively, I recommend that.
I do love Lynda Carter in this despite her various silliness.

(52:45):
And I think that's just because I love Lynda Carter.
I love her current stance on politics and how she is on social media now.
I love Wonder Woman. She is a hero of mine.
And I just really wanted to see her in this movie.
It's her film debut. I'll forgive her goofy line readings.
It's just nice to see her. She's a bright light in this movie.
While Linda will ask you might be to stand out in the film, I think Linda Carter is really the reason to watch the movie.

(53:09):
Definitely. She has a great energy here.
Even though she's over the top sometimes because her desire to unleash mayhem on others doesn't come from anywhere.
It just comes because she has this boring life that she wants to make interesting.
She does some really terrible things in order to get there.
She shoots people and she loves it.
There's a line when they're buying ice cream and they're looking at the paper.

(53:31):
And she's looking at the picture and she says he's so cute.
And the way she says it, it sounds so real, but it doesn't sound like her character.
So it's one of those other weird line readings in this film.
Yeah. I didn't even notice that one.
It does seem weird that she poned in on Lyle.
Immediately, her character did anyway.
And she had no qualms about jumping in the car with this curly haired stranger.
So she wanted to live on the edge because some really bad things could have happened.

(53:56):
That's what I could have called a movie.
Bobbie Jo and the curly haired stranger.
There we go.
I guess I can see where they're dry alive in between her overly religious drunk mom and her oring life.
And then getting this opportunity to lead this exciting movie life of being an outlaw or just being the woman of an outlaw.
And she's young.
I guess she's supposed to be just out of high school here.

(54:18):
Even though Lynda Carter is about 24 when the movie was filmed.
I know they had some new scenes in this movie, but they didn't just have her here because she has a nice rack.
She added more to the film than brief glimpses of her breasts.
No, that was just done for the exploitation element, I think, because they didn't need to be here.
No, twice during a sexy and we see them, but it's just once when she's changing tops with her mom right behind her.

(54:40):
And it just seems really innocent, honestly, when she's doing that.
Like she doesn't wear a bra, so she just changes from one tank top to another.
It's not a big deal here.
No, it's not.
And the sex scenes are pretty brief and easy to ignore.
So I don't think it's that huge of a deal.
It's not the reason to watch this movie by any means.
I think I would have made the ending different if it was up to me because the ending leaves us with share of Hicks.

(55:03):
We don't care about.
And Bobbie Jo gets taken away to we don't know what I would have stayed with her and put the camera in the back.
See the cop car with her looking out the back window at the body of her lover.
She's a lost her sister. She's a lost her lover.
She's going to jail.
And with a different song, we could have had a much more poignant ending here.
This movie goes from a silly adventure to a tragedy, which is of course inevitable.

(55:26):
But it would be nice if the music marked that for us in the ending too.
Otherwise, it's just sure of Hicks and his men walking away from the dead bodies,
sprawled out on the pavement and doing nothing with them.
That's it. It's over.
We get to listen to those city lights.
I don't want to hear that again.
I want to hear something like maybe Desperado by the Eagles, which was the original title of the movie, based on the song.

(55:49):
Yeah, that would be fitting, but there's no way they could have afforded that.
Of course not.
But something like that would have been better.
Linda Balaski said that it was her boyfriend at the time who wrote the "Are You Lonely Like Me" song or Linda Carter to sing.
So why couldn't you have penned something else?
Probably budgetary reasons again.
Yeah, anything, anything would have been better, even silence, incidental music, anything.

(56:12):
There is one other piece of music in this film that plays during the opening credits, during the "Please Chase" when Lyle is recently stolen that car.
And I think there was music in the scene where he jumps over the trailer when he's on the run from the cops and Bobby Joe and Essier in the car, and then the cop car emulates after that.
How strange is that?
It's so funny what explodes and what doesn't in this movie.

(56:33):
There's no physics to it. It doesn't make sense.
The cop car at the beginning took a bigger tumble, and it's fine, but the one that went over the ramp and just off the road.
It just lands in a field and comes to a hard break, and then poof, it explodes. It completely explodes.
It's not just a fire erupts in the gas tank. It detonates.

(56:54):
And then the trailer explodes.
But the other cop cars that get into action is still unexplored.
And somehow, Sheriff Hicks' car is able to lift itself up into a bus and through it.
There's no ramp there. Ordinarily, you would just hit the side of the vehicle.
You'd probably go under it.
Not a school bus. You would ram into it. You wouldn't leap in the air and go through it.
Yeah, he'd dig it somewhere or somehow.

(57:16):
It's so weird. The scene where he's really pretty in this movie though.
I'd like to make some.
It's a beautiful state, and we do see a lot of it as they drive around and stop at ruins or old churches.
The various locations where they filmed.
I read an article in an albacricky paper, and they seemed to be excited that the movie was filmed there.
They weren't too excited about which movie it was, but they appreciated seeing the beauty of their state.

(57:38):
I'm reminded of an older film that we looked at, which was another Bonnie and Clyde story that took place in New Mexico.
That was "Bunny O'Hare."
And we didn't get the scenery in that film that we got in Bobbie Jo in the Outlaw.
No, we didn't. We were inside most of the time or in tight shots.
It's been a lot of time in their trailer.
This is a lot more scenic. And there was time in a trailer, but we also got to see the great outdoors.

(57:59):
At the end, this is just four or five really dumb people dying or getting arrested for no good reason.
Other than they wanted to be glorified.
And this movie doesn't really glorify their crimes.
When "Bunny O'Hare" people were excited by this.
They loved how they were sticking it to the man.
But nobody was cheering for Bobbie Jo in the outlaw here.
Well, I think Slick was probably the big problem in that because he kept on killing people willy-nilly.

(58:24):
That wasn't Lyle's way of thinking.
Yeah, it's not his MO.
He would do it self-defense. If somebody's got a little gun on him, he's going to shoot first because he can.
He's the fastest straw in whatever kind of thing he finds himself in.
But he is only getting shot at because he started it.
He's not morally pure here.
He goes into a shop or a bank with his gun and he gets shot at.

(58:46):
Well, that's what you get, dude.
He's not, but he's an outlaw.
I know.
He's a self-advited outlaw.
He says it during his trip.
Make sure everybody knows where his head's at.
He says it again and right after that when he finds himself another police chase.
The posse is after me.
I think that was a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I do get that he just wants to steal stuff.
He doesn't want to get anybody killed.

(59:08):
And you need a gun to get people to do what you want.
So if he had his way, nobody would get shot.
He'd just get the money, the guns, whatever he's going there for.
But you can't expect people who work at a gun shop not to try and shoot you when you steal guns from them.
So either he's really dumb or he doesn't care.
I think we need to know more about Slick's backstory because he comes in here and he's the killer in this movie.

(59:32):
So what was he doing before?
I mean, he immediately enlists Lyle to drive him on his job where he's robbing a payroll or something.
Well, they call him a no-good chiseler, which makes it seem like his level is petty crime.
He's a two-bit operator, yeah, but he's willing to kill though.
He brought a gun, really would have shot at the guard who ended up being killed by Lyle.

(59:53):
Right, he kills that big manager really easily and he's let's Deputy Gance's throat in the barber chair.
And that's really bloodthirsty. He did not have to do that.
There's nothing that Gance could have done to him. They could have just left.
Yeah, so a lot of trouble that Lyle finds in the cell thing is because of the company he's keeping.
He did as Bobbie Jo. Could it just be the two of us and she's like, oh no.
So she wanted it to be a big group project and he wanted it to just be solo with her.

(01:00:16):
So had they kept it to just Bobbie Jo and the outlaw, the crime spree might have been a lot more lengthy and effective and less fatal for everybody involved.
No, it's still had to be fatal because it's lines up being the bonnank Clyde story and they have to die at the end.
But Bobbie Jo didn't die. But she didn't. This is an exception to the trope.
She'll be sent to a women's prison for eight years and then she'll get out and try to rebuild her life.

(01:00:39):
Unless she's accused of being a squealer in which case she might not make it eight years.
She's not in Juvie,Jeff. I don't know if they behave that way in a women's prison.
Yeah, Girls in Prison coming up. Let's see what that brings.
Well, it's time to put a grade on this bad boy using our AIP scale where A is awesome.
I as an immediate and piece pathetic. What would you give Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw?
Well, I really wasn't sure where to place this. I was falling between A and I and A and I every time I watched this and even going through it last night, the final time.

(01:01:08):
I still wasn't sure where I was going to place this, but going through this read through today and going over the plot.
I think I really like this film. There's a lot of stuff that's wrong with it. It's very goofy.
It's definitely got its problems. A lot of illogical situations here.
Like a variety in the soundtrack gives it a ding. But all in all, I think it's a fun movie.
It's definitely good drive-in fare. And if you're looking for a good exploitation movie, this would fit the bill.

(01:01:34):
I'm going to give this one an A.
I kind of had a feeling you're going to fall on the A side of it. And I think I do too.
Like I said, I chose this movie knowing what we would be in for with the Marjoe Gortner starring role and the subject matter where it's about people who commit crimes.
It can't turn out well. But what happens along the way? It's fun to watch. It's fun to watch their progression.

(01:01:55):
A lot of times it's repetitive, but I think they changed it up enough that you can keep interested.
I definitely recommend that people watch this movie and it's not hard to find.
So you should have no trouble getting your hands on it. Lynda Carter is really good.
And if you like Lynda Carter, you're going to like this movie. Marjoe Gortner, if you don't like him, you'll still like this movie. It's got enough going for it.

(01:02:17):
You just seem dire at the end if you don't like it.
Yeah, the silly freeze frame scene. He gets what's coming to him. And basically everybody does, except for poor Essie.
She didn't deserve to go out like that. But yeah, I didn't mind watching this a second time in our slow progression through the plot.
It helped me appreciate it more. And as always, I'm drawing distinction between what constitutes a, in quotes, good movie with what constitutes a movie that I like.

(01:02:42):
And no, it's not an award-winning kind of movie. It's exploitation. But it's exploitation in a good way.
And you'll enjoy it if you watch it the same way I did. So yeah, giving it an A.
And this film can definitely scratch an itch. Good way to put it.
To find out more about Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw and other films we've reviewed on American International Podcast, please visit our website, aippod.com.

(01:03:05):
There you can find trailers for the movies we watched, as well as other advertising materials such as posters, lobby cards, listen to radio spots and some TV spots.
And listen to other episodes of the podcast. Again, that's aippod.com.
And while you're there, if you want to leave a comment, feel free to do so. We'd love to hear from you.
And now I think it's time for us to ride off into the sunset. For the American International Podcast, I'm Cheryl Lightfoot.

(01:03:29):
And I'm Jeff Markin. And we'll meet you at the drive-in.
Follow the American International Podcast on Instagram and Letterbox @aip_pod and on Facebook at Facebook.com/AmericanInternationalPodcast.
The American International Podcast is produced and edited by Jeff Markin. A man whose mind is distorted by hatred.

(01:03:53):
And Cheryl Lightfoot. A girl hungry for too many things.
The American International Podcast is part of the Pop Culture Entertainment Network.
[Music]

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

All Episodes

Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw

Stuff You Should Know